I Read Books: Guards Guards

Guards, Guards

The first of Terry Pratchett’s Watch novels (as part of his Discworld series) and also the first to actually centre on his fantasy city Ankh-Morpork. Previously it had been the backdrop for various fantasy adventures, and after the first novel concentrated on the Unseen University, the home of wizardry that (mostly) exists as a independent appendage to the city. Anyway, this is a story about the Night Watch, a police force in a city where crime is run and regulated by the Guild of Thieves.

It’s also a story about dragons and secret societies and plots, and why they don’t have a king any more in Ankh-Morpork. The Patrician, the ruler of the city comes into focus, and it has the introduction of Captain Vimes, the head of the watch, a walking bag of conflicting clichés who manages to rise above that.

Also the idea that million to one chances come up nine times out of ten is put into the text.

This is, then, a key Discworld novel, and also a funny one, and one with several criss-crossing plots, the main one starting as a crime (unleashing a dragon in an urban environment) and becoming something of a political thriller.

Read This: A funny pastiche of crime and fantasy ideas comes together into it’s own thing with some excellent characters
Don’t Read This: Arresting a dragon isn’t funny