Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett

The Discworld is a flat, disc like world, carried through space on the back of four giant elephants who are in turn supported by the great space turtle A?Tuin. It?s a land flooded with magic and, like all natural resources, magic is as likely to be used for evil as well as good. Ankh Morpork is the Discworlds largest city and it?s fair to say that it?s not the most wonderful of places. Essentially it?s two cities with the murky river Ankh running between them. The streets are dirty and dangerous, filled with thieves and assassins. And those are the better parts of town. The city is ruled by Lord ...  Read the complete review

If you’ve never heard of Terry Pratchett, then you won’t be familiar with a bizarre world in the multiverse called Discworld. The Disc, as its inhabitants know it, is a flat world, perched on the back of four elephants, supported by the giant space turtle Great A’Tuin. It is a world saturated with old magic and is populated by strange people, wizards, witches, vampires, dwarves and trolls to name but a few. Anything and anyone can have a place on the Disc and feel right at home. The chances of such a world actually existing are precisely one million to one, but wizards have calculated that such odds occur nine times out of ten, it is also said that even ...  Read the complete review

I wonder whether Terry Pratchett knew what he was unleashing when he wrote Guards! Guards!, the book which introduced us (properly) to The Watch and the wonderful mis-fits who belong to it. In fact, the characters are so good that I'm going to break with tradition and look at them first in this review. At first glance, they don't appear that special and conform to the normal stereotypes you might expect in a comedy police book. There's Captain Vimes (the sensible, but grumpy one), Sergeant Fred Colon (the overweight worrier), Corporal Nobby Nobbs (the naughty one) and Corporal Carrot (the keen, naïve one). Oh, and Watch Groupie Lady Sybil Ramkin (the ...  Read the complete review

The Discworld: A flat planet carried through space on the back of a giant turtle. Where magic is real, but horribly bureaucratised, and monsters roam the lands, but if they are slain by a wandering hero, their Mums come and complain. Guards! Guards! is an important novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, as it marks the introduction of the Ankh Morpork Night Watch, a group of characters who have all but dominated subsequent Discworld novels. Carrot, a seven foot dwarf from the mountains (adopted, amazingly enough) sets out with a mysteriously sharp sword and an odd birthmark to Ankh Morpork to seek his fortune in the Night Watch. Unswervingly innocent and ...  Read the complete review

Sorry - not feeling that inventive with titles today. The book: --------- Well, to start with it's by Terry Pratchett and is available from all good book shops, priced between £4.79 (BOL) and £5.99 (recommended price) it is a great novel and, many consider, Pratchett's best. The Plot: --------- The City is under attack! Yes, Ankh-Morpork, greatest city of the disc and home to 1 million inhabitants is finally under attack from someone they can't corrupt - a dragon has been summoned and has decided to stay. The Elucidated Brethren, lead by the mysterious Supreme Grand Master, have been cajoled and ...  Read the complete review