Take a photo of a barcode or cover
crookedtreehouse 's review for:
Guards! Guards!
by Terry Pratchett
Of Terry Pratchett's reoccuring Discworld characters, my favorites are probably Vimes, The Patrician, and The Librarian, so this book, which introduces Vimes, and gives The Patrician and The Librarian more of a presence, as well as unusual circumstances, is one of my favorites.
The Intersection of an orphan brought up by a different race, a person bogged down by his job deciding to get his life together and improve his job's circumstances, a conniving magic abuser attempting to steal the throne, and the resurgence of an extinct or mythological creature returning to prominence, comes together perfectly.
I would be pleased, however, to never read the words "wassa wassa wassoname" again. It's one of Pratchett's ticks that annoyed me the first time I read it, and thuds to junk because it is too clunky to be vintage.
I recommend it to anyone looking for a good humorous fantasy book, fans of police procedurals, dragon enthusiasts, those who don't want to read the modern news but hope to see metaphors for it, and readers looking for some great quotes about politics, such as:
“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.”
“Down there - he said - are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any inequity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathsomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don't say no.”
“It was amazing, this mystic business. You tell them a lie, and then when you don’t need it anymore you tell them another lie and tell them they’re progressing along the road to wisdom. Then instead of laughing they follow you even more, hoping that at the heart of all the lies they’ll find the truth. And bit by bit they accept the unacceptable. Amazing.”
“Never build a dungeon you wouldn't be happy to spend the night in yourself."
“But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.”
The Intersection of an orphan brought up by a different race, a person bogged down by his job deciding to get his life together and improve his job's circumstances, a conniving magic abuser attempting to steal the throne, and the resurgence of an extinct or mythological creature returning to prominence, comes together perfectly.
I would be pleased, however, to never read the words "wassa wassa wassoname" again. It's one of Pratchett's ticks that annoyed me the first time I read it, and thuds to junk because it is too clunky to be vintage.
I recommend it to anyone looking for a good humorous fantasy book, fans of police procedurals, dragon enthusiasts, those who don't want to read the modern news but hope to see metaphors for it, and readers looking for some great quotes about politics, such as:
“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.”
“Down there - he said - are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any inequity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathsomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don't say no.”
“It was amazing, this mystic business. You tell them a lie, and then when you don’t need it anymore you tell them another lie and tell them they’re progressing along the road to wisdom. Then instead of laughing they follow you even more, hoping that at the heart of all the lies they’ll find the truth. And bit by bit they accept the unacceptable. Amazing.”
“Never build a dungeon you wouldn't be happy to spend the night in yourself."
“But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.”