Night watch

by Terry Pratchett

Other authorsPaul Kidby (Cover artist), Robin Matthews (Photographer)

Hardcover, 2002

Status

Available

Call number

PR6066.R34 N54

Series

Discworld (29)

Discworld: City Watch (6)

Genres

Publication

London : Doubleday, 2002.

Description

One moment, Sir Sam Vimes is in his old patrolman form, chasing a sweet-talking psychopath across the rooftops of Ankh-Morpork. The next, he's lying naked in the street, having been sent back thirty years courtesy of a group of time-manipulating monks who won't leave well enough alone. This Discworld is a darker place that Vimes remembers too well, three decades before his title, fortune, beloved wife, and impending first child. Worse still, the murderer he's pursuing has been transported back also. Worst of all, it's the eve of a fabled street rebellion that needlessly destroyed more than a few good (and not so good) men. Sam Vimes knows his duty, and by changing history he might just save some worthwhile necks-though it could cost him his own personal future. Plus there's a chance to steer a novice watchman straight and teach him a valuable thing or three about policing, an impressionable young copper named Sam Vimes.… (more)

Media reviews

The New York Times Book Review

A fine place to start reading Pratchett if you don't mind a few ''in'' jokes, ''Night Watch'' transcends standard genre fare with its sheer schoolboy humor and characters who reject their own stereotypes.

— 3 more

The Independent

What makes the book intriguing is Pratchett's Chestertonian common-sense morality. While his blunt logic doesn't always equip him to deal with the niceties (at one point, he seems to argue against any controls on gun ownership), it allows him to break through liberal confusions and conservative

certainties.

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Kirkus Review

Not a side-splitter this time, though broadly amusing and bubbling with wit and wisdom: both an excellent story and a tribute to beat cops everywhere, doing their hair-raising jobs with quiet courage and determination.

The Guardian

Stories both trap people in a continuum and console them with images of beginnings and ends. Pratchett is a master storyteller.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Raven

This is not a subject on which there's ever likely to be much consensus, but for what it's worth, Night Watch is my favourite Discworld book, and is probably up there in my top ten of books ever. Its plot, its structure, its characters, themes and humour, are all just right for me, and I'm in

particular awe at how the whole thing coheres. In the beginning, Sam Vimes is commander of the City Watch and Duke of Ankh, and this is the day that his wife, Sybil, gives birth to their first child - and by the end, these things may or may not still be true, but we've got there through time travel, History Monks, bloody revolutions and a hard-boiled egg. Through a magical accident, Vimes is thrown back into his own past, it's not a very nice place, and the rest is a sort of history. There are no loose threads, and nothing happens that isn't crucial or relevant, but the perfect execution doesn't have anything of the mechanical about it - the progress of events is a natural consequence of the characters and their motivations, and in the end it's just right.

I've heard people criticising this one as not a "real" Discworld novel, lacking in humour and the usual fantasy elements, and I will concede that in some ways it's atypical: for one thing, it's not a parody. It does share themes with, say, Les Miserables, but it doesn't parody them in the way that, say, Maskerade parodies The Phantom of the Opera. The humour definitely comes from within: from Vimes's wry sense of humour, from the History Monks (which, okay, do have an element of James-Bond parody about them) and mostly from the inherent absurdity of the People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road. So, I suppose, the humour is necesarily darker, but the fantasy - the wizards, the time travel, the dragons and magic - is still there, just, well, in the Discworld it's real, so it's taken for granted by the narrative. Like I said above, it all just fits together.

And Vimes carries it all very well, but I do like the rest of the cast. The Watch really only cameo - Carrot, Angua and Cheery appear only before the timeslip - as do the wizards. We do get to see young Nobby, young(er) Colon, and young Vetinari, who is worth the price of admission all by himself. Vimes, both young and old, is a constant presence, but the book doesn't disappear all into his head, which it might well have done in less capable hands.

In conclusion - this is the one where you might accuse Pratchett of literature. Which is a foul slander to say about an author you love, but there we go.

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LibraryThing member Hamburgerclan

When I was playing around with LibraryThing's Unsuggester the other week, I was amazed how many times books by Terry Pratchett showed up in response to the titles I was trying out. I hadn't heard much about Mr. Pratchett, save that his work was quite funny. Anyway, a bit later I was browsing in the

English library on campus and--Behold!--there was a Terry Pratchett book on the shelf! Since I'm between school years at the moment, I borrowed the book to have a read. Night Watch is about Samuel Vimes, the commander of the police force of the city of Ankh-Morpork. He's chasing down a murderer when a magical storm sends both of them back into the past. It's a time when the city was awash in corruption, ruled by an incompetent despot who is bleeding the people dry. It's also a time when young Sam Vimes is starting out on the city watch. The elder Vimes ends up trying to find a place for himself in the past, find the escaped murderer and find a way back to his proper time, all while trying to steer his younger self down the (mostly) straight and narrow. It's a good time travel tale, even without the added pleasure of Mr. Pratchett's wit. I'm strongly tempted to put it on my shelf. It might even be the first step in changing the Unsuggester results.
--J.

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LibraryThing member mattries37315

The past and future of Ankh-Morpork revolve around the efforts of His Grace Sir Sam Vimes, Commander of the City Watch, and he doesn’t like it one bit. Night Watch, the sixth book focusing on the City Watch and twenty-ninth overall book of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series finds Vimes dealing

with his wife about to give birth, the deaths of two of his two officers and chasing the man responsible, then finding himself in the past playing the mentor to his younger self during a time of revolution.

Sam Vimes loves being a copper, but not so much His Grace when things have to be official, but after a magical “accident” caused by the Monks of History to send him 30 years into the past Vimes must make sure history happens like it did when he was a 17-year old newbie. Becoming his mentor Sergeant John Keel and second-in-command at his old Watch House, Vimes attempts to bring about the past he remembers so his “present” remains the same. Unfortunately for Vimes, a genius yet insane killer Carcer was brought back with him and has his own agenda—chaos and murder. Add in a revolution hitting Ankh-Morpork and Vimes is in for some very stressful days.

This isn’t the first time that Pratchett has done a little time travel in a Discworld novel, but it was the first in which it was the primary element in one. Vimes becoming the heroic mentor to his younger self, is somewhat cliché but Pratchett uses Vimes own grim view of the world to an advantage as starts to become imprinted on young Sam. Yet, Vimes existential fretting about messing up his future does get tiresome after him doing it so many times in the book that it almost seems that Pratchett was finding ways to take up page space.

Night Watch is an action-packed installment in the Discworld series that Pratchett writes fantastically with Sam Vimes as the protagonist, even with the overused existential fretting. Once again I’ve found a Watch book bringing out the best of Pratchett and the entire Discworld setting, I can only hope the other two books of the subseries will be the same.

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LibraryThing member sereq_ieh_dashret

Despite not being in total accord with the social and political implications of this book and even if it is a not-so-subtle parody of Les Miserables, it is a damn great read. And young Vetinari is a bloody genius.

LibraryThing member TadAD

My favorite of the Discworld novels to date. Unfortunately, I don't think you can read this book just by itself...you need to know the characters and world or it loses its impact. See Guards!, Guards!.

This is a somewhat atypical book. It's shorter on "Pratchett humor" and longer on "thoughtful

character." Vimes is my favorite Discworld character and it's this book where we really understand him.

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LibraryThing member salimbol

Well, I devoured this in the space of a day, and I think this might rank as one of the best Discworld novels I've come across so far. It manages to be both a (fascinating) look into the recent history of the city of Ankh-Morpork and a very personal story about Sam Vimes himself - his

world-weariness, his compassion, his dry humour, his sheer bloody-mindedness and his fundamental decency. (And it also offers us a quick look at a much younger Lord Vetinari, which I found particularly interesting.) It was perfectly paced and very gripping and, as always, Pratchett has wise and witty things to say about everything under the sun, while at the same time gleefully skewering all the cliches surrounding social movements, political revolutions and time travel. Highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member mazeway

One of the best Discworld books. And probably one of the best texts on the politics of revolution that has been written.

LibraryThing member lycomayflower

When I said to the husbeast that I was looking for something light-hearted but with some substance, he handed me Pratchett's Night Watch. And that would be a pretty good description of this Disc World entry. Middle-aged Sam Vimes finds himself thrust back in time to a significant point in his own

personal history as well as in the history of Ankh-Morpork. The resulting adventure is by turns a comedic, satiric, and grimly realistic look at policing, mobs, and the ethics of killing and peace-keeping. Pratchett's humor sometimes passes me by (though that is as like as not because I am not paying enough attention), but when I get it, it's often laugh-out-loud funny. Night Watch is probably most enjoyable for people who have read about Sam Vimes before, but I was certainly able to follow the story and get something out of it despite being only slightly acquainted with Vimes before beginning the book. Generally makes me more inclined to read more Pratchett than I was before I picked it up.

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LibraryThing member gribeaux

I get the feeling that Pratchett enjoyed writing this one, as, along with Thud and Witches Abroad, it is an absorbing as well as clever novel.As the characters have developed, so the stories have improved.

LibraryThing member kaitanya64

The Discworld series is all good, but this book is outstanding. Pratchett explores the nature of law and justice and the role of a good man caught in a bad system. Lots of laughs, of course, but a bit more serious than some of the others in the series.

LibraryThing member zeborah

This was at least the third time I've read this book but the first time I didn't break down sobbing while reading it. Quite. It's almost a shame that this was one of the first Pratchetts I read, because it's also one of his best - or possibly even the best.

LibraryThing member reading_fox

One of my least favourite Discworld books, even though it was recently voted most favourite in a survey. I find this books lacks the undercurrents that make others so funny on many levels. It also features a weak time travel plot which I've always disliked, and does nothing to try and resolve the

contradictions created.

Sam Vimes is chasing Carcer (I always read this name as cancer, which is apt in some ways) a murderer. An unexplained discharge over the library results in both of them being transported back in time to the rule of Lord Winder - the dark old days of the Nightwatch as originally featured in Guards Guards. Vimes discovers he has to take the place of John Keel, who led the rebelion against Winder, and taught young sam vimes everything he needs to know. The original John was killed by Carcer, so he also has to deal with him at some point.

As discowrld books go, this has the highest action ratio, a fairly linear plot with few twists and some reasonable characterisation. But it's really missing the undertones. There are a few pointed comments about rebellions, and the role of police vs soldiers, but that's about it.

Enjoyable, engaging, a good backdrop to the Discworl'ds history, but much like the very early books, lacking in the depth that some of his best efforts have.

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LibraryThing member electrascaife

Sam Vimes is in hot pursuit of a criminal mastermind when they are both caught in a time hiccup and sucked into the past. They arrive on May 25th, the day of a bloody revolution which Vimes knows all too well because he was there the first time it happened. If he can change history he'll be able to

save the lives of good men, but then his own future (wife, soon-to-be-born son,...) may disappear, and anyway it may just take all his efforts just to keep his young, rookie cop self alive.
The absolute best Discworld book I've read so far. So much fabulous going on here. Vimes is at his Vimesiest, which could never be anything but wonderful, and the story has a feeling of everything that came before it being merely a lead-up to this moment.

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LibraryThing member ds_61_12

Accidents happen, but when they happen in a magical thunderstorm on top of the library of the Unseen University they can have unexpected results. Sam Vimes was chasing an insane murderer over the roof of the library when thunder struck. When he came to he found himself in a different Ankh-Morpork.

The Ankh-Morpork of his youth. A more dangerous, less civilised city, a city on the edge of revolt. Now he not only has to catch a criminal, he also has to stay alive so his self in the future will actually exist. At the same time: if he wins, and the revolt succeeds, there will be no wife, no child, no future.
Favourite Discworld novel. Darker than his previous work and with a Watch that is still in it's primal state. A beautiful insight in the old Ankh-Morpork.

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LibraryThing member riani1

Vimes is so very Vimes, no matter where or when he is. I loved the descriptions of him from those who don't him, as a man used to *serious* command. When we first met him so many books ago, he was just trying to get through the day with as much of his self-respect intact as he could manage. But he

keeps finding new occasions to rise to, and new heights to find himself on. Vetinari could not do what he does without the incorruptible, stalwart Vimes. As His Lordship said, "If I didn't have him, I'd have to invent him. In fact, I think I did." And Vimes knows that Vetinari manipulates him and is willing to challenge him to his face.

The scene in the cemetery at the end, with Vetinari and Vimes seeing each other from both ends of time and respecting what they see--this and Jingo show the two of them so wonderfully.

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LibraryThing member defrog

This book (the third Discworld novel I've ever read) is yet further evidence that I should be reading more of Pratchett. A healthy mix of Brit humor and some serious issues regarding law enforcement, corruption and torture. And Sam Vimes has got to be one of the best fictional characters I’ve

come across in years.

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LibraryThing member toasterhead

The Watch series is my favorite of the Discworld novels, and this book is one of the best in this series. The Sam Vimes backstory is developed colorfully as he returns to the old-fashioned days of "coppering."

LibraryThing member heidilove

I loved this. (Jax, I promise to give it back. Honest.) Sam Vimes and The Watch are definitely my favourite bits of the Discworld, and Pratchett uses the charaters deftly, making us think and laugh and examine our lives and our world. o. and there are puns, too.

LibraryThing member ClicksClan

Book 18 of the year was Terry Pratchett's Night Watch which is the twenty-ninth Discworld book in my collection. This one was a reread; when I discovered the Watch series of books, I actively sought them out so I had come across Night Watch before. That's one of the great things about the Discworld

books. You don't have to read them all in order (as I am doing right now), there's series within the main series; you can go for the Witches books (the first ones which I really got into, and thought there were only two of them until I read Lords and Ladies and discovered there were more of them!), you can read the Rincewind books, you can go for the Watch books. L-Space produced a wonderful little diagram which shows how they all link together and the order to read them in if you're just wanting to tackle one mini-series.

This one features Sam Vimes and a slight hiccough in time which results in his travelling back in time and assuming the identity of his own mentor. Oh, and there's a murderer who's gone back with him. It's a bit of a timey-wimey twisty plot.

This time around it made a bit more sense for me as previously I hadn't read Thief of Time (which introduces the History Monks who play an important part in smoothing out the time problems affecting Vimes). Of course, you don't have to have read Thief of Time to get what's going on here, it's all made perfectly clear, but Sweeper and Qu crop up again and it certainly helps knowing exactly what they're there to do.

I think that the time travel thing was a really good way to go back and explore an earlier period of Discworld's history. I'm not really a fan of authors going back and revisiting earlier periods of their works which results in books being published out of sequence (I'm looking at you, Bernard Cornwell). I'm one of those anal people who likes to read books in sequence, where possible, and there's nothing worse that starting a series, getting about five books into it and then discovering that there's a new book been released which slots nicely in between books two and three. Then you come up against a dilemma; do you go back and read book 2a? carry on with the series and then go back when you've finished and read it at the end? not bother reading it until your next read-through of the series and then read it where it belongs?

Obviously, not all series allow the writer to go back in time. But Discworld is one of those lucky ones where it's a perfectly acceptable option and it works really well. Terry Pratchett could probably have started the book with a two sentence prologue explaining that Vimes went to Unseen University and got transported back in time and I would have happily accepted that (it wouldn't be anywhere as eloquent or as engaging as what he really wrote though so I'm glad he did it the way he did).

And it was really good to look at the characters before we got to know them; CMOT-Dibbler, Mrs. Palm, Vetinari. And I liked the way that John Keel/Vimes influenced them. It was all very clever and there were little nods to other books (and who the characters would go on to become). The only downside is that now that it's been done, it can't really be done again unless it was with a different character and in a different way, which is a shame because I'd like to know more about the young Ventinari, the young CMOT-Dibbler and the young Sam Vimes.

As I said, I love the Watch books. I especially like the later Watch books, like this one, as they were the ones I became familiar with first. This one wasn't really like the other Watch books, because it featured the Watch before they became The Watch. But there are often moments in the other Watch books when Vimes thinks back about the way that things used to be done, it's good to actually see that up close.

The one thing that I sometimes find with the Discworld books is that I occasionally get confused with the action. It's almost always around the same point in every book; about three-quarters of the way through when the various plot strands have come together and the action is starting to come to some sort of resolution. I think this is partly my own fault, mainly because I either end up reading when I should be sleeping and so struggle to follow things because I'm trying to keep my eyes open; or because I'm desperately trying to read in between other things (working, housework, catching up online, whatever) and so I have to keep stopping and starting.

Terry Pratchett has this way of not quite explaining everything until it's absolutely necessary to bring the whole story together (I'm not sure that's the best way of phrasing things). There's always a little bit that's withheld until it all comes together at the very end. And I guess sometimes I get a bit confused before it's all revealled at the end. But it never spoils the story in any way and I think most of the time it's definitely me, rather than any fault in the story.

One thing that does make me very sad, is that I'm slowly getting nearer the end of the Discworld series. I've only got two more left to actually buy now (the two most recent ones) and about nine more still to read (is it nine? It might be eight now, I've lost count). At least when I get to the end of those, I'll still have some non-Discworld books to read. I just wish there were more hours in the day to get through all of my reading material!

Oh yeah, and quotes! I've managed to narrow it down to just two favourite ones (funnily enough, neither of them actually feature Sam Vimes, all of my favourite quotes for Vimes would've required me to copy out at least half a page of the book and my book journal just wouldn't have enough room for that). Both of these ones feature a character called Mr. Swing and (slight spoiler if you haven't read the book) DEATH.

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LibraryThing member pwaites

When I’m asked what my favorite book is, I say that it’s Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch. It’s hard for me to say why exactly this is. Possibly it’s because Night Watch is the darkest Discworld novel. Possibly it’s because Night Watch is so focused on my favorite character of all time,

Sam Vimes. Possibly it’s because even at the darkest points, Night Watch retains a sense of humanity and warmth. Truly, this is an excellent book.

However, I would not go into Night Watch blind. It’s the sixth book following Vimes, and I think you really need to have read the others, particularly The Fifth Elephant, to follow along with Vimes character arc. Night Watch works best if you already know Vimes coming in. If you’re new to Discworld, I would point you towards Guards! Guards! to start with.

Samuel Vimes has been raised to the rank of Duke. He’s commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, and he’s shaped them into a modern and powerful police force. He’s married to a woman he loves, and she’s about to give birth to their first child. He has pretty much everything he could want from life.

Then the hot pursuit of a murder over the domed library of the Unseen University, the premier institute of magic on the Disc, and a freak lightening bolt sends Vimes thirty years into the past to the eve of a fabled street rebellion.

“But here’s some advice, boy. Don’t put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That’s why they’re called revolutions.”

However, he’s not alone. The murderer he was chasing, Carcer, was sent back too. And Carcer’s already changed history by killing Sergeant John Keel, the man who taught Vimes everything he knows about being a good policeman. Vimes will have to step into Keel’s place to make sure that history goes according to plan.

As the street rebellion draws closer, Vimes has a choice. He can keep to the track of history and ensure his own future, or he can try desperately to save the people around him even if it costs him everything.

One thing I love about Night Watch is the cynicism surrounding war and revolutions. It strips the glory from them and shows that sometimes people die and accomplish nothing at all.

“When he was a boy he’d read books about great military campaigns, and visited the museums and looked with patriotic pride at the paintings of famous cavalry charges, last stands and glorious victories. It had come as rather a shock, when he later began to participate in some of these, to find that the painters had unaccountably left out the intestines. Perhaps they just weren’t very good at them.”

Night Watch is a book of shadows, both on the streets and within ourselves. Yet what makes it so powerful is the idea that we can resist the darkness, that we can choose to go against it.

“But…well, Reg, tomorrow the sun will come up again, and I’m pretty sure that whatever happens we won’t have found Freedom, and there won’t be a whole lot of Justice, and I’m damn sure we won’t have found Truth. But it’s just possible that I might get a hard-boiled egg.”

I would recommend Night Watch to everyone.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

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LibraryThing member gercmbyrne

Terry Pratchett is a god who walks among men. The entire Discworld series is a joy and only a strange mad creature cursed by gods and man would refuse to read and love these books!
This is one of the best discworld books, and a great reaed. Follow Vimes Carrot and the rest as they battle crime

(well, unlicensed crime,) in Ankh-Morpork

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LibraryThing member wfzimmerman

This was the book that turned me on to Terry Pratchett -- a gift from Kelsey. Pratchett and this book's hero Sam Vimes are in excellent form in this one.

LibraryThing member lorenelambert

I so love what Terry Pratchett does with Sam Vimes in this novel. The Watch novels as a whole deepened so considerably with Jingo and Fifth Elephant, and to see Vimes as he is here in Night Watch is a true reading pleasure.

LibraryThing member ironicqueery

Terry Pratchett scored a direct hit with Night Watch. This is one of the few, if not only, Discworld novel to take the reader back in time and let us see some of our favorite Discworld characters in their early years. Sam Vimes is our main focus, but we see how other members of the watch and city

got their start in the Watch and Politics. The story stays suspenseful until the very end and one never knows exactly where the story will end up. While the satire and parody are on the light side, we still see Pratchett's unique take on revolutions, the psychology of people, and city politics. Overall, this is one of Pratchett's finest books.

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LibraryThing member hjjugovic

This is one of my favorite books of all time, staring one of my favorite literary heroes, Sam Vimes. There are many thing to love about Pratchett's books, including his inimitable humor, but although this book is one of his least funny, it is, I think one of his best. The description of a man who "

thinks with his muscles" but overrides them moment by moment, the way our actions matter, the way sacrifice can, indeed be meaningful, the opportunity to see a man the true meaning of his accomplishments, the unparalleled honest glimpse into the mind of a copper and people who have faced death together - unspeakably beautiful. And there are great comedic moments (meeting Nobby Nobs as a "street urchin" is the best!) to parallel what is ultimately a serious exploration of the meaning of a man's life. It's perfect.

SPOILER plot notes: Sam is transported into his past pursuing a viscious murderer, Carcer. Carcer kills the man who was his mentor when he was a young man (John Keel), and with the help of some time-police monks, Sam steps into Keel's role and teaches himself how to be a cop. He is dropped into the past only days before an uprising in the city that would kill Keel and 6 other cops, and he makes it all happen again (but in a different way) in order to re-create a future he can return to. He catches Carcer and returns to the future with him, saves his wife's life during childbirth by finding the doctor he had worked with as Keel, becomes a father, and sees that Carcer will swing. He comes to terms with his place in life and what he has accomplished.

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