Reviews

This was EXCEPTIONAL. My favorite of the series thus far, and by a decent amount I think. I'm told everyone has a book where they think Pratchett gets good... well, I've thought he's been good for a long while now, but this may be the book where he gets GREAT.

I am shocked to discover that I actually prefer the Night's Watch books to the Witches books so far. This one had the added benefit of an actual female main character (Angua), plus the return of Sybil Ramkin, in a sadly much smaller role. But the real shining stars in this book were Carrot, Detritus, and Cuddy. My goodness, they were just... phenomenal. And the actual mystery was also really good- very interesting and I definitely couldn't figure out what was going to happen until it did.

All in all, this is one I could see myself truly returning to from time to time. And it, again, adds another point in my list of "should definitely read in publication order" reasons. None of this would have meant nearly so much had we not met so many of these characters earlier.

Looking forward to starting SOUL MUSIC later this week!

janet_snakehole13's review against another edition

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adventurous funny reflective

4.25

romiress's review against another edition

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fast-paced

3.75

A fun murder mystery that once again holds up shockingly well.

burning_ham's review against another edition

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adventurous funny 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

5.0

rbecker29's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious 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

4.0

shookone's review against another edition

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5.0

This was the second Discworld book I ever read, and I read it and reread it a million times as a teenager. Absolutely impossible for me to think about this book in an objective way that isn’t colored by nostalgia. I just love it too much, and it is very obvious to me in hindsight that the things this book says about class were hugely formative for me (and not just the Boot Theory! The Boot Theory is very good, but Terry has lots of other things to say about that sort of thing in this book). So I’ll just say that Men At Arms is a huge improvement over Guards Guards (which is already a very good book), and is the point where Vimes and Carrot really come in to their own as characters. Part of me wants to say that this book feels like a huge step up for the Discworld series, but the level of quality has been so high over the last few books in the series that it’s more like it’s clear Pratchett is at a point where he’s just cranking out hit after hit.

comfy_anna's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful 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

5.0

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