The Accidental Heroes (Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett)

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett
Date:	06/10/09 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Probably Pratchett's strongest characters, something approaching a coherent plot

Disadvantages: Takes a while to get going as the new characters need to be introduced

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 aristocratic one) In other words, everything you need to get laughs from a bunch of mis-matched, ill-assorted individuals.

These archetypes have been used repeatedly in many books and films. Yet, despite their lack of originality, Pratchett makes them feel fresh and new. Although they are all written for the purpose of providing laughs, they are not purely comic buffoons, blundering around the place like the Keystone Kops. Instead, they are actually pretty are well rounded, with plenty of scope for growth and development. Although Guards! Guards doesn't make as much of this element as it might, it does mean there is the beginnings of a story arc which has now spread across several different books.

Strong though the characters are individually, it's the interplay between them which really provides much of the book's humour. Put any two of these characters together and you will start to laugh at their antics. Put all five together and you will be laughing helplessly, their different world outlooks providing some wonderful opportunity for misunderstanding, stupidity and surprisingly sharp observations on life.

Within the main foursome (Vimes, Carrot, Nobby and Colon), there are some great double acts. The world weary cynicism of Vimes contrasts sharply with the enthusiastic and earnest outlook of Corporal Carrot. Sergeant Colon and Corporal Nobbs, meanwhile, are a Laurel and Hardy-esque pair, whose well-meant incompetence provides many laughs.

Guards! Guards! is from that golden period of Discworld novels in the early to mid 1990s, when Pratchett had decided on his style and had an established audience who understood where he was coming from. This left Pratchett free to concentrate on blending strange situations with acute observations on life, allowing his characters to get up to all sorts of mischief. These elements all come together brilliantly in Guards! Guards!

The wide range of humour will appeal to different audiences. Slapstick, word jokes, amusing footnote asides, silly situations and hilarious misunderstandings all feature. In short, Pratchett has it covered: whatever your style of humour, there will be something here to make you laugh.

It's also nice to see is that the humour is pretty evenly spread throughout the book. With comedies, there is always the danger that most of the laughs are packed towards the front of the book, whilst towards the end, the plot takes over. Pratchett is no exception in this regard, and many of his books follow this pattern.

Guards! Guards breaks the mould. It is just as funny at the end of the book as it was at the start. In fact, if anything, it is funnier. One of the few criticisms of the book is that Guards! Guards takes quite a while to get going, which can mostly be put down to the fact that Pratchett needs to introduce us to the new characters gradually. The opening pages focus in on Sam Vimes introduce the reader him before bringing in his colleagues. This concentration on Vimes pays off in the long term, setting up plenty of jokes and plot strands for later in the book (or for subsequent books). Yet, in the short term, it does leave Guards! Guards! feeling a little flat for the first 30-40 pages.

Once you are into the meat of the book, it just flies by. The plot and humour combining well allowing Pratchett plenty of opportunity to give his slightly skewed view of the world, whilst giving enough of a plot to keep the reader happy.

Indeed, the plot in Guards! Guards! is arguably the closest Pratchett has ever come to a traditional plot. Normally, you spend most of the Discworld books not really knowing what is going on. Guards! Guards! has a much stronger narrative. It resolves around a small group who summon a Great Dragon in Ankh Morpork, only to find they cannot control it. In the absence of any convenient heroes, it's up to the incompetent Watch to save the day.

This more traditional plot allows Pratchett to build a much more satisfying story, whilst retaining his trademark satirising of the sci-fi/fantasy genre (and much else beside). You could almost (though, I suspect, not quite) read this as a normal fantasy book and still quite enjoy it. This extra injection of plot adds a great deal. Up until Guards! Guards! I'd always accepted that Pratchett books were about the humour and that plots were slightly irrelevant; just something to hang the gags off. In Guards! Guards! plot and humour combine more smoothly to produce a top quality read.

One final observation: with many Pratchett books, I find he goes on just that little bit too long, just slightly outliving the natural size of the book. I've never felt that with Guards! Guards! Although it's comparable in size to his other books (just over 300 pages), I've never felt it dragged. When I reach the final page, it is not with a sense of relief that I have finished, but with a sigh of regret. I want. I want to see what these characters do next, what silly scrapes they get themselves into after they've dealt with the dragon. Clearly I wasn't alone in this, because Pratchett hooked up with The Watch soon after in Men at Arms and on numerous occasions since. But isn't it always a good sign when you don't want a book to end?

The characters of the various Watchmen may have changed over the years, but it was this book which set the template for their subsequent adventures and provided us with some of the Discworld's most enduring and loved characters.

Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett
Corgi, 1990
ISBN: 978-0552134620

© Copyright SWSt 2009

Summary: Even the dedication is funny, for goodness sake!