This woman hates the Watch

[author3]

Reaper Man would probably been ''Weird Skeleton Man''
Interesting Times=''Crazy Wizzard''

[Cool Middle Name]

Fair enough if she found them boring. So did I with every watchbook after Men At Arms as it became less humorous and more focused on Vimes being a detector. I don't like how these books, which usually show so many viewpoints, centred on one character who is having all the adventures. So I prefer the Witches books where every character is doing something interesting and constructive all the time.

But to dislike it so much that she didn't want to read the rest, even though she liked the Witches ones so much? What a narrow-minded view.

[MongoGutman]

Would you say that as DW progresses TP is leaning more towards plot driven stories and less towards character?

[LilMaibe]

It always depends, I'd say.
Unless the talks is about what formally were the Watch books and are now Vimes books.
(I think I stopped liking Vimes when he was the 'trigger' for the pseudo-happy-end in MR )

[Cool Middle Name]

Would you say that as DW progresses TP is leaning more towards plot driven stories and less towards character?

I'd say that is part of it, and that now the only character being expressed is Vimes (and Vetinari). Don't like Vimes because he hasn't got a very funny personality. I understand that he is supposed to represent the 'working class' but sometimes his books may as well be in first person.

[Cool Middle Name]

It always depends, I'd say.
Unless the talks is about what formally were the Watch books and are now Vimes books.
(I think I stopped liking Vimes when he was the 'trigger' for the pseudo-happy-end in MR )

This.

Not read that book yet, but a character solving somethinsg completely by himself is not that interesting on character development.

[LilMaibe]

To a minor defense he didn't solve the prob alone in MR, but he was the trigger. A role that didn't NEEDED to be filled by Vimes. In fact the whole book could have done WITHOUT anyone from AM being NEAR the countries at war.
(YMMV)

as for the books with him AFTER MR, though....

[Tonyblack]

A happy ending in MR? I don't think so. They still had a huge way to go and their own problems to solve that had very little to do with either Ankh Morpork or Vimes.

[LilMaibe]

as said above, pseudo-happy-ending. And wasn't it the reveal that vimes isn't what the folks above said he's like that triggered important stuff?

[Sister Jennifer]

^No. What triggered the important stuff was Polly going to find her brother. Vimes's 'reputation' was just tactics. The book was about perceived indentity & subsequent prejudices. Cause and effect, that kind of thing. Monstrous Regiment is a firm favourite of mine.

Re - The woman in the shop. My step-mother refers Discworld as 'those childrens books you read'. I mean, really!

[Tonyblack]

I love Monstrous Regiment too! I wasn't at all sure the first time I read it, but it's definitely one of my favourites now.

[LilMaibe]

^No. What triggered the important stuff was Polly going to find her brother. Vimes's 'reputation' was just tactics. The book was about perceived indentity & subsequent prejudices. Cause and effect, that kind of thing. Monstrous Regiment is a firm favourite of mine.

Re - The woman in the shop. My step-mother refers Discworld as 'those childrens books you read'. I mean, really!

would the events that lead to the , well, end as it is in the book have been triggered if vimes would not have been there?
I don't mean the events in general were bad, just that it HAD to be vimes and not some new character with no connection to AM.

[cabbagehead]

So did I with every watchbook after Men At Arms as it became less humorous and more focused on Vimes being a detector.

The detective aspect is an oversimplification of Vimes. Yes, he usually finds things out, though there may be bits he only learns of in the aftermath. But he is also about law vs society, common law vs personal morality, what are the limits of applying one's personal morality to society at large, building a multi-cultural society, and other things.

[cabbagehead]

I don't mean the events in general were bad, just that it HAD to be vimes and not some new character with no connection to AM.

While it didn't absolutely *have* to be Vimes, the reasons it was Vimes, are, IMO, the following:

1) Pratchett really likes Vimes.
2) IIRC it was Lady Margolotta in TFE who described Vimes as paradoxically both anti-establishment and the representative of establishment. That we already know him as such makes him pre-suited for his role in MR.
3) The involvement of Ankh Morpork shows how the recent technological developments (the Clacks) are Diskifying (equivalent of globalizing) local conflicts. The situation between Borogravia and its neighbors impacts the major powers and they will try to enforce peace because war is bad for their business. Which is a big part of Vetinari's thinking, and Vimes is his terrier.

[deldaisy]

i really wanted to have a very stern talk with her, but then she left the bookshop

Good grief man! Where is your ingenuity?

You should have followed her! All the way home.... and written down her address so we could all send her letters detailing her lack of intelligence and our own personal views of the DW books..... ... day after day.... week after week.... bawahaaaaaaaaa!!!!