Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.39 AVERAGE
4.39 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My second Discworld book and it was yet again tons of fun! Characters from Guards! Guards! get a nice bit of fleshing out (and married) and the Watch grows! Characters like Cuddy the dwarf, Detritus -don't salute!- the troll and Angua the very normal and totally not a werewolf woman get added to the roster and they very quickly managed to move in amongst my favorites on the Disc.
In Men At Arms, Pratchett talks a lot about inequality, discrimination and gonnes. I am ashamed to say how long it took me to realize what the gonne was, but I'm happy about that, honestly. That either means that Pratchett did very well with that, or that I'm a massive bleeding idiot. Both are very plausible, but I think it's the first one, right? Shut up. Shut up!
In Men At Arms, Pratchett talks a lot about inequality, discrimination and gonnes. I am ashamed to say how long it took me to realize what the gonne was, but I'm happy about that, honestly. That either means that Pratchett did very well with that, or that I'm a massive bleeding idiot. Both are very plausible, but I think it's the first one, right? Shut up. Shut up!
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of okay for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
Great comment on inequality! I absolutely adore the way Pratchett weaves in things like this so organically. The racism gets done very well, too. There's this unrest between the dwarfs and trolls, Vimes attends a party where people make tons of racist comments, people dislike the trolls, because "they're trolls!'', it's very real, still, sadly.
Dwarfs (and trolls) get some more lore, too, which I really enjoyed!
"Not your actual Saturday night special, eh?"
"Oh no,' said Carrot, 'that's a burial weapon.'
''I should think it is!''
''I mean, it's made to be buried with a dwarf. Every dwarf is buried with a weapon. You know? To take with him to... wherever he's going.''
''But it's fine workmanship! And it's got an edge like-''aargh,'' Vimes sucked his finger, ''like a razor.''
Carrot looked shocked. 'Of course. It'd be no good him facing them with an inferior weapon.'
''What them are you talking about?''
''Anything bad he encounters on his journey after death, said Carrot, a shade awkwardly.
''Ah.'' Vimes hesitated. This was an area in which he did not feel comfortable.
''It's an ancient tradition,'' said Carrot.
''I thought dwarfs didn't believe in devils and demons and stuff like that.''
''That's true, but ... we're not sure if they know.''
''Oh.''
There's also a very fun wink at Leonardo Da Vinci that I really appreciated! And of course some nods at common fantasy tropes:
Black mud, more or less dry, made a path at the bottom of the tunnel. There was slime on the walls, too, indicating that at some point in the recent past the tunnel had been full of water. Here and there huge patches of fungi, luminous with decay, cast a faint glow over the ancient stonework *.
Footnote: *It didn't need to. Cuddy, belonging to a race that worked underground for preference, and Detritus, a member of a race notoriously nocturnal, had excellent vision in the dark. But mysterious caves and tunnels always have luminous fungi, strangely bright crystals or at a pinch merely an eldritch glow in the air, just in case a human hero comes in and needs to see in the dark. Strange but true.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
I kept thinking of Gimli and Legolas whenever Cuddy and Detritus were the focus of the story (even if the elf in this book is actually a troll). Also Vimes is an angel, an alcoholic one but an angel nonetheless. I felt real bad for him in this book. Nobby continues to be my favourite human-adjacent member of the guard (even if Angua is cool as all hell). I still love how this series uses all the fantasy tropes but subverts (or straight-up ignores) them, makes a very interesting read.
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
funny
fast-paced
adventurous
funny
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes