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Title: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett ISBN: 0-06-001312-5 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.58 (73 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Pratchett in Top Form Once Again
Comment: Though a bit lighter on his trademark humor, Night Watch is a surprisingly engrossing read that reveals a great deal of the back-story for several characters from previous novels.
Duke Samuel Vimes, Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, finds himself flung into the past where he must mold his past self into a good cop and prevent the city from destroying itself in a bloody revolution. While this book is a poor jumping-on point for new readers, it quickly becomes clear that Pratchett wrote this with the series fanatic in mind. Past characters from the "City Watch" sub series make appearances here and there much to the surprise of Vimes and the delight of readers. His future senior corporal is a street beggar. The future ruler of the city is a student at the secret Guild of Assassins. And several young coppers, who Vimes knows are doomed to die, are under his command.
If you are new to Discworld, it would be in your best interests to jump back to "Guards! Guards!" and start reading from there. If you have already been following the series, you are in for a treat.
Rating: 3
Summary: Times of Vimes
Comment: In Night Watch, Terry Pratchett has a second (and more successful) go at time. It's predecessor, Thief of Time, starred Lao Tzu and his monks (who keep the threads of time running smoothly on their spindles most of the time)trying to thwart a plot to stop time.
Night Watch is a more conventional time-travel story. Watch Commander Vimes, one of Pratchett's continuing characters, is cast back to the Ankh-Morpork of his youth by a lightning bolt just as he is arresting the most-wanted criminal in the city, a stone-cold killer named Carcer. Carcer shares Vimes' fate, escapes and sets about to create a future more to his own liking -- one that does not include Commander Vimes. The time in which they find themselves is a pivotal moment in Ankh-Morpork's history and in Vimes' own development as a police officer.
Pratchett finesses the paradox of having the youthful Constable Vimes encounter his more mature self by having Commander Vimes assume the identity of John Keel, a sergeant of the watch he remembers from his youth. As Lao Tzu labors to bring Commander Vimes back to his proper place in time, Vimes struggles to keep Carcer from killing either of his selves and turning Ankh-Morpork to the dark side. Along the way, we encounter the future ruler of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari, in his youthful form as an apprentice in the Assassin's Guild.
Much of the action in Night Watch takes place in Treacle Road, which is perhaps unintentionally appropriate. There is a vein of sticky sentimentality running through this story that makes this reader's teeth ache. It needed more of the wry humor with which Pratchett seasons his best books -- like The Word. Night Watch is, nevertheless, an entertaining fast-paced adventure that will please Pratchett's legions of devoted fans.
Rating: 3
Summary: Stuck Somewhere Between Funny and Serious
Comment: hile his wife is in labor, Vimes chases an arch-criminal and is accidentally thrown backwards through time, where he meets his younger self, taking on the role of an unsung hero of one of the revolutions in Ankh-Morpork. We meet a young Patrician and Nobby. The Monks of Time make cameos, but are under-used. This book is more serious than the usual Discworld novel and contains a lot of meditation on the nature of duty, responsibility, and heroism. It would seem that a whole book going deep into Vimes' past and psychology would be interesting, but I agree with one of the reviewers on Amazon; if you already know Vimes, you'll find that he never really surprises you in this book. I'd rate it 4 if it were either funnier OR a better serious novel; attempting to be both just leaves it adrift. As in a lot of Pratchett, many scenes in this story cry out for a stronger sense of place and evocative detail; there's too much telling and not enough showing. Not a good introduction to Discworld or the Watch sequence.
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Title: Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett ISBN: 006001315X Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Last Hero : A Discworld Fable by Terry Pratchett, Paul Kidby ISBN: 0060507772 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett ISBN: 0060012366 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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Title: Truth, The by Terry Pratchett ISBN: 0380818191 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 04 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett ISBN: 0061031321 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 30 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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