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Guards! Guards! | Rating | |
| A | |||
| Terry Pratchett | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Discworld | The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort, Sourcery, Wyrd Sisters, Pyramids, Guards! Guards!, Eric, Moving Pictures, Reaper Man, Witches Abroad, Small Gods, Soul Music, Feet of Clay, Interesting Times, The Firth Elephant, Going Postal | ||
Terry Pratchett has done it again.
Or perhaps it is truer to say that he's done it for the first time, again. He takes popular convention on how fantasy works and turns it on its ear. And he does it with style, panache, and best of all, humor. Or maybe humour.
The plot, in broad outline, is simple. Carrot is a human raised by dwarves. When the earnest, literal-minded lad leaves the cramped mines, he finds a place in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. The Watch isn't what it used to be, consisting now of three men (four, with Carrot), and captained by a drunkard, but Carrot is going to do his duty come hell or high water. Or dragons, which do come, thanks to a secret society that wished to oust the Patrician and take over control of the city.
This is, I fell, the quinessential Discworld book. All the previous books, all seven, were just practice. Pratchett knew what he wanted, but he hadn't quite gotten it right. He does here, though.
But it's hard to define exactly how. It is, I think, a matter of the story's tone and flow. They are, quite simply, perfect. It never falters, groping about for the next line. And the plot moves merrily along, without silly side issues that padded out some of the previous stories. Readers aren't subjected to a laborious growing-up and coming-of-age for Carrot, for instance, or his journeys to Ankh-Morpork. The tone is more modern, as well, rather than attempting to replicate fantasy fiction from the 70's, which makes it a much more pleasant read to me.
This is also the book that really featured Ankh-Morpork as a setting. Most of the previous books had at least some action take place there, but this is the first to occur almost entirely within its walls. Previous books simply used it as a pest-ridden scum-encrusted corner of the Multiverse but did nothing with it other than put a few notable locations in there, such as Unseen University and The Shades. But through the City Watch, Guards! Guards! actually features the city itself - and by so doing, defines it forever.
As an interesting side note, this is the book from which the first (of two) Discworld computer game took its plot. There are some significant changes between the two, thanks to the different media, and Rincewind is entirely absent from the book. But the plot is the same, and there are recognizably similar elements in how things play out. If you happen to be familiar with the game, you can take your reactions to it as a decent indicator gor how you'll feel about this. Just remember, there are no too-tricky puzzles to solve in order to reach the end of the book.
As far as I'm concerned, that more than enough to make it a winner.
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