Raising the flag and singing the anthem are, while somewhat suspicious, not in themselves acts of treason.

'What's the orbital velocity of the moon?'

“No! Please! I'll tell you whatever you want to know!' the man yelled.

And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient.

People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case.

Why is Night Watch one of my all time's favourites? Rather than arguing for lines and lines, I'll juste quote the novel: Still, the narration is good and the voices and characterisation is engaging.Sam Vimes has to take a sergeant's identity and becomes the one who taught him everything, by teaching young Sam Vimes, well, everything.īut Sam (older Sam) knows that the moment in time to which he has been sent back to is just a few days before the Glorious 25th of May (3), a revolution that won't change Ankh-Morpork but that will change his life. Stephen Briggs's reading is as always excellent, though here more than ever his habit of giving everyone different accents is a bit jarring. This book is perhaps less funny than some other Discworld novels (though still amusing), but it more than makes up for it in the depth of the setting and the quality of the storytelling. The time travel element is handled sensitively and believably and gives an insight into old Ankh-Morpork which fits in perfectly with the previously sketchy details of how bad things were in the old days.

Both the hero (Vimes) and the main villain (Carcer) make great character studies and are treated like real people influencing events rather than plot-driving juggernauts. Pratchett's understanding of human nature and capability for more serious storytelling shines through here. Listening to it now I'm very glad I chose it.

I don't remember being blown away by this book when I first read it, but that was close to a decade ago and I wasn't really old enough to appreciate this story, which is deep and complex even by Pratchett's standards.

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett