Terry Pratchett

"'Trousers. That's the secret...Put on trousers and the world changes. We walk different. We act different. I see these girls and I think: idiots! Get yourself some trousers!' Women belong in the kitchen - everyone knows that. Not in jobs, pubs or indeed trousers, and certainly not on the front line, braving enemy forces in defence of their country. Then again, there's always a war on somewhere, even if no-one really knows what it's about. And when money and enthusiasm for it are running very low, it might be time to let women make a stand, on the battlefield and for their rights..."

Night Watch

Masa

Sarah Sammis

Night Watch is the last of a bunch of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels that my husband bought for me two years ago. As the title implies, it follows the Watch again with Vimes as the protagonist. This time, though, Vimes is doing double duty, having found himself back in time thirty years to train himself as a young recruit.

Ankh-Morpork was a much rougher city back then and it's on the brink of revolution. Vimes remembers this time and how his commanding officer, John Keel, kept him alive and taught him how to be a proper officer of the watch during these dangerous weeks. Now on the flip side, Vimes is in the role of John Keel and he doesn't feel like the hero he remembers.

As with so many of his later books, Night Watch is long. While the overdose of puns are missing the book still has pacing problems. There are some brilliant scenes that drew me right in but they were spread out between pages of Vimes's internal monologue or of the Watch milling around. I know that's what they do when they aren't being forced to work but this late in the series do I really need to be reminded of it?

Fans of time travel stories, the Watch books from the Discworld series and ravid fans of Terry Pratchett will enjoy Night Watch. Anyone who doesn't fit into any of those categories can safely give the book a pass.

Gavin

Perhaps his darkest book (though he never was just about puns and japes – consider the extent of extinction and futility in Strata). All about the Night, as in inherent human brutality and in being metaphysically lost. Remarkable for being about being the police in a police state. Cried my eyes out at the climax the first time, a decade ago.

Night watch

Jeff James

Absolutely the best of the Discworld books I've read (so far...), with thrilling action, a refreshing change of pace for the Watch books, and completely un-put-down-able. Highest recommendation!

Haley Murray

Danny Engström

I am reading the Discworld books in order. They are getting better and better. This one is mind-blowing.

A beautiful new hardback edition of the classic Discworld novel. 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...

Night Watch

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