Book Review: Guards, Guards Discworld #8 by Terry Pratchett

• Review: Guards, Guards
• Series: Discworld Book 8
• Author: terry Pratchett
• No of Pages: 384
• Release Date: July 31st 2001

Terry Pratchett. Need I say more?

Well of course I don’t but I will because he’s amazing and I want to tell the world!

In Guards, Guards we meet Vimes, soon to be known as “‘His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh; Commander Sir Samuel Vimes“: When serving as Ambassador for Ankh-Morpork, he is also referred to simply as “His Excellency“, and is also nicknamed “Blackboard Monitor Vimes,” and “Vetinari’s Terrier” (or hammer): According to his wife, Sybil, Vimes is recognized by many as Lord Vetinari’s right-hand man. But in Guards, Guards he is still down on his luck. We meet him drunk and in a gutter, in love and hate with the city in which he is sworn to protect and sadly unable to, Ankh Morpork.
Here there be dragons…and the denizens of Ankh-Morpork wish one huge firebreather would return from whence it came. Long believed extinct, a superb specimen of draco nobilis (“noble dragon” for those who don’t understand italics) has appeared in Discworld’s greatest city. Not only does this unwelcome visitor have a nasty habit of charbroiling everything in its path, in rather short order it is crowned King (it is a noble dragon, after all…).

Oh! To not write a biased book review, but will I be able to help myself for this is, in my mind, one of the best Terry Pratchett Discworld novels. In this we meet Captain Vimes, Carrot Ironfounderson, Nobby Nobbs, Sergeant Colon, The Librarian and many more. The first of many great books and as Vimes is one of my favorite characters I read this book with lots of laughter knowing that he will always pull through in the end.

Vimes is a deliciously interesting character and as we see in this story he grows to be the man that we know him as today. He wakes from his stupor in Guards, Guards and also meets Lady Sybil but more than that, he goes back to his roots, which we’ll learn about in a later story when we meet a younger Vimes. Guards, Guards is just the beginning and in the beginning Vimes is quite down on his luck, in the gutter, muddy, drunk and alone.

Soon we also meet Carrot Ironfounderson. Raised by dwarfs he is the tallest of his kind, as he is actually a human. And although the Ankh Morpork dwarves don’t really know how to take him, Carrot demands respect in all situations, and earns it because not only is he over six feet, his shoulders are just about as wide and he will arrest anyone who breathes wrong, that is if it’s in the Laws and Ordinances of the Cities of Ankh and Morpork.

Those are only two of the amazing characters that Terry Pratchett has introduced in this book. This book is a twisting, turning, stay on the edge of your seat with laughter, must read!

This book was phenomenal. Hands down, fabulous. All of my favorite characters are in it and if you’ve never read Terry Pratchett the great thing about the Discworld is that you do not have to read them in order. Just go read them!

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Tags: Ankh-Morpork, Ankh-Morpork City Watch, Book review, books, Discworld, Excellency, Guards! Guards!, literature, Sam Vimes, sir samuel vimes, Terry Pratchett, Vimes