When Sir Terry Pratchett passed away in March 2015, the literary world lose one of its brightest and
finest authors. Terry Pratchett was a prolific author. He was most
well known for his works on Discworld novels, a critically
acclaimed fantasy series. For almost 3 decades, Discworld
novels charmed legions of readers with good humor, memorable
characters, and compelling stories.
Up to date, there are 40 Discworld
novels. Each novel is a stand-alone story. This means, a new comer to
Discworld can pick up any book in the series and still enjoy
it. Within Discworld series, there are several “minor
series”. Out of these “minor series”, the Ankh-Morpork City
Watch series is the fan favorite.
Last year, I read every Discworld novel
featuring Death and I loved them all. So I was super excited when I began
to read Guards! Guards!. This is the 8th entry in
Discworld series, and the first book featuring the
Ankh-Morpork city watch.
Guards! Guards! is 350 pages in
length, and I read it in 2 sittings because this book is so enjoyable
that's hard to put down. Today, I would like to provide a review for
this book.
Synopsis:
Here be dragons....
On our home, the third rock from the
sun, dragons are very popular. They make regular appearances in books
and folklore. Everyone knows what a dragon is. In our earthly stories, spawned from the well of human imaginations, these giant reptiles are often associated with the business
of fire-breathing and wreaking havoc. But do you know, dragons literally exist on Discworld?
In fact, Ankh-Morpork, the proudest
city on Discworld is about to be invaded by a 60 feet long,
fire-breathing dragon. The city's last hope lies in a small band of
unlikely heroes known as the City Watch. Together with a few brave
denizens of Ankh-Morpork, Captain Vimes, Constable Carrot and the
rest of the City Watch set out on a mission to free their beloved
city from the tyranny of the fiery dragon.
My thoughts on this book:
Guards! Guards! is a great book.
What I like the most about this book, is the the superb
worldbuilding. Let me explain. This book is set in the fantastical city of
Ankh-Morpork, which is supposed to be a parallel for London. Under
Terry Pratchett's pen, Ankh-Morpork came to life, buzzing with
activities and interesting people. The excellent worldbuilding in
this book warrants an immersive reading experience.
Like most Discworld novels,
Guards! Guards! features a cast of eccentric, comical
characters who
Meanwhile, plenty of spotlight was cast
on Constable Carrot. A new recruit to the City Watch, Carrot is the
adopted son of a mountain dwarf king. He is a direct and honest bloke
not used to the ways of a big city such as Ankh-Morpork, where greed
and jealousy are normalized, and people desensitized to the bending
of the laws . Based on this premise, Terry Pratchett created a satire
out of these sad realizations, inviting his readers to confront the
unpleasant realities about the human world as we laugh along a series
of comedic episodes, build on well-crafted parodies of fantasy
tropes.
I remember putting down this book and
thought, there are many things in our society that aren't right,
and I often feel helpless to do anything about it. Sometimes, the
only way to demonstrate the absurdity of a wrongful thing is to ridicule it.
And frankly, no one does this better than Terry Pratchett. In some
ways, it feels like his books are speaking for me. This is why I like
his books so much.
My most favorite Discworld novel
is Small Gods, followed by Reaper Man. But Guards!
Guards! definitely comes in the top 5. This book is funny, yet
meaningful. The characters are impressionable and likable, while the
writings will draw you deeply into this fantastic world. Furthermore,
I think for new comers to Discworld, Guards! Guards! is
an excellent starting point to begin your adventure in Discworld. So, gentle readers, I highly recommend this
book, it will not disappoint you.
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