Men At Arms: (Discworld Novel 15) (Discworld series)

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Discover the gloriously inventive and funny fantasy novel from bestselling author Terry Pratchett, the second book in the City Watch series, part of the Discworld novels.'Funny, wise and mock heroic . . . the best-crafted book I have read all year' Sunday Express‘Pratchett at his best’ 5-star reader review'People ought to think for themselves ... The problem is, people only think for themselves if you tell them to.'Times are a-changing in Ankh-Morpork's Night Watch.New recruits have been hired to reflect the city's diversity, including Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance-constable Detritus (a troll), and Lance-constable Angua (a woman ... full moons aside).What's more, Captain Sam Vimes is getting married and retiring from the Watch. For good. Which is a shame, because no one knows the streets of Ankh-Morpork or its criminal underworld better than him.And someone armed and dangerous has been getting ideas about power and destiny and lost kings, committing a string of seemingly random murders across the city.The new recruits will need to learn fast ...Men At Arms is the second book in the City Watch series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order.Praise for the Discworld series:'[Pratchett’s] spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction' Mail on Sunday‘Pratchett is a master storyteller’ Guardian'One of our greatest fantasists, and beyond a doubt the funniest' George R.R. Martin'One of those rare writers who appeals to everyone’ Daily Express‘One of the most consistently funny writers around’ Ben Aaronovitch‘Masterful and brilliant’ Fantasy & Science Fiction‘Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own… he is a satirist of enormous talent ... incredibly funny ... compulsively readable' The Times‘The best humorous English author since P.G. Wodehouse' The Sunday Telegraph‘Nothing short of magical’ Chicago Tribune'Consistently funny, consistently clever and consistently surprising in its twists and turns' SFX‘[Discworld is] compulsively readable, fantastically inventive, surprisingly serious exploration in story form of just about any aspect of our world…There's never been anything quite like it’ Evening Standard

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by Terry Pratchett (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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by Terry Pratchett (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

ASIN

B00354YA1I

Customer Reviews Summary

I don't often re-read books, but having recently been slightly disappointed with the latest Discworld offering, I decided to treat myself to one of the old classics and make sure my opinion of it hadn't changed. I'm pleased to say that it's as good as I remembered.n the early books, Terry Pratchett tended to focus on relatively crude (though very funny) parodies of fantasy tropes, and in the later ones, they become more stories about real life issues that happen to feature dwarves, and that valued plot over puns. This book falls right in the middle and does both aspects very well.On the one hand, it's playing with that staple of fantasy novels - the long-lost king returning. Only this book questions whether that's necessarily a good thing, even if the suspected heir happens to be a good man.On the other, it deals with real world themes of racial tension and positive discrimination in the police, using battles between dwarves and trolls to make the point. The parallels are neatly drawn, and the author makes his points clearly, without getting preachy.The two main aspects are played out via a murder mystery involving a mysterious new weapon, and in-between are all sorts of side plots, clever points and amusing asides.The plot is compelling, the humour is strong (both clever one liners and elaborate set pieces)and the characters are memorable.I wouldn't count this as one of the very, very best Discworld books - I suspect that Pratchett really hits his high point a few books after this - but in some ways it's the epitome of a Discworld novel, so it's a great one to start with if you're new to the series (it's the 15th, but they don't have to be read in order)and well worth a re-read if you're an old fan.