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A review by heathengray
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I must have read this 10 years ago. I loved it then. I love it still.
But while, during the first reading I felt this was the literary equivalent of a fast paced 80's US cop caper (think Dirty Harry, Lethal Weapon), it might be my age, but on the second reading I got a lot more of a noir feel, even brushing very close to the movie Blade Runner. Wait! Hear me out!
I always picture Ankh-Morpork as dingy, dirty, but always in daylight, in fine weather. But for much of the book it's raining non-stop (like Blade Runner), set at night (like Blade Runner), only becoming sunny and daylight towards the end (Like...), dealing with issues of fate, destiny, creations run amok, and ends pretty much paraphrasing Gaff's final aside from the movie.
On to the actual plot: A secret society is releasing a Dragon into the city, the City Watch having not much else to do (as crime is regulated by the criminals... it's ingenious, but complicated) decide to investigate. This is the first of the Discworld books to really flesh out the city, The Patrician, and The Librarian. Everything gets another dimension to it, pushing past parody levels. The fantasy breaths on its own. And Pratchett continues to make incredible, likable, imperfect characters. For example, beautiful characters always have some endearing flaw, the bad guys always have some justification, ugly people are described with such love, you would happily marry them.
If there was a downside, it's the infrequent direct quotes from other movies ('I'm too old for this', 'Here's looking at you, Kid'). They dragged me out of the world for a moment with an eye-roll, even though I remembered giggling at them the first reading. But the ones that were sown into the fiction (e.g. Vimes quoting Dirty Harry, but he's holding a swamp-dragon) are a delight to read and recognize.
A popcorn book if ever there was one.
But while, during the first reading I felt this was the literary equivalent of a fast paced 80's US cop caper (think Dirty Harry, Lethal Weapon), it might be my age, but on the second reading I got a lot more of a noir feel, even brushing very close to the movie Blade Runner. Wait! Hear me out!
I always picture Ankh-Morpork as dingy, dirty, but always in daylight, in fine weather. But for much of the book it's raining non-stop (like Blade Runner), set at night (like Blade Runner), only becoming sunny and daylight towards the end (Like...), dealing with issues of fate, destiny, creations run amok, and ends pretty much paraphrasing Gaff's final aside from the movie.
On to the actual plot: A secret society is releasing a Dragon into the city, the City Watch having not much else to do (as crime is regulated by the criminals... it's ingenious, but complicated) decide to investigate. This is the first of the Discworld books to really flesh out the city, The Patrician, and The Librarian. Everything gets another dimension to it, pushing past parody levels. The fantasy breaths on its own. And Pratchett continues to make incredible, likable, imperfect characters. For example, beautiful characters always have some endearing flaw, the bad guys always have some justification, ugly people are described with such love, you would happily marry them.
If there was a downside, it's the infrequent direct quotes from other movies ('I'm too old for this', 'Here's looking at you, Kid'). They dragged me out of the world for a moment with an eye-roll, even though I remembered giggling at them the first reading. But the ones that were sown into the fiction (e.g. Vimes quoting Dirty Harry, but he's holding a swamp-dragon) are a delight to read and recognize.
A popcorn book if ever there was one.
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism
Vimes is one of these 80's cops that is definitely an alcoholic by today's standards, but is also able to just shrug it off and doesn't feel the need to drink.