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tfitoby 's review for:
Guards! Guards!
by Terry Pratchett
Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!
The debut outing of Sam Vimes, Carrot Ironfoundersson, Fred Colon, Nobby Nobbs, Sybil Ramkin, Detritus and Cutmeownthroat Dibbler,and what a barnstorming adventure it is. At this stage The Watch are a down and out bunch of losers who prefer to hide in the dark than doing any policing, led by the now legendary Sam Vimes who you'll find face down in the gutter drinking his misery away. And there are plots afoot in the city of Ankh-Morpork, plots to overthrow the Patrician with the help of a magical dragon long thought to be extinct even on a planet that has so much magic it doesn't know what to do with it. And so the inevitable clash between good and evil is set on its course in Guards! Guards!
This was the first Discworld book I ever owned. A well meaning relative bought me a copy for my 9th birthday, I didn't understand a word of it and gave up pretty quickly. I've since wondered exactly what his thought process was in buying me that book. It took another 6 or 7 years before I read another one and I don't think that even then I was ready for how brilliantly funny or intelligent the work of Terry Pratchett on top form could be.
Vimes is a perfect adaptation of the drunken noir hero who finds the strength to drag himself up out of the hole he'd retreated to via facing certain death in the name of something unselfish, and Pratchett throws in plenty of detective tropes from Doyle right on through to the 80s. His merry band of men come fully formed, characters you can't help but love and what a whirlwind Lady Sybil is, much more than just an upper class caricature.
More! More! More!
The debut outing of Sam Vimes, Carrot Ironfoundersson, Fred Colon, Nobby Nobbs, Sybil Ramkin, Detritus and Cutmeownthroat Dibbler,and what a barnstorming adventure it is. At this stage The Watch are a down and out bunch of losers who prefer to hide in the dark than doing any policing, led by the now legendary Sam Vimes who you'll find face down in the gutter drinking his misery away. And there are plots afoot in the city of Ankh-Morpork, plots to overthrow the Patrician with the help of a magical dragon long thought to be extinct even on a planet that has so much magic it doesn't know what to do with it. And so the inevitable clash between good and evil is set on its course in Guards! Guards!
This was the first Discworld book I ever owned. A well meaning relative bought me a copy for my 9th birthday, I didn't understand a word of it and gave up pretty quickly. I've since wondered exactly what his thought process was in buying me that book. It took another 6 or 7 years before I read another one and I don't think that even then I was ready for how brilliantly funny or intelligent the work of Terry Pratchett on top form could be.
Vimes is a perfect adaptation of the drunken noir hero who finds the strength to drag himself up out of the hole he'd retreated to via facing certain death in the name of something unselfish, and Pratchett throws in plenty of detective tropes from Doyle right on through to the 80s. His merry band of men come fully formed, characters you can't help but love and what a whirlwind Lady Sybil is, much more than just an upper class caricature.
More! More! More!