Book Review: Guards! Guards!

[deckardcanine]

As I said before, Terry Pratchett's first and latest (tho not for much longer) Discworld novels, The Colour of Magic and Snuff, could hardly be less similar and still belong to the same series. From my perspective, Guards! Guards! was the missing link. It retains much of the former's focus on invoking and subverting cliches and some of its focus on the supernatural, including Death personified, while putting the latter's hero in the spotlight for what I assume is the first time.

The story takes place almost entirely in Ankh-Morpork, the old city that has devolved to a filthy crime capital. Lord Vetinari, called the Patrician, appears to be the tyrant the city needs to run at anything better than pandemonium. Like Baron Klaus von Wulfenbach in "Girl Genius," he's not all that rotten at heart, just pragmatic in cruelty. Unlike the Baron, he calls for very few laws. As a result, the City Watch has become a powerless joke populated by seemingly useless men. It's strange for me to see Captain Samuel Vimes constantly drunk in the beginning, given his good life and awesomeness by Snuff. I guess Pratchett gained optimism.

But while I don't share quite such a dreary view of humanity, I grinned many times while reading. Here at last is the level of humor that made Discworld so big a hit. It contains several characters who rate offhand mentions on irrelevant forums I read. My favorite might be the innocent, ignorant, yet effective new guard Carrot. My mom's favorite (and she should check it out) would have to be the Librarian, a man-turned-speechless-orangutan who nevertheless retains high competence and strong opinions. I'm afraid there aren't many females this time around, but the incomparable Lady Sybil Ramkin, caretaker of swamp dragons, makes a grand entrance. The humor wanes a little in the second half as the crisis intensifies, but it gets better in the end.

Warning: Do NOT read the Harper Collins summary on the back cover. It spoils too much.


Next on my list is The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. From what little I've gathered, it won't turn into a hippiefest like Stranger in a Strange Land.

Comments

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

The plots for the Discworld novels have sort of blended together because I've read so many of them, but I think the books near the middle of the series were the best. Guards! Guards! was quite delightful as I recall.

I've never read "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress", but it has quite a reputation. Your review will help me decide whether I peruse it or not.

Up next for me, after "Blue Mars", is the finale to the ten book Thomas Covenant series, which just came out this month. I enjoyed the first two trilogies quite a bit, but the copy editor definitely needed to take a weed whacker to the last four books. Trimming those down to three would have been an improvement, and further cutting the length of each by half would have been possible without losing anything important. Moral of this: never try to write a grand sprawling epic masterpiece with and insufficient quantity of plot, all you end up with is sprawl.

[octan.livejournal.com]

Having started at what at the time were opposite ends of the series myself, The Color of Magic and Going Postal, and very slowly approaching this one via the path of least resistance, namely getting whatever was on hand at the library at the time, I ended up playing part of the first computer game — which stars Rincewind, with the Luggage playing the role of his inventory — before I got around to this book. Imagine my surprise when I realized that the game was actually adapted from Guards! Guards! I should re-download it and give it another shot sometime.