Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 403
Publication Year: 1989
Publisher: Harper
Summary: A dragon puts the wreak in havoc as it arrives in the city of Anhk-Morpork.
This book is exactly what I needed. A fun, fast, unique, fantasy read with memorable characters, a wacky city and a cool plot.
I made a slight mistake of reading this sub-series out of order. I started with Night Watch and then read the last two in the City Watch sub-series. When I read those I knew I was missing inside jokes and the history of these characters, but my library didn’t have this book so I let it go. Now I use a different library and I intend to read all of the City Watch books.
What set Pratchett apart from regular fantasy writers was his use of humor. Nothing was described, talked about or narrated without some form of humor. That’s not to say you’ll be roaring with laughter on every page nor am I saying it’s the kind of humor everyone loves, but it’s so good and seems effortless. I don’t know of any other author who could inject the same humor into their work and get away with it. I know Pratchett wrote in the sub-genre of comedic fantasy so of course it’d be weird to have Martin or Rothfuss mimicking his style. And that’s the thing: it was Pratchett’s style. I’ve only read one book of his not set in Discworld (Good Omens, co-written with Neil Gaiman) but I could still see marks of his signature humor in that too. Pratchett could get away with ridiculous levels of comedy without making me roll my eyes.
I never felt beaten over the head with the humor. And sometimes it could sound perfectly innocuous but leave me in tears.
My man Vimes. He’s great. Such a delightfully unusual protagonist who’s older, practical, and not bogged down by cheap drama. So what if he’s a bit of drunk, doesn’t follow the law and isn’t brilliant. He’s grounded, protects his city in his own way, and is far removed from the majority of other “heroes” who do it for the glory. He’s a no nonsense kind of guy.
His men (I use the term loosely) added their own brand of comedy and depth. They’re also not bright or particularly talented but they do their best with what is handed them and can sometimes not make a mess of things. Even when they made mistakes I didn’t give a sigh of longsuffering at their ineptitude; instead I’d wonder how they’d wriggle out of this new situation.
Carrot gets introduced in this book and he is such a good “gentle” giant. He wants to follow the rulebook and gets in trouble because the city of Anhk-Morpork thrives on monetizing and encouraging crime. And yet he’s reminding Vimes and his men that they should perhaps remember it’s the law they should uphold and not the lawless.
I know where Sybil’s and Vimes’ relationship is going, so to see it at its inception is the sweetest thing. She’s an out-of-touch-with-the-real-world dragon breeder who can be a damsel in distress, useful, and flirtatious, all without overshadowing Vimes. I’ve heard a tv show is in the works and I’m very concerned about how they’ll portray Sybil. I can just see them making her a skinny black feminist who insists on saving herself and degrading Vimes at every turn. It makes my toes curl just to think it.
The villain of the story didn’t feel like your average fantasy baddy. He didn’t have the “I’ll enslave the world and make it burn” mentality nor did he slimily creep around whispering insidiously close to your ear. It’s nice not to have a rotten person dangling his triumphs in front of the helpless protagonist.
It took me about a hundred pages to really get in the swing of things. There are several POVs and it dispensed with chapters in favor of a simple break in text, with a POV lasting not much more than ten pages. I had trouble putting it down as I’d frequently think, “Just one more perspective.”
Another note on the humor: I didn’t expect him to reference Dirty Harry or Casablanca, but I didn’t bat an eye when it happened. He also employed subtler aspects of humor like capitalizing words that aren’t normally capitalized and misspelling words or having characters misspell words.
Why not five stars? There were parts that didn’t jive with me. When the perspective wasn’t on Vimes or his men I got a teensy bit irritated. Not that those parts were unimportant or badly written, I just prefer Vimes and his men. And it did take me quite a while to become fully invested.
Onto the next one.
Check out my rating here.
Men at Arms review.
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