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Night Watch (Fantastic Audio Series)

Night Watch (Fantastic Audio Series)

List Price: $40.00
Your Price: $29.51
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: tripping over the past
Review: Once again Terry Pratchett has written a masterpiece. This time it is about the commander of the watch going back in time trying to catch a killer and running into himself as a young copper. Because he has gone back into time, Vimes has to set the past right again or risk damaging the future. The reader gets to meet many of the beloved cast of characters that have emerged from the diskworld series over the last twenty years. The reader meets everyone from Nobby to the Patrician as a young man.

The book is as funny as always although it does have that serious undertone that Pratchett has developed over the last couple of years. He explains the reasons to be honest when everyone else is crooked and some of the bad guys get their comeuppance in the usual ways. This is a great book for the Pratchett fanatic, but not for the new reader because there is too much to miss by not knowing the characters from the earlier books. Read the older ones first and you will love the action in this new one. Highly reccommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Worth staying up all night to read
Review: Pratchett's latest Discworld installment neatly ties in the time monks from the previous novel and with his overtly satirical mind he proceeds to delve into quantum physics with a sense of irony that is as subtle as it is brilliant. This time Sam Vimes is our protagonist, the brassed and reluctantly polished watch Commander sidetracked during a routine meeting with Lord Vetinari into a copper-roots level chase across the Unseen University rooftops after a murderer by the name of Carcer. During the storm-tossed chase he falls with Carcer into a rift in the time continuum and finds himself back in time with the villain in Ankh-Morpork just as hise younger self was making his first forays into the Watch. All of which gives Pratchett the perfect excuse to dredge up a whole lot of new characters and still remain in his glorious Discworld capital.
Once Lse-Tsu, the Sweeper, has explained the science behind the events Vimes (now known as John Keel) finds he has four days in which to educate his younger self and locate and take Carcer back with him, all before the revolution. However, he has the major advantage of a)being intelligent, b)knowing all about what should happen. So he inveigles his way into becoming a Nightwatch sergeant-at-arms, promptly shakes up the accepted corruption within its ranks and then sets off on his mission. Fairly quickly he manages to upset the course of history by ensuring the Morphic Street Conspiracy didn't end in a massacre before realising that Captain Swing of the Unmentionables has now recruited Carcer as a sergeant.
We plung headfirst into his efforts to ensure that the Treacle Mine Watch House doesn't get burned in the general looting and his struggle to create a sphere of normality in the revolution to prevent the amount of historical deaths his future self knows happened. He manages to gain revenge on the Unmentionables down in Cable Street, all the whilst keeping his younger self by his side gaining valuable experience. Eventually it all resolves itself in a manner that is truly remarkable and we see a side of an older and more anarchic Ankh-Morpork in the process.
We get to see glorious cameos from younger selves throughout. The ones that stick in the memory are: Vetinari's unfazable younger self as an assassin in training, the street urchin, Nobby Nobbs, Fred Colon and a superb pre-'Cut-Me-Own'Throat' Dibbler. All of which lends itself to a Discworld novel back to its very best. The previous offering tended to flounder a little in the sheer volume of irony and satire at Pratchett's potential disposal and ended up being a trifle blunt, but this volume returns our author to the safe Night Watch which have such brilliant characters. Given the next two also focus on them, it means the latest installments are a must read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Loved it
Review: This is mainly a book for the die hard fans of Discworld. As one reader commented here, the cameos and some briefly seen characters are mostly enjoyed by those who have already met them.
I personally love Vimes, even back when he was portayed as a drunk (Guards! Guards!), I feel he is a very human hero (and cynical, disgruntled, rumpled, etc.).
In this book Pratchett delves into destiny, fate and the individual, something he had not done since "Small Gods" and carries it out succesfully. I look forward to his next book.
I agree this might not be the best book to start the series with but there are plently of others to chose from. Just pick one.
For new readers I say: "What are you waiting for?! Get yourself into gear and visit Discworld"
For the die hards: "Aren't we lucky? Pratchett continues writing for us."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not as humorous as previous Pratchett books
Review: With Terry Pratchett as my favorite author, I really looked forward to Night Watch, especially since out of Pratchett's wide range of characters and character settings, my favorite is about the men, troll, dwarves, werewolf, etc, in the nightwatch division of the police force. It is so easy to escape into a Pratchett book, with the characterizations so well done and the humor intoxicating. I would recommend Jingo, Men at Arms, or Feet of Clay over Night Watch though. It was not as humorous as I would have liked, except for the parts with Nobby Nobbs as a young street urchin. Those parts were excellent! Overall, the book is a good fantasy with Vimes going back in time and seeing things from a slightly differnet perspective than he had experienced them before. Cleverly written, just not quite the caliber of previous books. Still very much worth reading.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Night Watch review by Tom
Review: Let me start this review by saying we (the American Terry Pratchett fans/buyers) are being cheated. That's right, cheated. It seems that over in jolly old England they get really, really bloody cool covers for their Discworld books. We get stupid, stylized (spelling?) covers over here. They get the books first there, too. Which is why the last couple of Pratchett books I bought (Last Hero, Thief of Time) online have been from Amazon UK. Thanks to the exchange rate, I have actually gotten the books cheaper, too!
Anyway, my review. This is a great read. It is hard to put down once you stop. Pratchett is on his game, again. This is not one of the wizard series where anything can happen and it is a laugh a minute. The book has its laughs, boy does it ever. But a lot are actually mean, kind of in your face laughs. It is a Night Watch book. By their nature (crimes, Ank-Morpork at night!) they have to be kind of dark, mean little books.
Sam Vines, on his way to a ceremony, gets pulled into the chase of the city's most notorious (only because the city knows about him) criminal, Carcer. Seems Carcer has just killed a member of the Watch. During the chase Vimes and Carcer get sent back to AnkMorpork of twenty years ago. A dark, dreary, dirty place, good old AnkMorpork! Vimes takes the place of his mentor and, while trying to catch Carcer must: teach the fresh, green Lance Constable Sam Vimes how to be a 'good' copper; lead the watch; and fight a rebellion. All while trying not to change history! Of course he knows what happens and so does Carcer. Carcer, however doesn't care about the future and attempts to change the future by killing the past which is now the present which will only lead to the future. Got it? Want a smoke and a tea while you think about it and then re-read it?
We get to see the original members of the Watch before they became 'honest' coppers: Ned Coates, Nobby, Reg. There are no Trolls, Dwarves, Werwolves, Vampires. Uberwald is not even talked about, the wizards are not fun. This is old AnkMorpork.
Buy the book (either the US or UK version) read it, then re-read the many sections you didn't get the first read through, and anjoy another great Pratchett book!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.....
Review: A Tale of Two Cities falls through a crack in the space time continuum and lands in the hands of a very strange librarian. One with orange hair. All over. I have read as much Terry Pratchett as I could get hold of. No, this is not like his other books (with the possible exception of Maurice and His Educated Rats). Both have a stream of darkness running through them which lends them a totally different flavor (air, ambiance, meaning?) I have just finished reading this book again and I have to say that I think it is one of his finest. "I laughed, I cried, I fell down...." Get this book and read it. Then read it again. It grows on you. Sort of like Nobby. Of course, Nobby looks like all sorts of things grow on him...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Stuck Somewhere Between Funny and Serious
Review: hile his wife is in labor, Vimes chases an arch-criminal and is accidentally thrown backwards through time, where he meets his younger self, taking on the role of an unsung hero of one of the revolutions in Ankh-Morpork. We meet a young Patrician and Nobby. The Monks of Time make cameos, but are under-used. This book is more serious than the usual Discworld novel and contains a lot of meditation on the nature of duty, responsibility, and heroism. It would seem that a whole book going deep into Vimes' past and psychology would be interesting, but I agree with one of the reviewers on Amazon; if you already know Vimes, you'll find that he never really surprises you in this book. I'd rate it 4 if it were either funnier OR a better serious novel; attempting to be both just leaves it adrift. As in a lot of Pratchett, many scenes in this story cry out for a stronger sense of place and evocative detail; there's too much telling and not enough showing. Not a good introduction to Discworld or the Watch sequence.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I didn't know a Discworld book could be this good...
Review: ...without Rincewind. Rincewind is definity my favorite, but this book clearly proves that all of his books are awesome. I'm a huge fan of Discworld. I am slowly collecting all of Terry Prachett's books, and his writing couldn't be more enjoyable. I was looking for a good Discworld novel to give to a friend, so I started reading Night Watch, to see if it would make a good gift for a fellow Discworld addict. It blew me away! Vimes is truly a spectacular character. The comedy in the book is outstanding, and the plot is superior, e.g. Qu of the Time Monks making the technology. If you haven't read any of his other books, you should not read this one, for it builds off his other work. But if you are an addict like I am, BUY THIS BOOK!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing
Review: I love Terry Pratchett. This book is not like most of his other ones, but it is good all the same. It is very dark and has a strong message. Don't expect this book to be like all the other Terry Pratchett books, but I recomend it all the same.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: This is not Pratchett
Review: This is a strange book, quite good, but it reads like well-informed fan fiction, not at all like Terry Pratchett himself (i have read all of the Discworld series, some titles several times over).
The style is dry, the characters non-developed, the pacing and structure do not have the same feel as other works, and it lots of ways this story is flavorless.
It doesn't feel right....


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