Men at Arms

Author: Terry Pratchett

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy

Rating: A

I think the City Watch books are, in all honesty, my favourite of the Discworld novels.   The characters are just great, possibly the best of the Discworld universe, although I'm sure I'll say differently next time I read a Witches or Rincewind book.

Murder is afoul at the great city of Ankh-Morpork and the City Watch is on the job - sort of.  Assassin Edward d'Eath, of the down-and-out noble d'Eath family, has become convinced that his family's humbling has been the result of the social change in the city, owing to the lack of a monarch on the throne.  It is his plan to restore the monarchy, and for this he needs the Disc's one and only firearm, the gonne.  The gonne, however, has a mind of its own and leaves behind it a trail of bodies.  Captain Vimes of the Night's Watch is on the case; investigating the disappearance of a mysterious item from the Assassin's Guild and a subsequent string of apparently unrelated but equally gruesome murders, all against the express orders of the city's Patrician, Havelock Vetinari.  Vimes' investigation is meant to be short lived, however, as he is due to retire with his impending nuptials to Lady Sybil Ramkin.  Also at hand is the rise in the Watch's ranks, as the Patrician has ordered that the Watch have ethnic recruits, in the form of a dwarf, troll, and female werewolf.

There are so many elements to this novel, all of which are great.  There's the obligatory Death appearance, awesome as always, and the Patrician, who might be my second favourite character in the series - behind Death, of course.  I love the way that the Patrician's mind works, the way he rules his City, and the way he interacts with others - especially Vimes.  I love Vimes too, and Carrot, and the way that they're both simple and complex at the same time.  The whole "Carrot is the true heir to the throne" thing is absolutely great and I enjoy seeing how it plays out.  I also enjoyed seeing the way that the relationship between Carrot and the new werewolf recruit, Angua, has begun to play out.  It's another element to Carrot, and I love their being more elements to Carrot.

The great theme of the book is the idea that "guns don't kill people, people kill people," and the fact that in the Discworld it is the gun, or gonne, that is behind the killings - to an extent.  While I'm not really a believer of the whole "guns kill people" I like the way that Pratchette worked this theme.  It might not work as well here, in the Roundworld, where guns do not have the ability to think and shoot people of their own accord, but it does work well in Discworld where that is far from being the weirdest thing to occur.  I really liked the way that it played out here.