Night Watch
A Discworld Novel
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4.7 • 233 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
"Night Watch turns out to be an unexpectedly moving novel about sacrifice and responsibility, its final scenes leaving one near tears. . . Terry Pratchett may still be pegged as a comic novelist, but . . . he’s a lot more.” — Washington Post Book World
Getting knocked back in time thirty years, Sam Vines, Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch experiences a day like no other in which past, present, and future collide with hilarious—and poignant—results in this rollicking Discworld adventure from Terry Pratchett.
One moment Commander of the City Watch Sam Vimes is chasing a murderer across the rooftops of Ankh-Morpork. The next, he’s lying in the street below, naked—and back in his own tough past thanks to a lightning strike and a group of meddling, time-manipulating monks.
It’s a dark Discworld that is all too familiar. Worse, the cop-killing psychopath he’d been pursuing has been transported back with him, and it’s the eve of a deadly street rebellion that took a few good (and not so good) lives. Vimes is determined to do his duty— track down the murderer and change the outcome of the rebellion. By changing history he might just save some worthwhile necks, and steer a novice watchman straight—an impressionable young copper named Sam Vimes.
But if he succeeds, Sam knows it could cost him the future—including the job and the family he loves.
The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Night Watch is the sixth book in the City Watch series. The series includes:
Guards! Guards!Men at ArmsFeet of ClayJingoThe Fifth ElephantNight WatchThud!Snuff
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Pratchett's storytelling, a clever blend of Monty Pythonesque humor and Big Questions about morality and the workings of the universe, is in top form in his 28th novel in the phenomenally bestselling Discworld series (The Last Hero, etc.). Pragmatic Sam Vimes, Commander of Ankh-Morpork's City Watch, can't complain. He has a title, his wife is due to give birth to their first child any moment and he hasn't had to pound a beat in ages but that doesn't stop him from missing certain bits of his old life. Thank goodness there's work to be done. Vimes manages to corner a murderer, Carcer, on the library dome at Unseen University during a tremendous storm, only to be zapped back in time 30 years, to an Ankh-Morpork where the Watch is a joke, the ruling Patrician mad and the city on the verge of rebellion. Three decades earlier, a man named John Keel took over the Night Watch and taught young Sam Vimes how to be a good cop before dying in that rebellion. Unfortunately, in this version of the past, Carcer has killed Keel. The only way Vimes can hope to return home and ensure he has a future to return home to is to take on Keel's role. The author lightens Vimes's decidedly dark situation with glimpses into the origins of several of the more unique denizens of Ankh-Morpork. One comes away, as always, with the feeling that if Ankh-Morpork isn't a real place, it bloody well ought to be.
Customer Reviews
A book for our day; a book for America
Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, but then so are the rest of us. The problem with revolutions is we're revolting. Unlike Lord Vimes we don't know how tomorrow will have judged us as we live today, but neither did he in a real sense. The best we can do is look, listen and study. There is right and it doesn't claim to be Right. If we think for ourselves, as opposed to letting others tell us they are the source of right, we, our lives, will ring true.
That's the book, but Terry Pratchett says it much better, though you'll take longer to come away with the message by reading the book. Perhaps that's necessary so it sticks with us longer; sinks deeper into our being.
You can come away after reading this book feeling akin to several of the Watch. Yes, you want to be the hero, but if you stand for what's right, protecting those who are attacked, then you're doing your job as a citizen where ever you live.
Night Watch all night
This book will keep you up all night, because you won’t be able to put it down. Don’t start it at bedtime if you have to work the next day.
One of the best
I have read over half of the Discworld series and find this to be one of the best. It's sentimental in the right ways, funny, smart, all the best that these is bout Sam Vimes and the watchmen's thread of the Discworld series. And it mixes in a bit with the wizards, which is nice!