The City Watch books

[Beyond Birthday]

Okay, I'm really close to finishing Guards! Guards! I just got to the part where *spoiler* the Librarian rescues Vimes. Two things I've noticed:

1.) Intelligent mice, over a decade before The Amazing Maurice. Nifty.

2.) Wonse laughs maniacally...does this make sense to ANYone? I mean, I get that it's an "evil laugh" joke but, seriously, all of his plans failed and he's now being used by what he once considered his tool. I dunno, maybe that was to show that he's gone insane or maybe it was just because getting Vimes in a dungeon was the only good thing that'd happened to him so far. I mean, working for the dragon is shown to be a fate worse than death so what the hell? Why is Vimes all like 'Now a maniac is in charge.' Um...Vimes? You just said that he wasn't in charge like two pages ago! I mean, am I missing something here? I guess he could be referring to the dragon but I doubt it. Maybe Superboy Prime punched reality again...oh, wait, I'm thinking of Star Trek.
[/i]

[deldaisy]

Okay, I'm really close to finishing Guards! Guards! I just got to the part where *spoiler* the Librarian rescues Vimes. Two things I've noticed:

1.) Intelligent mice, over a decade before The Amazing Maurice. Nifty.

2.) Wonse laughs maniacally...does this make sense to ANYone? I mean, I get that it's an "evil laugh" joke but, seriously, all of his plans failed and he's now being used by what he once considered his tool. I dunno, maybe that was to show that he's gone insane or maybe it was just because getting Vimes in a dungeon was the only good thing that'd happened to him so far. I mean, working for the dragon is shown to be a fate worse than death so what the hell? Why is Vimes all like 'Now a maniac is in charge.' Um...Vimes? You just said that he wasn't in charge like two pages ago! I mean, am I missing something here? I guess he could be referring to the dragon but I doubt it. Maybe Superboy Prime punched reality again...oh, wait, I'm thinking of Star Trek.
[/i]

Beyond: You are unfamiliar with the "maniacal laugh"? When things go SO wrong SO SO SO SO very wrong its way past crying, or a gentle guffaw and a lightly tossed aside "Such is life" (?????) [ see my posts on "the date with the Veet man"... "a visit to the Koala Park".... "a day at the office and a spilt vase" ]

[Beyond Birthday]

I finally finished Guards! Guards! tonight. I'll keep it simple and just say that I really liked it. You get a glimpse at the kind of character Vimes becomes in the later books and I find it especially funny that this one ends with "THE END".

I still prefer Night Watch and Thud! (Night Watch being my favorite I think) but I wouldn't be surprised if Guards! Guards! is the one everyone else prefers.

So now I've got four more Watch books to read. It'll probably be either Men At Arms or Feet of Clay next.

[DaveC]

I finally finished Guards! Guards! tonight. I'll keep it simple and just say that I really liked it. You get a glimpse at the kind of character Vimes becomes in the later books and I find it especially funny that this one ends with "THE END".

I still prefer Night Watch and Thud! (Night Watch being my favorite I think) but I wouldn't be surprised if Guards! Guards! is the one everyone else prefers.

So now I've got four more Watch books to read. It'll probably be either Men At Arms or Feet of Clay next.

It has to be Men at Arms, its the next one plus it show the natural progression in the size of the watch growing - it is a lot more emotional too as you've come to expect from th elater books, then read Feet of Clay, also very good

[Beyond Birthday]

The only thing I'm worried about with Men at Arms is if it's too preachy. You know, because that's the one about gun control.

[poohcarrot]

The only thing I'm worried about with Men at Arms is if it's too preachy. You know, because that's the one about gun control.

If you think guns are good, I wouldn't advise you to read it.
**SPOILER ALERT**
There is a gun. It kills people. Guns are bad.

[deldaisy]

The only thing I'm worried about with Men at Arms is if it's too preachy. You know, because that's the one about gun control.

Read it and enjoy it. Even the books that are a tiny bit preachy are still GOOD books Beyond. I can't be too off-hand though. My favourite is Nightwatch and I loved Guards! Guards! I wish I still had the watch books to read. Oh well I can reread them.

[DaveC]

I'd say the theme of racial tolerance is more prevailient than gun control, with the addition of Detritus, Cuddy and Angua and their relationships.

[deldaisy]

The only thing I'm worried about with Men at Arms is if it's too preachy. You know, because that's the one about gun control.

If you think guns are good, I wouldn't advise you to read it.
**SPOILER ALERT**
There is a gun. It kills people. Guns are bad.

Ohhhhhhh is that why I liked it. I don't think guns are good. I was about 9 when I went to stay on a property out west with a friend. We were playing with her brothers shotguns and I got my finger caught in the mechanism; it almost broken my finger. On hindsight... perhaps that was a GOOD thing.

[DaveC]

The only thing I'm worried about with Men at Arms is if it's too preachy. You know, because that's the one about gun control.

If you think guns are good, I wouldn't advise you to read it.
**SPOILER ALERT**
There is a gun. It kills people. Guns are bad.

Ohhhhhhh is that why I liked it. I don't think guns are good. I was about 9 when I went to stay on a property out west with a friend. We were playing with her brothers shotguns and I got my finger caught in the mechanism; it almost broken my finger. On hindsight... perhaps that was a GOOD thing.

Gonnes aren't toys.

[poohcarrot]

YOU HELD A GUN!!!!!!

They are a bit more complicated than razors and more dangerous.

[DaveC]

Every dangerous weapon you hold backfires on you...

[deldaisy]

YOU HELD A GUN!!!!!!

They are a bit more complicated than razors and more dangerous.

Well DUH! I was a kid! And her brothers and Dad would have whapped us for a week if they had known we had the guns. It was a huge cattle property. They had to have guns. I am very ANTI guns Pooh. We have amazingly strict gun laws here and I love that. It took the Port Arthur massacre to do it but I love the gun laws.

[Beyond Birthday]

I don't have much of an opinion on them. While they have stopped bad things from happening they've also caused bad things, too. They have existed for so long it's hard to imagine how the world would have turned out without em'. Night Watch seems to lean a little towards the pro-side. ie "the 'bad guys' already have the weapons so the 'good(er) guys' need them, too.

Men at Arms is a little different in that this is the CREATION of a weapon, not a continuation of one. No other people own this weapon so if the message is 'these are bad' then it's a little weakened by this. I mean, we can't exactly go back in time and stop the creation of a weapn. Maybe, and this is a big maybe, this story is just a "what if we COULD stop this from being made. If we COULD, maybe we SHOULD" type of thing.

It might be a while before I even get to this one, though. I've been meaning to read this other non-Pratchett book for a while.

[deldaisy]

Man WILL evolve.

I'm sure if you are on the receiving end of a poke in the eye with a sharp stick you wouldn't be too happy either.

Then again, you don't often see "News at Nine" covering a city shutdown as some guy goes on a rampage with a sharp stick....