Seeing a young Nobby Nobbs is nothing short of scary, and Carcer will make you wet your pants by the end of the book. Vimes is, as always, brilliant, made up of equal parts wit, intelligence, street smarts and a desire for alcohol.

In a genre of time paradoxes and rips in space and time, Pratchett manages to weave a story so complex and arrogant, but similarly brilliant, that by the time you finish you have no doubt that either Pratchett is a genius, or he was on the phone to Sam Vimes who told the tale to him. In fact, the story is so intricate that you are really left wondering just how on Earth Terry Pratchett’s brain work and whether “Earth” has anything to do with that function in the first place. Anything you already know is fun to have with you as you see reminders of it, but entirely unnecessary in the course of the greater story.

Because, though the lead character (Samuel Vimes) has been introduced to us before, he is quickly sent back in time (it’s only happened the once in Discworld) and is very much on his own. In fact, of all the books Pratchett wrote, Night Watch is one of the few that could very well be set entirely out of the Discworld. Each book is its own story – with a few notable exceptions – and does not need previous ones to make them work. Pratchett’s world is the same in each book, but you need not read book 1-36 to understand what happens in book 16. The Discworld rests atop the back of four elephants who themselves ride through space atop the back of the Great Atuin. For those who aren’t as aware though a brief primer. So without further ado, let us take a look at simply one of the greatest pieces of English literature, Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett.įor those who know the Discworld, you will be aware of the characters that appear in this book. But bear with me in a few weeks we’ll be at a point where I can rail on a book for you to offset the positivity. And it only makes sense that the first few reviews that I write for FBR will focus on those that I love most. This is all to say that the book I am about to review (given away by the title) is one of my top books. It gets worse when you narrow it down to genre, because then not only have you narrowed down the people, but in a most perplexing mathematic equation their passion for those books increases. Whenever someone new comes to review books, there is always going to be a measure of consternation at their choices for best books.

Terry pratchett the watch books