Night Watch (Discworld) |
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Terry Pratchett
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Pages: 480 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0552148997
Pub: Corgi Books
Pub date: 2003-10-01
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 13313
Editorial Review:
The new Discworld novel Night Watch has the power and energy that characterizes Terry Pratchett at his occasional best, as well as the wild surreal humour he always gives us. Sam Vimes, running hero of the Guards sequence, finds himself cast back in time to the Ankh-Morpork of his youth--a much nastier city, with an actively deranged Patrician and a sadistic secret police--and finding himself filling in for Keel, the tough honest copper who teaches the young Vimes everything he knows. And, more worryingly, who dies heroically in the insurrection Vimes knows to be imminent. With a psychopath from his own time rising in the vile ranks of the Cable Street Unmentionables complicating things, Vimes has to ensure that history takes its course so that he will have the right future to go back to, and to keep his younger self alive--this is Pratchett's plotting at its most thoroughly constructed and wonderfully devious. Ankh-Morpork has for a long time been one of the most thoroughly imagined cities in fantasy--here Pratchett gives us a fascinating gloomy glimpse of its past and of the younger selves of some of his best-loved characters, and of the brief-lived People's Republic of Treacle-Mine Road. --Roz Kaveney
Reader Reviews:
An Excellent Pratchett (7/7 people found this helpful)
Sam Vimes, one of the recurring characters in Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series, has been doing well. The humbly-born, pragmatic, streetwise, but basically honourable cop has risen to become Watch commander in Ankh-Morpork, chief of police in one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities of the Discworld. He has married late, and it is a love match, but the fact that his wife is an aristocrat and the wealthiest woman in the city has done his career no harm. He has come to the notice of the city's ruler Lord Vetinari (the Machiavellian politician's Machiavellian politician), who uses him for diplomatic missions where his talents will be more useful than those of the usual run of diplomats. This happened most memorably in "The Fifth Elephant", one of the best books of the series.
But now something has gone horribly wrong. A psychopathic cop-killer has been cornered in the wizards' university and Vimes is about to make the collar when an accidental discharge of magical energy throws them both thirty years into the past. In the less well-run city of those days he must act as mentor to his younger self, a rookie Watchman, he must try to foil, and then lead, a revolution, and he must try to get home, while keeping both his selves safe from the cop-killer who has quickly found a natural place in the secret police.
The "Discworld" novels can vary in quality, but overall seem to be getting even better as the series progresses. Entertaining and thought-provoking, "Night Watch" is definitely in the top rank.
There are no words... (2/2 people found this helpful)
...for how wonderfully written this book is.
The story it tells is tragic and dark, but is done with that Pratchettian wit that we've come to adore. Vimes' cynical take on things is our mirror into the events of the revolution (and revolutions in general), and it's so brilliantly done that the book is simply kissable!
The villain, Carcer, was engaging and a very suitable anti-Vimes. It was nice that Lu-Tze made a cameo, another character with whom Vimes is destined to interact to our amusement. A glimpse into the life and times of a young Havelock Vetinari provided an interesting branch from the main storyline, without revealing too much of his "idiosyncratic despotism".
This is my favourite Discworld book of all time, on equal par with Hogfather and Thief of Time.
Well done, Mr. Pratchett. I salute you.
This is one of Pratchett's best (4/4 people found this helpful)
Having been a HUGE Discworld fan for over ten years, I am always eager to read every new book. This, the 29th in the adult Discworld canon, is one of the best Pratchett books ever. Sam Vimes is a creation of genius. Pratchett has been gradually developing him from the drunk, cartoon copper of Guards! Guards! and he is now a fully-rounded individual that the reader is able to really relate to. He is cynical yet soft-hearted, a powerful man in present-day Ankh-Morpork, yet still keen to be on the street with the rest of his coppers. In this book he and the murderer he is chasing are thrown back in time by a magical storm, to a time just before a revolution in Ankh-Morpork. Vimes appears in the past as the Sergeant who taught him all he knows, and has to ensure that history happens as it should in order to get back to his future with his wife and their unborn child. We meet younger versions of many popular characters such as Colon, Nobby, Rosie Palm and even Havelock Vetinari, as a somewhat bullied member of the Assassin's School. There is also a welcome appearance for Lu-Tze, the most well-travelled Monk of History, follower of the Way of Mrs Cosmopolite, etc. There's intrigue aplenty as Vimes tries to save his friends while also knowing that some of them have to die for History to work.
This is a brilliant read, rightly making it into The Big Read Top 100, along with a number of other Pratchett novels. It is funny, sad and clever and it had me totally enthralled from beginning to end. Readers new to Pratchett should probably try one of his older books first, though, to get used to his style. If you want to follow all the City Watch books in the correct order, they go like this: 'Guards! Guards!', 'Men At Arms', 'Feet of Clay', 'Jingo', 'The Fifth Elephant', 'Night Watch', and 'Thud'. Various members of the Watch also appear in a number of the other Discworld novels, including 'Maskerade', 'Hogfather', 'The Truth', 'Monstrous Regiment' and 'Going Postal'.
One of his best (1/2 people found this helpful)
This book is very different to the other ones that Terry Pratchett has produced over the years, and, in my opinion, this is certainly not a bad thing.
For one, it contains a lot less humour than the other books that he has written, although it does have its moments. But, what I like about the book is the more serious undertone. Vimes is transported back in time, and is reliving events that he has already seen once. All through the book, the seriousness of the consequences of his actions confuses and angers him, as he knows that, whatever he does, the outcome of what is about to occur will not change. The agony of a character in a position like this could be very uncomfortable to watch, yet Pratchett weaves his magic again, creating a book that is cheery considering the subject matter, yet remaining serious enough.
And, for the reason that it is simply a different take on life in the Discworld, I would certainly recommend this book as one of the best that Pratchett has ever written.
Vimes at his best (2/2 people found this helpful)
This story sends Vimes back in time to take on the role as his own hero- John Keel. He goes back to the days when the Night Watch was at difficult times. Vimes soon learns that he is to groom a younger self into the Watch. There is one major problem... Vimes knows that to fulfil history, he must die as John Keel once did. Vimes however, has something on his side- history is changing
This is definately one of the best Pratchett books there are. He uses the humour of Vimes to really show the reader the history of the Watch.
It is a must have!!!
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