Watch the Watch. (Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett)

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Product:	Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett
Date:	09/01/02 (117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, Clever, Lots of Nobby Nobbs moments

Disadvantages: None

Sorry - not feeling that inventive with titles today.

The book:
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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:
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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 manipulated into setting a dragon free from its eternal dormancy and unleashing it into the city. The plot is brought about in the desire to have a peasant arrive to kill the beast and become king, the royalists have some funny ideas. When it arrives there is, as Pratchett is fond of saying "divers alarmus" in the city and the peasant does the deed - all rejoice for the newfound king!

But - enter the watch!

Captain of the guard is a suspicious man and does not mind the odd tipple, he quite simply can't believe the neatness of this slaying and the acceptance of the new king in the city and with the discovery of a theft from the university - a book called "The Summoning Of Dragons" things look in pretty bad shape. With a new recruit in tow (the marvellous constable carrot) and his fellow watchmen Nobby and Fred Colon, they set about investigating along with Sybil Rankin, local dragon shelter owner and general posh dragon genius.

Needless to say the dragon comes back, she wants the city and will have it! The Patrician, Lord Vetinari is out and the rule of the dragon begins, after, of course, the new king is dealt with (scorched to ash in Sator Square - painless and mess free).

A fight is on, get rid of the dragon. The watch and the dragon are set
against each other and, as it's the watch, a crime needs to be found and then solved - what greater crime could a person come up with than summoning a dragon into Vimes's city?

Will they get rid of it? Will the one responsible be unmasked and will Nobby ever get rid of his fantastic collection of boils? All will be revealed.

Look out for a bit of a twist in the plot - easy to spot really as it's all written down in the book!

The Characters:
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The Watch:

Carrot - sent to seek his destiny after being brought up by dwarves, lives to the letter of the law and is about the most amiable man in Ankh. He?s a great detective and a very methodical and honest bloke. Well over 6 foot tall, he still claims he's a dwarf.


Vimes - Captain of the guard, a mindless drunk and the most suspicious man in A-M. He is a very clever man, very wise to the ways of the criminal and feels a huge sense of class justice. Does not like to see the toffs come off best as he comes from a very, very poor family.

Nobby Nobbs - Did he ever wash? Will he ever be cured? Is he even a member of the same race as the rest of the watch? Who knows? He's a colourful character and no mistake. I love Nobby, a totally corrupt guard - even tries to lead Carrot astray! Loves weapons and has a way of staying out of trouble with a very small roll-up tucked into his cupped palm. Brilliant.

Fred Colon - The Sergeant of the watch, he's a family man, living his life totally opposite to his wife's - as she comes in, he's going out to work and vice-versa. Fred is a little like Nobby, great friends and both very keen on bunking off to have a quick pint and a smoke when there's work to be done.

Sybil Rankin: Owner of the Sunshine Sanctuary for sick Dragons. An obvious person to turn to in the city's time of need, she offers advice and help to the watch and seems to be a
bout the only inhabitant of the city to give them any respect whatsoever.

The Brethren: The Oppressed masses of the city - all seething with impotent rage at the way their lives are going, lead by the Supreme Grand Master into doing something that they'd never think of otherwise nor believe they could get away with! Some funny moments but they're really something of a sideline to the plot.

Supreme Grand Master: Manipulator extraordinaire. Gets his mind ticking and turns out to be incredibly talented.

The Librarian: Well, what can one say other than "Oook"? He finds out that the book has been stolen and is a very worried ape indeed. Gets all the best lines (if you like to hear Oook a lot)

Overall:
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This is the 1st of Terry Pratchett's books to feature the city Watch; it has the background of the bunch and follows their adventures in their time of great peril.

It is, like all of Pratchett's books, a very funny story, the use of Nobby as the Watch clown is great and the introduction of a 6-foot dwarf is a stroke of genius.

I loved this book, I found it late in the day and had read a couple of the other Guards book. This one is great whether you read it 1st or last as it stands out alone (like most of them really).

To sum up - funny, clever, imaginative and just brilliant.

Summary: