A review by kizzia
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

adventurous emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

This is the first book in which we meet Sam Vimes, who ties with Granny Weatherwax and Tiffany Aching for the title of my favourite character on the Discworld. It is also, in my opinion at least, also the first book where Terry really showcases the author he's going to become in terms of being a man who can make us laugh out loud one minute and the next show us the best and worst of humanity through such a clear cut lens it almost hurts.

The blurb might tempt you to think that this story is just another subversion of a set of fantasy tropes and whilst it does do that - Terry is the master of clever subversion - it is also so much more. This is the start of a character arc for Vimes that is nothing short of brilliant, plus a blueprint of how you take yourself from someone you don't like much to someone who does the right thing not because it is easy or sensible but because it needs to be done. 

It also contains fantastic lines such as:

"They felt, tremendously bucked-up, which was how Lady Ramkin would almost certainly have put it and which was definitely several letters of the alphabet away from how they normally felt." - Page 194 of the kindle edition

I should also say at this point a) that Lady Ramkin is another excellent character that we first meet in this book and I, for one, would die for her and b) I think this is, apart from Nightwatch, probably the Discworld book I have re-read the most and yet every time I pick it up I find another nuance or clever pun I'd missed. 

This is the start of City Watch sub-series, which comprises eight books - Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Fifth Elephant, Nightwatch, Thud and Snuff - and it's a brilliant starting point to getting to know the Discworld and Terry as a writer.