I find that if I am in need of a book to make me laugh a bit and maybe think a bit, Terry Pratchett is an excellent choice. I received Guards! Guards! as part of last year’s holiday book exchange and couldn’t have been happier. I’ve only read a handful of books from Pratchett’s enormous Discworld series, but I have enjoyed every one that I’ve read and this is no exception. Guards! Guards! involves political power plays, bumbling police, a love story and dragons.
The story takes place in Ankh-Morpork, a large, busy commercial city ruled by a tyrant called The Patrician with the assistance of various guilds, including an assassins guild and the Thieves Guild. The Thieves Guild oversees theft in the city, ensuring that “unauthorized crime” is stopped in its tracks. As the Patrician says, if crime is always with us, it should at least be organized! As a result, the Watch (aka the city guard or police) is something of a joke. They really aren’t invested in stopping crime as that would be stepping on the toes of the Thieves Guild (and various other guilds). Captain Vimes spends a lot of time drunk and his constables Nobby and Colon probably engage in more questionable behavior than they stop. A couple of events upset the equilibrium in the city and amongst the guards. An earnest young man named Carrot arrives from the countryside to join the Watch. Carrot is a strapping fellow who had been orphaned and raised by dwarves. He is a bit naive to the ways of the city but has practically memorized the law code and takes his duties very seriously. Carrot keeps arresting people who are breaking the law and this creates problems for Vimes and his men.
The other significant event is that a book of magic has been stolen from Unseen University and is being used by shadowy forces to summon a dragon to Ankh-Morpork. Their goal is to use the dragon to destabilize The Patrician’s grip on the city. If a dragon is running about incinerating people (and it most definitely is), then a hero (whom they have chosen) will step forward to slay it and, naturally, become king. These shadowy forces will then themselves rule the city. The only people who seem to understand what is going on are Vimes, the Librarian (who is an orangutan) and a society lady named Sybil Ramkin. Lady Ramkin raises swamp dragons and is an authority on all things dragon related. The Librarian is a bad ass who has impressive research skills and equally impressive fighting skills. Through Ramkin, Vimes begins to appreciate the fragility of dragons and the attraction of Lady Ramkin herself.
As usual, Pratchett spins out a fantastical yarn, full of silly characters who express surprising truths. The highlight of the story for me is when the dragon manages to become the King of Ankh-Morpork and the guards are shocked and disgusted by the way the people of the city, who had always been fiercely independent, switch overnight to being monarchists. The dragon, as ferocious and dangerous as it is, finds itself surprised by humans and their conduct:
There was practically nothing the dragon could do to people that they had not, sooner or later, tried on one another, often with enthusiasm.
The Patrician’s explanation of good and evil, or rather evil and worse, is also both amusing and sobering in its truth. All people are bad, he says, but “some of them are on opposite sides.” A few rare individuals are very creative “great sinners” (like himself) while most folks are “humdrum” bad.
They accept evil not because they say yes but because they don’t say no.
They will follow any dragon, worship any god. The great sinners know how to make things work, while the generally bad masses are only good at one thing: overthrowing the great sinners’ regimes. What a timely message for an election year, just four short years after overthrowing a bad regime!
I suspect there must be more Discworld novels about Ankh-Morork’s Watch, and if so I will have to make sure I track them down. I am also loving the Librarian and need to read more about him. If anyone has advice on Pratchett books to read, let me know! You haven’t let me down yet!