A secret society summons a dragon to install a puppet king in Ankh-Morpork, and only the city's drunk, demoralized and outnumbered Night Watch stands in the way
The Night Watch rises
The Night Watch of Ankh-Morpork is a joke. Captain Sam Vimes spends most of his time drunk in the gutter, his two remaining officers, Sergeant Colon and Corporal Nobbs, avoid trouble at all costs, and the city's crime is managed by official guilds. Then a new recruit arrives: Carrot, a very large, very honest young man raised by dwarfs, who has read the law books and intends to enforce every single law in them.
Who will enjoy it
Fantasy fans who enjoy satire and comedy, and newcomers looking for the best place to start Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
What you will get
A brilliantly funny Discworld novel in which a hapless city watch faces a dragon, a conspiracy and the question of what it means to protect people.
Guards! Guards! Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Fantasy · Discworld · City Watch · Comic fantasy
Length
416 pages · ≈ 12 h
More about this book
At the same time, a secret society of disgruntled minor tradesmen decides to summon a dragon so that a convenient hero can slay it and be crowned king. Unfortunately, the dragon has its own ideas. Vimes, Carrot and the others find themselves investigating a monster the size of a building, helped by Lady Sybil Ramkin, a formidable aristocrat who breeds small swamp dragons, and by the Librarian of the Unseen University, an orangutan who will not be called a monkey.
This is where Pratchett's satire becomes something deeper. Underneath the jokes about fantasy clichés, the book asks serious questions about power, about people who want kings to solve their problems and about the quiet courage of ordinary people doing their jobs. Vimes's journey from gutter to genuine policeman is the start of one of the great character arcs in fantasy.
Some jokes rely on familiarity with fantasy tropes, and the plot takes a while to gather speed. But the ending is triumphant and the humor is relentless. Many readers who bounced off earlier Discworld books fall in love with the series here. About 416 pages in the Harper paperback.
Men at Arms
Mort
Going Postal
Thud!
Feet of Clay
The Fifth Elephant
Making Money
Maskerade
Wyrd Sisters
The Color of Magic
The Light Fantastic
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents