Discworld – The City Watch Novels

Today’s post is from Erik at Schimelpfenig Library:

  

  

Discworld: The City Watch novels by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels may seem entirely overwhelming at first, after all there are over 35 of them and they seem to just keep coming.  However, when you know how they work then the whole idea gets much easier to swallow.  Sure, there are a bunch of them BUT they are actually conveniently grouped into a series of books each pertaining to a different character set in Discworld, for example the City Watch novels I’ll be talking about today.  Clear as mud?  Well, stick with me cause there’s a big payoff at the end.

The City Watch novels consist of 6 books: Guards, Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, The Fifth Elephant, Night Watch and Thud!.  They all follow the exploits of the much-put-upon City Watch of Ankh-Morpork, Discworld’s largest city, led by Sam Vimes, Sgt. Fred Colon, “Nobby” Nobbs and Carrot Ironfoundersson (who might just be the rightful heir to the whole darn city).  As the story goes, the cast of characters grows but it mostly stays centered around this group.  The stories are basic police procedural mysteries (albeit with a quirky set of procedures) set in a town where technology meets fantasy meets cornball humor meets highbrow pathos.  The characters are fantastic, some of the best written in fantasy literature and they form the main hook for the stories.  It’s not that the writing isn’t good, it’s wonderful, it’s just that the characters are that much better.

There are other discworld series that focus on different character sets such as The Witch novels, Rincewind, Death, Moist Von Lipwig and even a series for the teens about a young witch named Tiffany Aching.  They range from about 3-6 books in length and most are still growing.  There is some overlapping of characters (Death makes and appearance in every book) but there is nothing that takes away from the characters primary arc.  The Watch novels are my personal favorites but all of them are absolutely wonderful and you will develop your favorites over time as you get attached to certain characters. 

My advice, read the first book or two in each series, you can literally track them down anywhere, and see what you like.  If you’re anything like me, you’ll like them all and you’ll find that you can’t wait for the next one no matter who Terry Pratchett decides it’s about.  And I will try over the course of the next several weeks to cover some of the other character sets, just to whet your appetite.  Look at it this way, at 37+ novels and growing, these may be able to keep you busy reading for quite a while!