Product Description

Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch had it all. But now he's back in his own rough, tough past without even the clothes he was standing up in when the lightning struck...Living in the past is hard. Dying in the past is incredibly easy. But he must survive, because he has a job to do. He must track down a murderer, teach his younger self how to be a good copper and change the outcome of a bloody rebellion. There's a problem: if he wins, he's got no wife, no child, no future...A Discworld Tale of One City, with a full chorus of street urchins, ladies of negotiable affection, rebels, secret policemen and other children of the revolution. Truth! Justice! Freedom! And a Hard-boiled Egg!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10368 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Released on: 2003-09-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The new Discworld novel Night Watch has the power and energy that characterizes Terry Pratchett at his occasional best, as well as the wild surreal humour he always gives us. Sam Vimes, running hero of the Guards sequence, finds himself cast back in time to the Ankh-Morpork of his youth--a much nastier city, with an actively deranged Patrician and a sadistic secret police--and finding himself filling in for Keel, the tough honest copper who teaches the young Vimes everything he knows. And, more worryingly, who dies heroically in the insurrection Vimes knows to be imminent. With a psychopath from his own time rising in the vile ranks of the Cable Street Unmentionables complicating things, Vimes has to ensure that history takes its course so that he will have the right future to go back to, and to keep his younger self alive--this is Pratchett's plotting at its most thoroughly constructed and wonderfully devious. Ankh-Morpork has for a long time been one of the most thoroughly imagined cities in fantasy--here Pratchett gives us a fascinating gloomy glimpse of its past and of the younger selves of some of his best-loved characters, and of the brief-lived People's Republic of Treacle-Mine Road. --Roz Kaveney

The Times
'Like Jonathan Swift ... he is a satirist of enormous talent ... incredibly funny ... compulsively readable.'

Mail on Sunday
'His spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction.'

Customer Reviews

A gripping thriller, set in Ankh Morpork
This is probably a book best read after some of the other 'Watch' novels in the Discworld series - 'Guards, Guards!', 'Men at Arms', 'Feet of Clay', 'Jingo', 'The Fifth Elephant' (I think that's all of them!). It's a Vimes novel through and through, and it would help to have some previous knowledge of Sam Vimes's character beforehand.

I happen to be a great Vimes fan, and I enjoyed it immensely. This is a clever novel that is surprisingly serious for a Discworld book, and yet still retains Pratchett's innate wry humour which prevents it from becoming taxing or sentimental. It follows Sam Vimes (Or His Grace Commander Sir Samuel Vimes the Duke of Ankh) as, by a freak accident, he and a murderer he is pursuing are thrown back in time to an old and dystopian Ankh-Morpork. The adventure that follows is a gripping page turner, full of insights into the nature of evil and the nature of authority. It also features a living Reg Shoe, a young Havelock Vetinari (wonderful!), a child Nobby Nobbs, the novice Dibbler, a younger Sam Vimes, truth, justice, freedom, and a hard-boiled egg.

Our own Sam finds himself a sergeant again, mentoring his younger self and taking a lead role in the rebellion against the paranoid patrician of the time. Pratchett's gentle satire pokes fun at the idealistic rebels who are so sure they can fix everything, but also makes some very pertinent commentary about the role and the power of the police during riots and rebellions.

As usual, Pratchett's characters are cast vividly. Reg Shoe actually reminds me very much of a girl I know in the Socialist Workers' Student Society. Doctor Lawn (who is a doctor to ladies of negiotable affection!) is brilliantly cast as a cunning mixture of the sort of doctor no one respectable would ever visit and the sort of doctor everyone would like to have. Young Lance-Constable Vimes is endearingly naive. Havelock Vetinari is... well, Vetinari, only younger! And Sam Vimes himself is cast brilliantly as a complex and intense character. Pratchett portrays his skill, his passions, his dissatisfaction, his minor annoyances, his affection and even his dark side with great realism.

Perhaps the most disturbing characterisation would be that of Carcer - the murderer - and the 'Unmentionables' who are the patrician's 'special police' as it were. Pratchett realises the strange sanity possessed by the sociopathic Carcer, and excellently portrays the nature of dystopia in the secret and lawless world of the Unmentionables and their superstitious Captain Swing.

All in all, this was a book that was both humorous and serious, thought-provoking, 'unputdownable', touching in places, and all told with Terry Pratchett's affectionate yet satirical style. It's probably (dare I say it!) my favourite Discworld book yet, and although this may be merely my love of Vimes speaking, it's definitely up there with the best.

A fascinating character study of a good man
Night Watch, the 27th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, is a wonderful character study of Samuel Vimes, the head of the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork. In this one, Pratchett turns kind of serious, though there are some amusing bits. Unlike Small Gods, it appears to work in this one. Maybe I just wasn't ready for it before. Or maybe Vimes is such an interesting character that I was willing to forgive. Whichever way it is, Night Watch is yet another masterpiece from Pratchett.

Carcer is one of Pratchett's best villains, I believe, because he's "normal." Yes, he's insane, but he could very well live in the world we live in, unlike some of Pratchett's other bad guys. Not to say that they weren't good as well, but Carcer adds that extra bit of chill. He's a survivor, able to adapt to many different situations. It takes some time for Vimes to adapt himself to what he has to do once he discovers what has happened. Even when the Monks of History (the main source of any humour in this book) tell him what he must do, he is still reluctant. Carcer, on the other hand, jumps in with both feet, ingratiating himself with the higher-ups, and starts establishing himself. Once he realizes what the situation is with Vimes (and the younger Vimes) it gets even chillier. He's very effective, and the reader is often left wondering just how Vimes can beat him.

This book, however, is Sam Vimes' book. I've always found Vimes to be a fascinating character, throughout all of the City Watch books, and this book just builds on those. Every City Watch book is really about the development of Vimes, and Night Watch takes it to the next level, with an in depth character study, where you get under his skin and find out what makes him tick. When he's taken out of his element and dumped back in time, he has nothing to go on but his copper instincts. Times may change, politics may change, but coppers are coppers, and they just have to do what is right. Catch the bad guys, keep the peace. He sees himself as an extraordinarily simple man, and in a way, he is. But he's very dedicated to what he does, very strongly determined to do what's right, no matter what the consequences. When rebellion is flourishing all over the city, and the Unmentionables (the current government's secret police) is fomenting even more, Vimes is determined to make sure it doesn't reach the area of the Watch house. He uses some very unorthodox methods to make sure this happens, which doesn't put him on the good side of the Unmentionables (especially a new member, who has seemingly appeared out of nowhere). Vimes continues to show his intelligence, as well as his moralistic thinking. He's put through the ringer in this one, and a very interesting character throughout the previous books becomes a fascinating one instead.

The relationship between him (as John Keel) and the young Sam is a joy to watch. The young Sam is very impressionable. He wants to do the right thing, but he doesn't really know what that is. He took part in the round-ups of curfew-breakers (and delivering them to the Unmentionables) only because he didn't know any different. When Vimes arrives and sees what Sam is in danger of becoming, memories flood over him, and he becomes determined to ensure that Sam becomes what Vimes is. He also tries desperately to keep him out of danger, because he has to keep history going along the path it did before. The relationship is wonderful, and really aids in fleshing out the character of Vimes that we all know and love.

The plot is very interesting as well. Rebellion against the current Patrician of Ankh-Morpork is hitting the city all over the place. It is touching to watch the tragic inevitability of what happens, knowing that as much as Vimes tries, he really has to ensure that history repeats itself. The Lilac rebellion must occur in some fashion, and some good people, who he is getting to know again, are going to die. Carcer is going to do his best to make Vimes' life miserable, and if that involves changing history, too bad.

Pratchett ties everything together nicely into a tight plot with no holes that I could see. The story contains some interesting time travel theories, wonderful writing by Pratchett, and interesting characters. Fans of the series will be glad to see that not only are the Watch back (though they are only there in the present-day sequences), but also the Wizards play a small role. The Monks of History are around, trying to make sure that History is not damaged too badly by what is going on. Also, we get some history on Nobby Nobs, Sergeant Colon, Reg Shoe, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler and we find out a very interesting aspect of the current Patrician, Vetinari. I've noticed that in recent books, Pratchett picks and chooses characters from his series to throw together into a book, and I think it really works.

But make no mistake. This book is about Samuel Vimes. He carries the book on his shoulders, and he does it very well. I wasn't sure if Pratchett could do much more with Vimes other than just another "adventure of the City Watch," but Pratchett proved me wrong. In spades. This is a wonderful book. While it's certainly readable as a first Discworld book, it loses a lot of its impact that way, so I would not recommend starting here. Get some background, then come back to this one. It's a keeper.

David Roy

Brilliant.
That's all I want to say, really. It truly is. As a long-time fan of Pratchett, I'd been waiting for this with worried anticipation - when I first read the synopsis of Vimes going back in time, I didn't think it would work very well - I don't know why, it just didn't sound the sort of thing that Vimes normally does....

But this is the point, really. It isn't. In the last few books, much as I love Vimes, there has been too much around him stopping him from really being Vimes - paperwork, delegation and politics. In this book, he's in his element - rough streets, no law as such and a lot of people to outwit before they kill him. It has already been said by somebody else that this novel ignores everybody else in the Watch. It does, pretty much. But I don't think that makes it a bad book. If you like Vimes, you will, you really will love this book. It's ALL vimes - 2 of them, for a start.... but even if you don't like Vimes, this is still an excellent book.

Also, the supporting characters are brilliant. As has already been said, a student Vetinari is just as good as a patrician one, and Nobby is just brilliant, although amazingly even more repulsive than usual! And Mossy Lawn (why, even when pratchett is writing a fairly dark and thoughtful book, does he still come up with brilliant names?!) is one of the best new characters we've had for a while.

So, yes. Read it. I ended up buying it in hardback even though i swore I would wait for the paperback version to come out, because it was just too good. Before this book came out, I refused to pick a favourite out of pratchett's books - i had about ten favourites - but this is now definitely my all-time favourite, no question. It's that good. Go read it! Now!