Night Watch

Exquisite. Sir Terry at his finest: ironic, insightful, chiding, and above all suffused with kindness. Gently pushing us toward better versions of ourselves. His characters are decent humans, imperfect, making the best out of impossible situations. How would you and I react in those circumstances? I know I'd fall short, today, but maybe I can strive to be better tomorrow.Note to those unfamiliar with Sir Terry: you could conceivably start with this one, but you will get much more out of it if you've read [b:Small Gods 34484 Small Gods (Discworld, #13) Terry Pratchett https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390899426s/34484.jpg 1636629], the Death series, and other City Watch novels. (See the reading order guide for a helpful diagram). That's a lot to ask; I think it helped my appreciation and I encourage you to consider it.

This is one of Pratchett's best books. Although he's thought of as a comedian, it's also one of his most serious books.

His main regular hero, Samuel Vimes, is thrown back in time about thirty years, to the darker days of his own youth, when Ankh-Morpork was ruled by a paranoid tyrant and was about to rebel. It's a dangerous, almost lawless place, and this is an edgy, absorbing story, hard to put down; it won the Prometheus Award in 2003, which must have come as a bit of a surprise.

It's interesting to fill in some of the history of Ankh-Morpork and to meet various familiar characters when they were young.

I deduct a star for Pratchett's tendency to moralize, which I find a bit intrusive, and for the business with the monks, which I think could have been handled more briefly and neatly (or perhaps even completely omitted).

Terry Pratchett has a tendency, especially in his later books, to make points about morality and politics, which I think a novelist should try to make in a more inconspicuous manner. Furthermore, I have the impression that he has strong opinions about decency but lacks a well-defined ideology and morality. On the political front especially, he dodges the question by conveniently providing his modern Ankh-Morpork with a relatively benign dictator aided by a chief of police with a heart of gold (Samuel Vimes). This is a good solution only if such unlikely people manage to work their way to the top. When they die, what then?

Broke my heart just as much as when first read ths as a kid.

Haven't really liked the other time travel/loop plots (Last Continent, Thief Of Time) but this one knocked it out of the park. There were no “just because” plot points, it was coherent and I was fully invested.

Tension feels like its reaching a crescendo fairly early on on the book and it really has you on edge for the whole ride. I felt as tired as the protags by the end of it.

Highlights for me was Comrade Shoe trying to spread communism, and his death scene.