Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett

Advantages: Excellent Story, Amazing Characters
Disadvantages: None

Title: - Guards! Guards! Author: - Terry Pratchett Publisher: - Corgi IBSN: -0 552 13462 7 The Ankh-Morpork city night watch is not as big or as dedicated as it used to be. In fact, it is now down to just three men. The very disgruntles Captain Samuel Vimes, heads up the night watch. It is said that he needs two drinks in order to be as sober as everyone else. Unfortunately he drinks ever so slightly more than to. Next is Sergeant Fred Colon. ...
...spoil any of it. Guards! Guards! at it’s simplest is the story of Good versus Evil, just as any good fantasy novel should be, but it’s also about how one person can control the psyche of others. Whether they mean to or not. The Supreme Grand Master controls the psyche of the people by tapping into their subconscious need to be lead by a king. Ankh-Morpork hasn’t had a king for some decades and is ruled by a Patrician. Carrot infects ... Read review

Advantages: Great characters and story
Disadvantages: none really

...chapter in the Watch series, Guards! Guards! is a whodunit with Discworld written all over it. The plot is suitably complex and introduces the Watch, Ankh-Morpork’s answer to policing and a pretty depressing one at that. There’s Captain Samuel Vimes, a hopeless and cynical drunk looking for a purpose, Sergeant Colon, a man not looking for anything, Corporal Nobbs, a man (probably) with a criminal mind and the new recruit, Lance-constable ...
...and explored. This helps give Guards! Guards! a depth and realism that tend to be lacking in his later novels, where Pratchett seems to write more for his fans, and although the stories are still good, they don’t the same quality than in his earlier efforts. Although Guards! Guards! still retains the trademark Pratchett humour, mostly and happily provided by Nobby and Colon, I feel it is more serious than some of its predecessors. A slight ... Read review

Advantages: Potentially excellent
Disadvantages: Doesn't use its potential

...Well… yes and no. Guards! Guards! begins with Discworld’s tallest dwarf being sent to the city to make his fortune by his parents. We then meet a mysterious secret order intent on conjuring a dragon up so the rightful king will turn up. Everyone knows kings have to fight dragons, y’see. This will also afford the society’s leader to become the new king’s advisor. Only one man can stop them - well, four men. Including ...
...The men are the disenchanted Captain Vimes and his bumbling police officers, who are in the midst of an investigation into a mysterious assailant who just happens to turn his victims into crispy human ashes. The trail leads them to an orang-utan librarian, and the aforementioned woman, Lady Ramkin, who breeds dragons. The most they grow to are 4 feet, which causes a lot of bother. For one, the dragon that is conjured happens to be slightly massive. ... Read review

Advantages: Hilarious, well written, compelling.
Disadvantages: Very hard to put down.

The twin cities of Ankh and Morpork are in peril from a strange cult with intentions of summoning a dragon. And the only people who can stop them are the almost defunct city guards, led by a drunk. Until a stranger comes into town with an unusual birthmark and an old sword... Pratchett, as usual, takes the stereotypes of fantasy and gives them his own brilliant and original twist. The 8th Discworld novel introduces the Guards, and tells how they ...
...going from being a bigger joke than the Guild of Fools and Joculators to the force they become in future books. Some wonderful new characters are here, and the beginning of one of the major Discworld running gags - "Its a million to one chance... but it might just work". It is very hard to review the plot of any Pratchett novel, as there are so many threads going on at once. This combines a detective story, a conspiracy story, a traditional fantasy ... Read review

Advantages: Very enjoyable
Disadvantages: Missing the million to one chance joke out

Guards, Guards is one of my favourite Discworld novels so there was no way I was going to miss the play when it was showing in my home town. The play was adapted from the book by Stephen Brigg's who does a lot of work with Terry Pratchett, the two names are synominous. The story revolves around the summoning of a huge dragon and I did wonder how this would be represented on stage. It was very cleverly done with the use of sound, light and smoke ...
...the interval. The smaller dragon, Errol, who turns out to be the hero, was a cute model which near the end flew over the audience. The characters were very well presented, just how you would expect them to be from reading the book. Death, one of Discworld's most famous characters, was particularly scary and with the right sound effects he even spoke in what you could conceive as capital letters, just like in the book. The play followed the book ... Read review