Finally a Pratchett Gigglefest! (Night Watch - Terry Pratchett)

Member Name: Mitnik

Product:	Night Watch - Terry Pratchett
Date:	10/11/02 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hillarious

Disadvantages: None

[op on Night Watch - Will Move to the right place once it`s been added!]

Being one of the Worlds best Sci-Comedy writers can take it`s toll on anybody, so it`s only understandable that some of Terry Pratchetts most recent novels haven`t truly been upto the standard expected by his fans, it seemed he was back on the right track with Thief of Time, but it still wasn`t perfect, I`m proud to say Night Watch is a real return to form, not only going deeper under the surface of some of the subjects scratched upon in Thief of Time, but also by being a full force return for one of the disc`s most popular characters Commander Samuel Vimes. Yes, this is a Night Watch themed story (you might have already guessed that from the title, slightly more obvious than Feet of Clay isn`t it?) he's writing about our world through a lens of Discworld distortion. In this novel, influences from our culture include torturous Eastern European regimes, Bloody Sunday, Terminator and even Passport to Pimlico.

Over the many years we`ve been invited to be a voyeur on the lives of the Discworld`s inhabitants we`ve seen books based on almost every theme under the sun, and we`ve built up a bulging cast of regulars. (not to say you can`t read any of the books on their own and still understand what`s going on, the charm of Pratchetts Characters are they are mostly stereotypical with just the odd twist to give them a special twinkle in their eye.)

Now as stated perviously this is a Night Watch Story, now the watch has changed a lot since it`s first introduction, Once the laughing stock of the city, they have grown and evolved into a well respected police force, who. on the whole. do things right. However there was a time when the Watch was much, much worse, when corruption was rife and prisoners used to inexplicably disappear. These were the times when the now Commander Vimes learned how to be a copper from his old Sergeant.


And now to the plot, A combination
of bad timing, bad weather and Quantum Physics bring Vimes back into the bad old days. Yes, Vimes has found himself sent back in time, and now it turns out Commander Vimes, is the Sergeant in question teaching young Lance-Corporal Vimes how to be a copper (Err.. Very Twelve Monkeys!)
So now Vimes must become mentor to his younger self and make sure that history takes its course. Vimes is a good man doing the right thing in a bad situation. He's clearly in his element, and his element is copper.

Along the way the history of many of the regular denizens of Ankh-Morpork is revealed ? such as how Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler got his name (and decided just what to put in his pies.) and just what exactly Havelock Vetinari did before entering politics ? and it all adds to the fun as elementary temporal mechanics are toyed with in the traditional Discworld way. The Shades are shadier, law enforcement is negotiable and the civic leader has enough deranged paranoid psychosis to run Zimbabwe. The story also seems to dig deeper than other Discworld Novels, as we see an almost indepth exploration of public and uniformed psychology, power, corruption and the nature of control.

The standard Pratchett Yin-Yang formula of having some good in all evil surfaces again with a twist. The Villian here uses charm as a weapon, so is ideal to set against the surly hero. This develops into much more than just a case of Get Carcer. Luckily for the hero, limited help arrives in the form of History Monks (Central Characters in The Thief of Time story). The whole thing is technically their fault of course, so they are repairing their own damage. and so for Sam Vimes A policeman's lot is not a happy one. The Monks lot however is an urban garden of tranquillity, (despite the rubbish people keep slinging over the fence.)

At the begining of the Novel we find that Vimes misses the old days of being an officer on the beat. Success and promotion has made him a manage
r. and This surely echoes Pratchett's own experiences with his transformation from a small town journalist to a global business juggernaut. (He holds so many book signings it's amazing there's time to write anything at all.) I personally think Pratchett identifies with Vimes more than any other character. (and it shows in the writing of any novel involving Sam Vimes. He always seems to bring out the best from Pratchett.) A journalist or a watchman pounding the streets, learning the lighter and darker aspects of the human animal. Both love their work, are aware of their responsible position in cultural life and if plonked down in a new environment would soon gravitate back to being in charge. Terry Pratchett generates enormous publicity and then, like unpretentious Sir Sam Vimes, refuses to believe it.

Pratchett is a great humanist author who loves to explore the "little arrangements" of bureaucracy, the bribes and temporary allegiances that all seem to be needed to make human society work. He champions the small man. The cog in the machine. (The cog that doesn't really fit and makes a funny noise. A critic once decried his brand of fantasy because "the elves don't sing" Pratchett replied that if all elves sing he'd certainly want to write about the tone deaf one.)

The comedy is overflowing in this Book but it comes from situational parody instead of jokes which just seems to make it all the funnier. And there's No judgements or generalisations, no honour in fighting, no shame in depravation, just the grind of life.

This is most definetly book designed to let the author's favourite character run free. With a plot designed to remove the baggage of success previous stories have burdened him with and let Pratchett finally be interesting again. and the great news is, It works. This novel really has got everything - even a comic gravedigger and so all in all I must say it's a truly enjoya
ble read indeed, it will have you laughing, it`ll have you crying, but most of all it'll have you reading right thru to the last page before you can put it down..

I don`t want to spoil things by using quotes from the books (as reading them for the first time and falling out of your chair laughing is half the fun of reading a Discworld Novel.) As I said before you can read this book without reading any of the other Discworld novels though it`d be a bit of a tough introduction. (I mean there`s 26 books before this one, and I recommend reading most of them..) The Night Watch Is most definetly a good sign for the future for Pratchett fans everywhere and proves there?s most definetly life in the old turtle yet.

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