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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
medium-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
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
You know when you’re listening to a song and you can hear the singer smile? Throughout this book I saw Pratchett’s smile.
You can tell he had so much fun writing this.
Clever, funny, original, full of heart, and so gorgeously written. I laughed so many times as I read and was thoroughly charmed.
Just the idea that your words can make people smile long after you’re gone is beautiful to me.
Rest in peace Terry Pratchett.
You can tell he had so much fun writing this.
Clever, funny, original, full of heart, and so gorgeously written. I laughed so many times as I read and was thoroughly charmed.
Just the idea that your words can make people smile long after you’re gone is beautiful to me.
Rest in peace Terry Pratchett.
adventurous
funny
medium-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
Well, the language in this sure is unique. He's busting out like three turns of phrase never before used by man in every single paragraph, which is an unheard-of rate. I wouldn't have believed so many fresh uses of simile to be possible, but I stand corrected. It's truly impressive.
I realize that there is a deeper truth here that is only masked in layer upon layer of the ridiculous and that's why so many people like Discworld, but. As I am well-known for not having a sense of humor to speak of... it's not going to be my thing.
If you ask yourself, "Would Carrot, if he read this book, really understand its appeal?" you will probably get a mostly accurate picture of my experience and perspective.
I realize that there is a deeper truth here that is only masked in layer upon layer of the ridiculous and that's why so many people like Discworld, but. As I am well-known for not having a sense of humor to speak of... it's not going to be my thing.
If you ask yourself, "Would Carrot, if he read this book, really understand its appeal?" you will probably get a mostly accurate picture of my experience and perspective.
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Guards! Guards! is another hilarious installment of the late Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series. Captain Vimes is head of the not so illustrious City Watch, in the infamous and ancient city of Ankh-Morpork, the fabled metropolis of Discworld. The Watch has fallen on hard times, after the Patrician, Lord Vetinari enacted the ingenious idea of having criminals police themselves. When Vimes wakes up face down in the gutter, and an idealistic new recruit comes to town, you can almost smell the change in the air, or is that just the dragon farts? When a secretive cabal steals a book on summoning dragons from the magical library of Unseen University, the plot is afoot, perhaps even an entire leg.
The relative quality of any humorous novel really just depends on how funny it is, in the reader's opinion. It all boils down to whether or not it makes you laugh. And boy did I. Some of the vernacular was too British for me, and sailed right over my head, some of it was really obvious stuff like the foot/leg thing above, but Pratchett fires off a lot of ammunition, some of it hits and some of it doesn’t. In general, I found it funny enough to recommend it. Something about Terry Pratchett’s humor gives me a warm feeling in my belly. It makes me happy. To me it’s not quite as laugh-out-loud hilarious as Douglas Adams, or as poignant as Vonnegut, but it has its own peculiar charm that I found delightful.
Now, an open letter to the copywriter who included a very late spoiler on the back cover blurb which distorted my expectations in a weird way. The spoiler took place on page 241! This is rudimentary science here, like understanding that the world rests on a turtle or something, or that vaccines cause adults.
Dear Sir or Madam,
FIE!
From an aggrieved and bewildered reader,
Jordan Short
My quibbles with regards to Guards! Guards! are all minor. There’s a little confusion at the beginning as to who is the main character. Carrot, the idealistic new recruit is given a healthy back story at the outset. Pratchett just devotes more words to him in the first 30 or 47 pages of the book than he does to Vimes. I think this is partly intentional, playing off of Carrot’s kingly pedigree to roast the stereotypical fantasy trope of the secret king. But it did cause some banana peel-esque unsure footing at the outset of the story.
What really makes a book like this work is the lovable cast. The characters aren’t realistic compared to the typical fantasy story. They are caricatures, with two-dimensional motivations and relationships. But their idiosyncratic foibles are both amusing and endearing. We can see the directions in which their simple emotional mechanisms propel them, but Pratchett ingeniously devises a barrage of quips, puns, and misunderstandings to make the inevitable a delight.
Guards! Guards! is a romp. It’s a silly farce masterfully disguising a societal critique, that in the end doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s fun, often juvenile humor. If you are the sort that likes wordplay, irreverence, and truly fantastical scatalogical humor, you’ll adore it. If not, you can always get a head start on next year’s taxes.
P.S. I loved everything about the library and the librarian. Every ‘Ook’ he uttered filled me with joy.
P.P.S. Love to Minty!
The relative quality of any humorous novel really just depends on how funny it is, in the reader's opinion. It all boils down to whether or not it makes you laugh. And boy did I. Some of the vernacular was too British for me, and sailed right over my head, some of it was really obvious stuff like the foot/leg thing above, but Pratchett fires off a lot of ammunition, some of it hits and some of it doesn’t. In general, I found it funny enough to recommend it. Something about Terry Pratchett’s humor gives me a warm feeling in my belly. It makes me happy. To me it’s not quite as laugh-out-loud hilarious as Douglas Adams, or as poignant as Vonnegut, but it has its own peculiar charm that I found delightful.
Now, an open letter to the copywriter who included a very late spoiler on the back cover blurb which distorted my expectations in a weird way. The spoiler took place on page 241! This is rudimentary science here, like understanding that the world rests on a turtle or something, or that vaccines cause adults.
Dear Sir or Madam,
FIE!
From an aggrieved and bewildered reader,
Jordan Short
My quibbles with regards to Guards! Guards! are all minor. There’s a little confusion at the beginning as to who is the main character. Carrot, the idealistic new recruit is given a healthy back story at the outset. Pratchett just devotes more words to him in the first 30 or 47 pages of the book than he does to Vimes. I think this is partly intentional, playing off of Carrot’s kingly pedigree to roast the stereotypical fantasy trope of the secret king. But it did cause some banana peel-esque unsure footing at the outset of the story.
What really makes a book like this work is the lovable cast. The characters aren’t realistic compared to the typical fantasy story. They are caricatures, with two-dimensional motivations and relationships. But their idiosyncratic foibles are both amusing and endearing. We can see the directions in which their simple emotional mechanisms propel them, but Pratchett ingeniously devises a barrage of quips, puns, and misunderstandings to make the inevitable a delight.
Guards! Guards! is a romp. It’s a silly farce masterfully disguising a societal critique, that in the end doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s fun, often juvenile humor. If you are the sort that likes wordplay, irreverence, and truly fantastical scatalogical humor, you’ll adore it. If not, you can always get a head start on next year’s taxes.
P.S. I loved everything about the library and the librarian. Every ‘Ook’ he uttered filled me with joy.
P.P.S. Love to Minty!
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
The best Pratchett book so far.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
<b>Book Summary: </b>
A young guy named Carrot who was raised by dwarfs is sent off to learn about being a human. Specifically, he is to become a guard in Ankh Morpork (I believe is the name). He's excited because he thinks it's an honorable job, but when he gets there he realizes joining the guard there is thought of as a punishment. The guards don't really enforce laws anymore, the city has accepted a certain amount of crime as normal. The existing guards seem like things aren't going very well for them personally either. Carrot, however, is very literal and excited. He reads the entire book of laws and sets off to arrest people in violation of those laws, despite the protests of basically everyone else.
Meanwhile, a secret group is meeting to discuss how they can stop being oppressed. They plan to do so by summoning dragons using a book on summoning dragons stolen from a magical library (the librarian of which is an orangutan of roughly human intelligence). As you might guess, people around the city start being incinerated by dragon(s). The guard sets out to solve the mystery of the dragon, and return their city to normal.
Along the way, they meet some new people and slowly become happier, better, and more willing to uphold the law as it used to be.
<b>Dependence: </b>
This is the first book in the guards arc of discworld, so you don't need to read any other books. That said, reading more books from discworld will give you some more background into the city, the magic, the character Death, etc.
<b>Characters: </b>
The characters are mostly there for the jokes it seems. Somewhat cartoonish, though a few of them do have legitimate character arcs.
<b>Plot: </b>
The plot is decent enough to drive the absurdist humor that is the focus of the book, and the world is incorporated into the plan in interesting ways.
<b>Magic System: </b>
This book mostly uses a typical European, medieval fantasy magic system. There are dragons, animals that can talk, summoning spells, etc. It's not very unique, but it's not meant to be.
<b>World: </b>
The world is a disc on the back of a giant turtle floating through space, but the world we see the characters in is a pretty standard medieval fantasy world. It has a few unique elements in this book, but the world becomes more interesting the more discworld books you've read.
<b>Pacing: </b>
The pacing of the book is fairly normal. It's not that long of a book, but it gives us time to get to know each of the characters and their motivations.
<b>Writing: </b>
The writing is quippy and clever, lots of plays on words and some pop-culture references. Not being British, some of the jokes went over my head. For example, at one point carrot says something like "Speaking of kings, does anyone want any chips?" and I still have no idea what this means. The beginning of the books comes across like a monty python skit, lots of misunderstandings to drive humor and whatnot.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-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