Guards! Guards! (Discworld Series)

Rating:
Summary: excellent book.
Review: It's a dysc book which means it HAS to be good. the world is losing allot if they let it go out of print! LONG LIVE THE DYSC!

Rating:
Summary: The must read of any Terry Pratchet novels.
Review: If you have ever read any of Terry Pratchett's novels of the "Discworld" you must read Guards, Guards. It's the ulimate "Discworld" introduction. If you have never read any of the "Discworld" novels you must start here. His intellegent humor and wit are unmatched. From exploding dragons to giant dwarfs, this book will have you believing that the world really is flat, or at least wishing Christopher Columbus was wrong. This is where Sci-Fi, Humor, Fantasy and Adventure come together in an addictive way that it will leave you searching out new titles of the "Discworld." Terry Pratchett's style is unmatched and indescribable. You must read it to believe it!!!

Rating:
Summary: well, it's a Pratchett
Review: There was one thing very annoying about this book: I did regret very much, that I hadn't read it before Men at Arms. Even though it's great. Together with Men at Arms it's one of my favourite Discworld novels. I like the discworld novels because I like reading them - they are fun without regard to the plot. Some I like more, some less, but this one even's got a fine plot. Oh, and I DID love the idea of L-Space!

Rating:
Summary: Lighten up your life!
Review: This is typical of Pratchett's taking-the-piss style; the scene about the secret societies and their passwords has me grinnig even as I'm writing this, you can easily see John Cleese getting madder and madder! If this is your first encounter with Terry's books, then read on, if not: I rest my case, you know what to expect

Rating:
Summary: This is THE best Terry Pratchett I know
Review: From the very first page - i.e, the dedication page - you know what's in store. Terry's funny and nail-on-the-head description of guards, mostly doomed to be knocked about by some muscled hero, is so wonderfully funny and yet so brilliantly true-to-life - despite being in set in an 'astral plane that was never meant to fly' - that you can't help reading it right through. I've been a fan of Terry Pratchett since the Light Fantastic and the Colour of Magic came out, and I must say with complete honesty that this is truly the best Discworld novel ever. It doesn't only rely on slapstick and puns, but on witty characterisation, smack-on satire, and immediately-recognisable spoofs. Who needs Hot Shots and Naked Gun?? Terry Pratchett Forever!

Rating:
Summary: Terry Pratchett is the monty python of the literary world.
Review: I remember the first time I read this book. My friend lent it to me going on about how amazing it was. He was right. Terry Pratchett's discworld series is probably the most succesful series of comedy novels ever in the U.K./Ireland/ Australia. They are kind of like Monty Python mixed with Tolkien. They are classified as fantasy but don't let that scare you away. They are just piss takes on modern society and damn it they are funny! I have lent Guards! Guards! to around 12 people. All of them loved it. All of them ran out and borrowed/bought the rest of the discworld series. They are all just so good! I'll tell you how universal they are; My grandmother even likes Discworld novels. Guards! Guards! is about a dwarf who finds out that the reason he is six feet tall is because is human. His name is carrot(because of the shape of his body not the colour of his hair). He joins the Night Watch in Ankh-Morpork. A city where even the thieves have a guild(they give you a reciept). The watch is led my Captain Vimes. A man who drinks to forget about his drinking problem. His fellow guards; Nobby(disqualified from the human race for shoving), and Colon. At the start their only problems are trying to stop Carrot arresting thieves and assasins, and trying to stay upright. But then a dragon comes along and spoils everything... I suggest very strongly you read this book. Then it's sequel Men at Arms. Then ALL the other Discworld novels. You will never look back.

Rating:
Summary: A towring achievement in humour!
Review: Terry Pratchett is in top form with this Discworldnovel. The saga of the hapless Night Watch of Ankh-Morporckis a wondeful story that mixes parody of today's police fiction with a very poignant love story.

Rating:
Summary: Terry Pratchett is the monty python of the literary world.
Review: I remember the first time I read this book. My friend lentit to me going on about how amazing it was. He was right. Terry Pratchett's discworld series is probably the most succesful series of comedy novels ever in the U.K./Ireland/ Australia. They are kind of like Monty Python mixed with Tolkien. They are classified as fantasy but don't let that scare you away. They are just piss takes on modern society and damn it they are funny! I have lent Guards! Guards! to around 12 people. All of them loved it. All of them ran out and borrowed/bought the rest of the discworld series. They are all just so good! I'll tell you how universal they are; My grandmother even likes Discworld novels. Guards! Guards! is about a dwarf who finds out that the reason he is six feet tall is because is human. His name is carrot(because of the shape of his body not the colour of his hair). He joins the Night Watch in Ankh-Morpork. A city where even the thieves have a guild(they give you a reciept). The watch is led my Captain Vimes. A man who drinks to forget about his drinking problem. His fellow guards; Nobby(disqualified from the human race for shoving), and Colon. At the start their only problems are trying to stop Carrot arresting thieves and assasins, and trying to stay upright. But then a dragon comes along and spoils everything... I suggest very strongly you read this book. Then it's sequel Men at Arms. Then ALL the other Discworld novels. You will never look back.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Start for the City Watch Discworld Novels
Review: In my humble opinion, the novels about the city watch are the most consistently excellent subset of the Discworld novels, and well worth reading in order. This is the first, and introduces Vimes, an interesting character destined for great things. This book is also a great introduction to Pratchett's humor; where most fantasy novels would give us impressive, glittering beasts with no grounding in physics, in _Guards! Guards!_ we first meet "real" dragons, the swamp dragons: noisy, gurgling creatures capable of eating anything flammable and producing flame via worrying chemical reactions in their complex, gurgling digestive tracts. Unfortunately this also endows them with an unnerving tendency to explode messily when startled. The "noble dragon," by comparison, summoned by magic, seems rather unreal -- how could a creature that heavy actually fly around? But that is the point: the city watch books are the least magical of the Discworld novels, and this means they are not as outrageously funny as some of the others, but they are the most grounded and convincing satires about _this_ world. We meet Lady Sybil, who will be the great woman behind Vimes, helping him to become a great man, and Carrot, a human raised by dwarves who is an innocent abroad, without prejudices, and an oddly heroic born leader. All together it is quite a mismatched crew, but somehow it all works, and watching the whole crew lurch to life is entrancing.

Rating:
Summary: It's a million-to-one chance, but it might just work!
Review: In some ways, it's undoubtedly easier to keep track of events in Discworld if you read Pratchett's books in order, but jumping back and forth in the series is probably more in the spirit of things. This one is the first to feature the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork, Capt. Sam Vimes commanding. I had just finished reading *The Fifth Elephant*, written more than a decade later, and I have to say there are a few continuity errors -- but who cares. Here, we get to observe Vimes's first meeting with Lady Sybil Ramkin, breeder of swamp dragons and his future spouse, and we get some insight into the personality of the Librarian of Unseen University. We also meet Carrot, the six-and-a-half-foot-tall adopted dwarf, on his first introduction to the Watch. We see just how thorough and careful a hold Lord Vetinari has on the city. And we learn about the actual workings of dragons, how they create that fiery breath and so forth -- and why they so often have an abbreviated life span. As always, the author combines peculiarly bent Brit humor with a wise and witty take on serious social issues (in this case, the tendency of the People to go along with the loss of their own freedoms in embracing monarchy). However, as a lifelong librarian myself, I'm annoyed that Pratchett saw fit to reveal to the uninitiated the nature of L-space.