Night Watch

Rating:
Summary: A good read, but it's been done before
Review: Overall this is a good book. The characters are interesting, and I definately loved seeing the young versions of some of my old favorites. However, I couldn't help but feel that a lot of this novel was just a rehash of some of Pratchett's earlier works. The whole rebellion thing, for example, is very familiar to the events of "Men At Arms" where Carott turns the Watch into a makeshift militia. Still, I enjoyed reading this book, and I would definately recommend it to any fans of the series (like you haven't already pre-ordered it).

Rating:
Summary: Discworld Rides Again
Review: Night watch is, in many ways, a prequel to the other night watch novels. It has many familiar characters as well as some of their 30 years ago selfs, including Fred Colon, Nobby Nobbes, Reg Barclay, Havelock Vetinari, and even a younger Sam Vimes. There are also numerous new characters of interest. And then there are those madcap Monks of History.

Sam Vines, now Duke and Commander of the night watch, is accidently conveyed into the past while chasing a cold-blooded cop killer. Vimes is injuried and both he and the killer are snatched up by a time storm and land in the Shades of 30 years past. Vimes has been knocked out by the time travel experience and is robbed while unconscious. He is found by one of Anhk-Morpork's street seamstresses and taken to a pox doctor for treatment. Upon awakening, Vimes hides his own name, taking the identity of John Keel. Then he tries to find the watch house and his own home with confusing results.

After floundering around, he realizes his situation and tries to contact the wizards at Unseen University in order to be returned home, but is arrested by the night watch for disturbing the peace. Later, he discovers that Keel is a former watchman from Pseudopolis who was planning on becoming an Ankh-Morpork night watchman, but who was killed immediately upon arrival. Vimes convinces the captain that he is the real John Keel and is hired on as Sergeant-at-arms, thereby becoming the second-in-command of the night watch.

As usual, Pratchett takes a serious plot, adds zany twists and nontraditional characters, and then mixes in philosophic observations on thinly disguised modern foibles. At one point, I laughed so hard that I couldn't read and, for several minutes, I couldn't even look at the page without re-triggering the laughter. Luckily, I was reading in bed rather than in a chair.

Selection of the best Discworld novel would be very difficult; Night Watch is just as good as the previous books, but is it better? Since I have enjoyed each one in the series after multiple readings, maybe whichever you are currently reading is the best at that time.

If you are a Discworld fan, you will enjoy this book. And if you are not a Discworld fan, what is keeping you; go out and buy The Color of Magic and start the experience. Let the laughter begin.

Rating:
Summary: Splendid Pratchett
Review: If you're already a Pratchett fan, this book will give you an opportunity to see some of the most prevalent characters in their younger years, something I found delightful. If you're new, this book is a great way to get hooked, as it supplies enough basic information about the previous books that one can keep up.

My favorite set of characters is the Watch, so reading about the city in it's more corrupted days, when Vetinari and Vimes are just boys, really-- is grand.

I read this book in one sitting.

Rating:
Summary: Vimes: Redux
Review: His Grace The Duke and Commander of the City Watch of Ankh Morpork, Sir Samuel Vimes is an angry man. He's angry because the world which never seems to conform to his sense of what is right and wrong. But this sense of justice has driven him and his organization, the Watch, to become the premier law-keeping force in the city, so respected that they have become grudgingly accepted as a normal part of the city's functions.

Yet things were different once. Once the Watch was split into two - Day and Night Watches. Both were havens for misfits and losers. Once the Night Watch was an inept one - afraid of the shadows in the dark. Once Vimes was no more than another copper, trying his best not to see the things that were wrong with his city. Things were different once.

In the present, Vimes is called away as his wife is giving birth. The Watch is closing in a dangerous psychopath, a cop killer, a brutal and calculating murderer and Vimes needs to be there to arrest him. But there is a storm brewing, and as Vimes faces down the fugitive, there is a lightning strike that hits both men. And they vanish.

Vimes finds himself 30 years in past, facing an uncertain future. For the fugitive has escaped and murdered Sgt. John Keel, the younger Vimes' mentor. To preserve the future, Vimes must masquerade as the dead sergeant and must teach his younger self how to be a policeman, in the eve of a bloody revolution. But Vimes remembers how the past will turn out and he finds himself having to make a choice: if he changes stops innocent men from getting killed in the revolution, he will change his future. But if he does this, he will never get back to his wife and never see his unborn child. Because if he changes the past, there will be no future for him, nothing but a lost memory.

Grittier than most of the Guards series, this new entry spoofs elements of time travel in movies including Terminator series, the Back to the Future trilogy as well as the more classic "Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. As with the rest of the Discworld series, Terry Pratchett once again merges humor and intelligent satire with a pragmatic but optimistic view of humanity. Pratchett's trademark tongue-in-cheek wit is still prevalent, but it's far more subdued than usual. However, long time readers will appreciate the first glimpses of such characters as Reg Shoe, CMOT Dibbler, Nobby Nobbs, Fred Colon and the deliciously machievellian Vetinari. In any event, even new readers could appreciate the tightly drawn plot of a man trying to do the right thing in the middle fo revolution. All in all, a heartily recommended read and another fine addition to the Pratchett pantheon.

Rating:
Summary: The Zen of Time Travel and Revolutionary Parody...
Review: While Terry Pratchett is always funny - and one of the wittiest writers in fantasy (if not all of publishing) - many of his last ten books seem a little short of the sparkle that his earlier work had. This is certainly not a problem for "Night Watch", though. In fact, it's his very return to many of his old formulas that, surprisingly, makes it such a success.

As with all the Discworld books, "Night Watch" takes three or four popular themes in literature - or fiction or science fiction or whatever - and plays with them and their conventions. For this book, he's taken the idea of everybody's reminiscences of the 'good old days', time travel stories (especially those like "Back to the Future") and revolutions (specifically the French Revolution and at least a couple of Roman revolutions I can think of). All of this is, of course, woven into the story of Sam Vimes, Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, being thrown back in time thirty years to a pivotal revolution in the city when he was just starting as a recruit.

All the stereotypes are there: from the dingy, cowardly watchmen that he must whip into shape to the know-it-all monitoring wise people (monks, in this case) and the young versions of many of the other Ankh-Morpork denizens we've met in the past five Watch books. What really makes this great, though, is that he has fun with all of these stereotypes and still manages to tell a story that's both engaging and like going back to visit old friends (albeit cowardly, somewhat-corrupt ones).

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to the Terry Pratchett fan as well as to the fantasy fan or even just the humor fan. While going back to "Guards! Guards!" (the first Discworld book about the Watch) may be helpful for those of you that aren't familiar with the series, it's still strong enough that it can hold it's own. If "Night Watch" is your first Terry Pratchett book, you may miss a lot of the references, but you'll still be in for an excellent read.

Rating:
Summary: WWVD?
Review: As some astute readers have figured out by now, the title of this review is What Would Vimes Do? That is, What Would he Do if he was thrust immediately thirty years into the past, on the cusp of a great tragedy that he already survived once? This book deals with exactly that scenario. As previous reviewers have said, this book is far more serious than Pratchett's usual fare. However, that does not mean it is not funny. It is lacking much of the lowbrow, slapstick humor that acts as a "lowest common denominator" of humor in other Pratchett books, but his characteristic intelligent, satirical wit is alive and well, and uproariously funny. The book deals mainly with powerful themes: responsibility being the preeminent one. Responsibility to a community, to a society, to one's self. Prathcett goes deep here; the book left me thinking. The chracters are not developed as much as in other books, but since there are very few new ones (and the biggest new character is extremely, spookily well developed) this is no great loss to old readers of Pratchett works. To new fans, I would recommend Mort, Guards! Guards!, or Pyramids as a first read; progress to this one later.

Rating:
Summary: Pratchett Pulls off Seriousness Mixed with Humor
Review: The novel, Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, may not be a Shakespearian tragedy, but the books concept along with Pratchett's wit and humor make it well worth reading. Night Watch is one of Pratchett's Discworld novels. It tells the story of Commander Sam Vimes of the city watch. Vimes goes back in time and is forced to go back in time to revisit one of the dark parts of his life, when he was just starting out as an officer of the night watch, only this time his current self must play the role of the sergeant that taught him everything. Since Vimes already knows what is going to happen he has a lot of trouble figuring out what actions to take as he finds that it's harder to fix history than he thought. Vimes has the constant longing for his future, "He wanted to go home. He wanted it so much that he trembled at the thought" (273). And he fears that his actions in the past might change his future.
Pratchett's excellent writing style held up to this slightly more serious book than he usually writes. Although Vimes's observations of the world around him do provide ample humor, Night Watch does have a more serious aspect to it, since Vimes is trying to ensure that his past self survives and that the future he left behind will not end up to only be a memory. It makes a person really examine his or her own past and realize how important the people in your life now matter to you. Pratchett skillfully weaves in this more serious side of the story with his usual assortments of puns, plays on words, and jokes. Pratchett really examines how hard it is to let the mistakes of the past happen all over again when Vimes is confronted with the choice of letting seven men die or trying to find a new past which may lead to a new future, "Supposing we don't lose? All they had to do was hold out...And there's seven unfilled graves in the cemetery...Would he be able to go back then? Supposing Madam was right, and he got offered the post of commander not as a bribe but because he'd earned it? That'd change history" (p273). Vimes has to wonder if taking the harder road of defending his men to try and keep them from being killed will end up erasing his happy future as a Duke with a loving wife, but his sense of humanity predetermines the choice he must make. This is one of the better parts of Pratchett's writing style, that his characters have such set, strong personalities that they never disappoint. Although Pratchett's endings are not always the perfect Disney endings where the charming prince marries the damsel in distress, the prince's squire will probably end up saving her and finding a suitable place for her to live.
The novel, Night Watch, is sometimes confusing. That is one down fall of Pratchett's writing style. His characters are so well developed that in order for his books to keep from being predictable, his plot lines tend to be interesting, but fast moving and at times confusing. For instance from the beginning of the book to page fifty seven, the character of Vimes is knocked out and wakes up again several times. This can be confusing because Pratchett does not explain Vimes' passing out very much, or always give a cause for it immediately, making it hard for the reader to determine what happened and where Vimes is. Also since during most of the book there are two Vimes, past and future Vimes, it can sometimes be confusing who Pratchett is talking about, "Vimes patted the man's belt. `Oh dear, what have we here a very nasty dagger. See this, Lance Constable Vimes?" (p138). It gets complicated since Vimes usually uses his last name when referring to his past self, while Pratchett always refers to Vimes' future self as Vimes as well and referring to past Vimes as Sam, and future Vimes is calling himself John Keel. When reading sometimes it take a moment to remember which one is being referred to.
Despite the slight confusion, the book is very well written. His characters are well developed, and his plot lines are fun and interesting. If you enjoy any of his other books about the Ankh-Morpork city watch or if you found one of his other Disk world novels too slow of a read, I would highly recommend reading Night Watch.


Rating:
Summary: A Light Novel Sprinkled with Deep Messages
Review:
Night Watch is a funny novel filled with serious messages. The book is reminiscent of Joseph Heller's Catch 22 and Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales in that it is trying to convey the author's opinion on things that happen in their respective worlds. However, all three of these books mask their opinion (frequently criticism) with an amusing plot.

The beginning of Night Watch introduces us to the character of Sam Vimes. It is the eve of the thirtieth anniversary of a small but memorable revolution. Sam Vimes is the Commander of Ankh-Morpork's City Watch. Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city in Pratchett's fantasy world, Discworld. Vimes is a practical "copper" (policeman). He bends the rules when he needs to, and heeds them when he doesn't need to bend them. For instance, he isn't afraid to fight dirty, with brass knuckles and such. The criminals he's fighting do it, so "fight fire with fire". He's not afraid of taking risks, especially when those risks can further a good cause. In fact, he showed annoyance at being taken off the Assassins Guild's register, "it [being on the register] showed that he was annoying the rich and arrogant people who ought to be annoyed." Vimes also won't hesitate to chase after a murderous criminal himself, even if he is the Commander of the City Watch. Vimes is obviously one of those characters that feel he has ascended too far, and he yearns to go back to the time when he was doing the dirty work on the streets; not sitting at his desk pushing papers. Ironically, his wish is granted. On his ill-fated chase after the homicidal criminal, Carcer, on the eve of the revolution, Vimes is transported back in time thirty years, along with Carcer. Vimes is also aware of the events that will occur in the near future. Many unnecessary deaths occurred as a result of the revolution. And so he is faced with a hard choice. Does he allow things to occur the same way they did the first time around, which will allow him to come back to the future he once knew? Or does he change things, and prevent the needless deaths of some of his compatriots? Does he even have a choice? Or has the path of fate already been laid out?

Terry Pratchett is no stranger to fantasy books. Night Watch is one of Pratchett's thirty Discworld novels, which are all fantasy books set in the same world with the same characters. All of his books have a purpose, and using Discworld, Pratchett has said many things about the state of our world. In Night Watch, this is most certainly the case. Pratchett tells us his thoughts on revolutions and social unrest. The book is written in the third-person, but it is focused on one central character...Sam Vimes. Pratchett uses Vimes and the plot around him to portray his own personal beliefs. For example, on page 249 he writes, "...Some had been idiots as mad as Swing, with a view of the world just as rigid and unreal, who were on the side of what they called `The People.' Vimes had spent his life on the streets and had met decent men, and fools, and people who'd steal a penny from a blind beggar... but he'd never met The People. People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case...And so, the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people." This is one of the few occasions in which Pratchett actually spells out his beliefs for the reader. Most of the time, you are meant to discern it from the actions and words of the fictional characters in the fictional plot.

Because of this, Night Watch is a versatile book in terms of reading level. It is a light and amusing read if you want it to be, and this is perfectly all right. However, if you aspire to, you can choose to truly think about what's happening in the book, and try to connect the events occurring in this fictional world to events that occur in our world. Much of the material in the book can be related to revolutions like the French Revolution of the late 18th century and the Russian Revolution of the 20th century.

Night Watch is a thoroughly enjoyable book with a fabulous balance of laughter and serious contemplation. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading in general and feels the need for a split side combined with a splitting headache!





Rating:
Summary: I highly recommend this book!
Review: This is the twenty-ninth (if I counted correctly!) book in Terry Pratchett's series on the Discworld - a flat world, supported on the backs of four massive elephants riding on the back of a planet-sized turtle. Anything hilarious can happen here, and eventually does.

In this book, Sir Samuel Vimes, Commander of the Watch pursues a homicidal cop-killer, only to find the both of them thrown back in time to just before a revolution in Ankh-Morpork. Finding himself playing the role of a sergeant who taught him everything that he knows, Sam must train a young lance-constable Sam Vimes, steer the Night Watch correctly through a time of great danger, and (not least) keep himself alive, all while not changing history...at least much.

This is another great Discworld book, one of my favorites. As with many of the later Terry Pratchett books, this one is not laugh-out-loud funny like the early ones were. I mean, it is quite funny, but even more so, this is a suspenseful book that is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. The characters are fascinating, and the plot is great! Plus, I must say that I liked seeing so many Discworld characters as younger versions of themselves - including Fred Colon, Nobby Nobbes, a still-living Reg Shoe, and even Havelock Vetinari, a rising star in the Assassins Guild.

So, if you like the Discworld books in general, then be assured that this is one of the greats. I highly recommend this book!


Rating:
Summary: If you like Sam Vimes, you'll like this book
Review: I love Terry Pratchett. I've been reading him in chronological order and his writing gets better with every book. Night Watch is well written and features one of his more interesting characters, Sam Vimes. However, we see very little of the other lovable Watch characters in this book, since it's set in the past when Vimes was young. I didn't feel the villain was strong enough for Vimes, a formidable hero, which always makes a book's plot suffer. It also gets politically confusing at times and a subplot with Vetinari goes completely unsolved. This book is also not nearly as funny as Pratchett's other books.