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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
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:
No
Along with Equal Rites (because Granny Weatherwax and the Unseen University, y'all), this, this, this is the book I advise new Discworld readers to start with if they're trying to figure out if the series as a whole is for them. Because at long last, we now have the Watch: we have Vimes, we have the badassery that is Lady Sybil Ramkin, there's Carrot and Nobby and Colon, there's more Vetinari and the Librarian, there's the resurrection of the Night Watch as an institution.
And right back here at the start, the Watch consists only of three hardbitten, disillusioned men who mostly try to stay out of the way of crime. Vimes lives his life in the bottom of a glass of alcohol, content to persist in his holding pattern... until two things are unleashed upon their city: a destructive dragon, and an earnest, well-intentioned, entirely by-the-books new recruit. Through these shenanigans, they eventually remember what it means to be coppers, and to do the right thing.
(I've also heard multiple people say that Due South and its main character is extremely reminiscent of Carrot, so like, clearly I need to watch that show next...)
It's funny going back to this first book where the Watch is just a shambles of a building and three downtrodden men, because I'm coming off the heels of things like Monstrous Regiment, where it's huge and bustling.
And I just want to gush a bit more about Sybil! There's a few jokes at her girth, but more in the sense that she, along with her personality, is just so indomitable and no one can stop her. Vimes' tongue-tied embarrassment around her and Nobby's leering flirtation is great. She's a zaftig, overweight woman who is not robbed of her power or agency or independence or desires or capacity to be a viable romantic prospect, and it warms my heart.
Anyway, it's great! The Watch books are usually my very favourites in the series; it's a very different organisation right now than it will be later, but it's valuable seeing where they all began, and it's a witty, poignant book besides.
Plus, just, these characters will take up solid residence in your heart. My tablet is literally named Vimes. <3
Favourite quotes below, spoilery:
***
Carrot took the news without fuss, just as he took instructions about re-opening Shaft #4 or cutting timber for shoring props. All dwarfs are by nature dutiful, serious, literate, obedient and thoughtful people whose only minor failing is a tendency, after one drink, to rush at enemies screaming “Arrrrrrgh!” and axing their legs off at the knee.
***
Letters rarely got written in that mine. Work stopped and the whole clan had sat around in respectful silence as his pen scrittered across the parchment. His aunt had been sent up to Varneshi’s to beg his pardon but could he see his way clear to sparing a smidgen of wax. His sister had been sent down to the village to ask Mistress Garlick the witch how you stopped spelling recommendation.
***
In his pocket was the famous letter from the Patrician, the man who ruled the great fine city of Ankh-Morpork.
At least, that’s how his mother had referred to it. It certainly had an important-looking crest at the top, but the signature was something like “Lupin Squiggle, Sec’y, pp.”
Still, if it wasn’t actually signed by the Patrician then it had certainly been written by someone who worked for him. Or in the same building. Probably the Patrician had at least known about the letter. In general terms. Not this letter, perhaps, but probably he knew about the existence of letters in general.
***
[Part of Carrot's letters home:]
***
And then, of course, there was himself. Just a skinny, un-shaven collection of bad habits marinated in alcohol. And that was the Night Watch. Just the three of them. Once there had been dozens, hundreds. And now–just three.
Vimes fumbled his way up the stairs, groped his way into his office, slumped into the primeval leather chair with its prolapsed stuffing, scrabbled at the bottom drawer, grabbed bottle, bit cork, tugged, spat out cork, drank. Began his day.
The world swam into focus.
Life is just chemicals. A drop here, a drip there, everything’s changed. A mere dribble of fermented juices and suddenly you’re going to live another few hours.
[NOTE FROM JULIE: I love this sequence for how noirish the voice sounds?]
***
A nearby dwarf, wearing a helmet encrusted with six-inch spikes, started to cry gently into his beer.
[NOTE FROM JULIE: I laughed so hard when I first read this sequence, culminating in this line, that I was wheezing]
***
sunshine [lit: “the stare of the great hot eye in the sky whose fiery gaze penetrates the mouth of the cavern”]
***
He knocked. This caused another fusillade of strange whistling noises. The door opened. Something dreadful loomed over him.
“Ah, good man. Do you know anything about mating?” it boomed.
***
It was so easy. All you had to do was channel that great septic reservoir of jealousy and cringing resentment that the Brothers had in such abundance, harness their dreadful mundane unpleasantness which had a force greater in its way than roaring evil, and then open your own mind…
[NOTE FROM JULIE: This bit reminds me of the casual, quotidian malevolence of MRAs,which storylines have tapped into recently with things like The Force Awakens and Ghostbusters.]
***
“Monsters are getting more uppity, too,” said another. “I heard where this guy, he killed this monster in this lake, no problem, stuck its arm up over the door—”
“Pour encourjay lays ortras,” said one of the listeners.
“Right, and you know what? Its mum come and complained. Its actual mum come right down to the hall next day and complained. Actually complained. That’s the respect you get.”
***
The bedside table was piled high with papers. Feeling guilty, but doing it anyway, Vimes squinted at them.
Dragons was the theme. There were letters from the Cavern Club Exhibitions Committee and the Friendly Flamethrowers League. There were pamphlets and appeals from the Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons—“Poor little VINNY’s fires were nearly Damped after Five years’ Cruel Use as a Paint-Stripper, but now—” And there were requests for donations, and talks, and things that added up to a heart big enough for the whole world, or at least that part of it that had wings and breathed fire.
***
Normally the only decoration in there was on Sham Harga’s vest and the food was good solid stuff for a cold morning, all calories and fat and protein and maybe a vitamin crying softly because it was all alone.
***
The three rules of the Librarians of Time and Space are: 1) Silence; 2) Books must be returned no later than the last date shown; and 3) Do not interfere with the nature of causality.
***
The silence purred at them as Wonse talked. They avoided one another’s faces, for fear of what they might see mirrored there. Each man thought: one of the others is bound to say something soon, some protest, and then I’ll murmur agreement, not actually say anything, I’m not as stupid as that, but definitely murmur very firmly, so that the others will be in no doubt that I thoroughly disapprove, because at a time like this it behooves all decent men to nearly stand up and be almost heard…
But no one said anything. The cowards, each man thought.
[NOTE FROM JULIE: This bit is so, so good for its illustration of the bystander effect and collective responsibility and the evils of inaction and ahhh]
***
You have the effrontery to be squeamish, it thought at him. But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless, and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape—the great face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes—we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.
***
"The Duke of Sto Helit is looking for a guard captain, I’m sure. I’ll write you a letter. You’ll like them, they’re a very nice young couple.”
[NOTE FROM JULIE: OMG I THINK THIS IS MORT AND YSABELL???]
***
“Let me give you some advice, Captain,” he said.
“Yes, sir?”
“It may help you make some sense of the world.”
“Sir.”
“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people,” said the man. “You’re wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.”
***
She smiled at him.
And then it arose and struck Vimes that, in her own special category, she was quite beautiful; this was the category of all the women, in his entire life, who had ever thought he was worth smiling at. She couldn’t do worse, but then, he couldn’t do better. So maybe it balanced out. She wasn’t getting any younger but then, who was? And she had style and money and common-sense and self-assurance and all the things that he didn’t, and she had opened her heart, and if you let her she could engulf you; the woman was a city.
And eventually, under siege, you did what Ankh-Morpork had always done—unbar the gates, let the conquerors in, and make them your own.
[NOTE FROM JULIE: ahhhhh otp otp otp <3]
And right back here at the start, the Watch consists only of three hardbitten, disillusioned men who mostly try to stay out of the way of crime. Vimes lives his life in the bottom of a glass of alcohol, content to persist in his holding pattern... until two things are unleashed upon their city: a destructive dragon, and an earnest, well-intentioned, entirely by-the-books new recruit. Through these shenanigans, they eventually remember what it means to be coppers, and to do the right thing.
(I've also heard multiple people say that Due South and its main character is extremely reminiscent of Carrot, so like, clearly I need to watch that show next...)
It's funny going back to this first book where the Watch is just a shambles of a building and three downtrodden men, because I'm coming off the heels of things like Monstrous Regiment, where it's huge and bustling.
And I just want to gush a bit more about Sybil! There's a few jokes at her girth, but more in the sense that she, along with her personality, is just so indomitable and no one can stop her. Vimes' tongue-tied embarrassment around her and Nobby's leering flirtation is great. She's a zaftig, overweight woman who is not robbed of her power or agency or independence or desires or capacity to be a viable romantic prospect, and it warms my heart.
Anyway, it's great! The Watch books are usually my very favourites in the series; it's a very different organisation right now than it will be later, but it's valuable seeing where they all began, and it's a witty, poignant book besides.
Plus, just, these characters will take up solid residence in your heart. My tablet is literally named Vimes. <3
Favourite quotes below, spoilery:
Spoiler
Now pull back briefly from the dripping streets of Ankh-Morpork -- pan across the morning mists of the Disc, and focus in again on a young man heading for the city with all the openness, sincerity and innocence of purpose of an iceberg drifting into a major shipping lane.***
Carrot took the news without fuss, just as he took instructions about re-opening Shaft #4 or cutting timber for shoring props. All dwarfs are by nature dutiful, serious, literate, obedient and thoughtful people whose only minor failing is a tendency, after one drink, to rush at enemies screaming “Arrrrrrgh!” and axing their legs off at the knee.
***
Letters rarely got written in that mine. Work stopped and the whole clan had sat around in respectful silence as his pen scrittered across the parchment. His aunt had been sent up to Varneshi’s to beg his pardon but could he see his way clear to sparing a smidgen of wax. His sister had been sent down to the village to ask Mistress Garlick the witch how you stopped spelling recommendation.
***
In his pocket was the famous letter from the Patrician, the man who ruled the great fine city of Ankh-Morpork.
At least, that’s how his mother had referred to it. It certainly had an important-looking crest at the top, but the signature was something like “Lupin Squiggle, Sec’y, pp.”
Still, if it wasn’t actually signed by the Patrician then it had certainly been written by someone who worked for him. Or in the same building. Probably the Patrician had at least known about the letter. In general terms. Not this letter, perhaps, but probably he knew about the existence of letters in general.
***
[Part of Carrot's letters home:]
There is certainly a lot to do. When I went to see the Sgt. I saw a place called, The Thieves’ Guild!! I asked Mrs. Palm and she said, Of course. She said the leaders of the Thieves in the City meet there. I went to the Watch House and met Sgt. Colon, a very fat man, and when I told him about the Thieves’ Guild he said, Don’t be A Idiot. I do not think he is serious. He says, Don’t you worry about Thieves’ Guilds, This is all what you have to do, you walk along the Streets at Night, shouting, It’s Twelve O’clock and All’s Well. I said, What if it is not all well, and he said, You bloody well find another street.
This is not Leadership.
***
And then, of course, there was himself. Just a skinny, un-shaven collection of bad habits marinated in alcohol. And that was the Night Watch. Just the three of them. Once there had been dozens, hundreds. And now–just three.
Vimes fumbled his way up the stairs, groped his way into his office, slumped into the primeval leather chair with its prolapsed stuffing, scrabbled at the bottom drawer, grabbed bottle, bit cork, tugged, spat out cork, drank. Began his day.
The world swam into focus.
Life is just chemicals. A drop here, a drip there, everything’s changed. A mere dribble of fermented juices and suddenly you’re going to live another few hours.
[NOTE FROM JULIE: I love this sequence for how noirish the voice sounds?]
***
A nearby dwarf, wearing a helmet encrusted with six-inch spikes, started to cry gently into his beer.
[NOTE FROM JULIE: I laughed so hard when I first read this sequence, culminating in this line, that I was wheezing]
***
sunshine [lit: “the stare of the great hot eye in the sky whose fiery gaze penetrates the mouth of the cavern”]
***
He knocked. This caused another fusillade of strange whistling noises. The door opened. Something dreadful loomed over him.
“Ah, good man. Do you know anything about mating?” it boomed.
***
It was so easy. All you had to do was channel that great septic reservoir of jealousy and cringing resentment that the Brothers had in such abundance, harness their dreadful mundane unpleasantness which had a force greater in its way than roaring evil, and then open your own mind…
[NOTE FROM JULIE: This bit reminds me of the casual, quotidian malevolence of MRAs,which storylines have tapped into recently with things like The Force Awakens and Ghostbusters.]
***
“Monsters are getting more uppity, too,” said another. “I heard where this guy, he killed this monster in this lake, no problem, stuck its arm up over the door—”
“Pour encourjay lays ortras,” said one of the listeners.
“Right, and you know what? Its mum come and complained. Its actual mum come right down to the hall next day and complained. Actually complained. That’s the respect you get.”
***
The bedside table was piled high with papers. Feeling guilty, but doing it anyway, Vimes squinted at them.
Dragons was the theme. There were letters from the Cavern Club Exhibitions Committee and the Friendly Flamethrowers League. There were pamphlets and appeals from the Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons—“Poor little VINNY’s fires were nearly Damped after Five years’ Cruel Use as a Paint-Stripper, but now—” And there were requests for donations, and talks, and things that added up to a heart big enough for the whole world, or at least that part of it that had wings and breathed fire.
***
Normally the only decoration in there was on Sham Harga’s vest and the food was good solid stuff for a cold morning, all calories and fat and protein and maybe a vitamin crying softly because it was all alone.
***
The three rules of the Librarians of Time and Space are: 1) Silence; 2) Books must be returned no later than the last date shown; and 3) Do not interfere with the nature of causality.
***
The silence purred at them as Wonse talked. They avoided one another’s faces, for fear of what they might see mirrored there. Each man thought: one of the others is bound to say something soon, some protest, and then I’ll murmur agreement, not actually say anything, I’m not as stupid as that, but definitely murmur very firmly, so that the others will be in no doubt that I thoroughly disapprove, because at a time like this it behooves all decent men to nearly stand up and be almost heard…
But no one said anything. The cowards, each man thought.
[NOTE FROM JULIE: This bit is so, so good for its illustration of the bystander effect and collective responsibility and the evils of inaction and ahhh]
***
You have the effrontery to be squeamish, it thought at him. But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless, and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape—the great face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes—we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.
***
"The Duke of Sto Helit is looking for a guard captain, I’m sure. I’ll write you a letter. You’ll like them, they’re a very nice young couple.”
[NOTE FROM JULIE: OMG I THINK THIS IS MORT AND YSABELL???]
***
“Let me give you some advice, Captain,” he said.
“Yes, sir?”
“It may help you make some sense of the world.”
“Sir.”
“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people,” said the man. “You’re wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.”
***
She smiled at him.
And then it arose and struck Vimes that, in her own special category, she was quite beautiful; this was the category of all the women, in his entire life, who had ever thought he was worth smiling at. She couldn’t do worse, but then, he couldn’t do better. So maybe it balanced out. She wasn’t getting any younger but then, who was? And she had style and money and common-sense and self-assurance and all the things that he didn’t, and she had opened her heart, and if you let her she could engulf you; the woman was a city.
And eventually, under siege, you did what Ankh-Morpork had always done—unbar the gates, let the conquerors in, and make them your own.
[NOTE FROM JULIE: ahhhhh otp otp otp <3]
adventurous
funny
mysterious
relaxing
medium-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
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don't know what to say...it's kind of everything it's advertised to be.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Pretty funny, definitely got some nose exhales out of me, and never made me roll my eyes. Very Monty Python esque, curious which came first.
adventurous
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fun discworld novel that didn't completely convince me. But I have good memories of the watch series - might just be because this was an early entry to the series. As I got older the humour doesn't always land for me. Or rather, I would prefer a lower volume of jokes.