Paperback, 416 pages

French language

Published Feb. 9, 1997 by L’Atalante.

ISBN:
978-2-84172-045-3
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4 stars (9 reviews)

Une société secrète d’encagoulés complote pour renverser le seigneur Vétérini, Patricien d’Ankh-Morpork, et lui substituer un roi. C’est sans compter avec le guet municipal et son équipe de fins limiers. Une affaire à la mesure du capitaine Vimaire – s’il boit, c’est pour oublier les laideurs de la vie – et de ses brillants adjoints. (« Tous pour un ! » ) Et lorsqu’on retrouve au petit jour dans les rues les corps des citoyens transformés en biscuits calcinés, l’enquête s’oriente résolument vers un dragon de vingt-cinq mètres qui crache le feu ; on aurait quelques questions à lui poser. Mais peut-être la collaboration du bibliothécaire de l’Université ne sera-t-elle pas inutile : n’arbore-t-il pas aussi une plaque de la DST (Défense simienne du territoire) ?

13 editions

Guards! Guards! Brief Review

3 stars

This book came highly recommended as an entry point into Terry Pratchett's Discworld. I found the characters and story humorous, but it felt like a bit of a slog to get through. I eventually found the humour a bit repetitive, although the story was tied up somewhat nicely at the end.

I am curious if it is worth giving the DiscWorld City Watch series another shot. Are there any better entry points to the series as a whole?

The story is absolutely amazing and, yet again, investigation of civil compliance with the oppression and the nature of evil

5 stars

Recently I had a chat with my friend from China about moral relativism and absolute evil. There I said, perhaps verbatim, "there is no 100% right things, but there are 100% wrong things".

For Pratchett's Patrician, the statement is even stronger. There are no right things at all:

“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people,” said the man. “You’re wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.”

He waved his thin hand toward the city and walked over to the window.

“A great rolling sea of evil,” he said, almost proprietorially. “Shallower in some places, of course, but deeper, oh, so much deeper in others. But people like you put together little rafts of rules and vaguely good intentions and say, this is the opposite, this …

Review of 'Guards! Guards! (Discworld Novel S.)' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Confession time - I've never read Terry Pratchett. Maybe a short story or two along the way, but never a novel - and never his gigantic Discworld series. Now I understand the comparison to Douglas Adams and Monty Python. Good stuff!

This is a solid story from several points of view. A combination of mystery and fantasy battles, with a lot of city management thrown in. Both Carrot and the secret brotherhood act to throw a major wrinkle into the narrative. Favorite character? DEATH.

This book was largely borrowed for the computer game Discworld in 1995 (with Eric Idle voicing Rincewind). I'll have to go back and play that one more seriously, and of course read more of the Discworld series - probably continuing the Night Watch series.

The next in that series is a short-short story, available on the web - www.lspace.org/books/toc/toc-english.html

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Subjects

  • film noir