My Summer Reading Extravaganza (now with it’s crappy own logo) marches on, as I have just finished Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.

It is hard for me to review any Discworld book as a single work, and this book in particular will be difficult. I’ve pretty much read the Watch series of Discworld books backwards, which is no way to do things, I know. Rather than following Vimes from the gutters to the top, I started reading where he already was on top, and have now, finally, read of his beginning in the gutters.

Guards! Guards! follows the sorry remains of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, specifically the Night Watch, as the city is attacked by a dragon. The City Watch has dwindled into insignificance since the formation and legitimisation of the Thieves’ Guild, and at the beginning of the book, the Night Watch consists of just three members, led by the alcoholic Captain Samuel Vimes. For the first time in recent memory, a volunteer has joined the Watch, a young dwarf from the mountains called Carrot, who disrupts the life of the city by going around arresting people and enforcing laws. To make life even more interesting, a secret cult is summoning dragons as part of a plot to overthrow the Patrician and install a king.

Like I said, it is hard for me to review this as a work unto itself, I can’t help but filter my impressions through all the other Discworld novels I’ve read. Would it be as enjoyable without the love for the series and the world already established? I’m inclined to think: yes.

Pratchett is a master with the language. Watching a wordsmith like this play is pure entertainment. In addition to his firm grasp on the language, he is also a master satirist and humourist. I have yet to read a book by him that isn’t hilarious, and this one caused me to break down in laughter at several points. Some of his earlier books are heavy on the laughs and lighter on the plot, but this isn’t one of them, and remains suspenseful as well as funny.

As for the characters, I’m slightly at a loss. Having read backwards, I know how many of them turn out, and am not entirely able to tell whether I would have cared much about them if I read this cold. I suspect I would, Vimes at least is interesting whatever he does, though maybe somewhat less so here than in later books. Other characters are definitely well painted, such as the awesome Lady Ramkin.

Ultimately, it is hard to recommend any one Discworld book, they are all so intertwined and building upon each other (and yet, somehow, also completely able to stand alone). Having read the others makes this more enjoyable, but having read them in order would have made the others more enjoyable still. I cannot do anything but recommend it to everyone, though I would also recommend starting the series from the beginning if you haven’t read Discworld before.