Oh, what to say about a Terry Pratchett book that can’t be summed up as “just read it!” in increasingly louder tones? AS I said in my review of Wintersmith, the worst Terry Pratchett book is better than some of the best examples of other authors’ works. And this book has to be in my opinion one of his best.
Sam Vimes, Commander of the City Watch, is soon to be a father, which means perhaps chasing Carcer, one of the more dangeous of Ankh-Morpork’s criminals over rooftops during a rainstorm isn’t the smartest of ideas. Especially when those rooftops belong to the Unseen University, Ankh-Morpork’s magical school and a place where chaos is the name of the game everyday. When a lightining strike sends both Vimes and Carcer back in time thirty years, to the early days of Vimes’s time on the force, Vimes will have two things to do: bring Carcer home with him and simply try survive the revolution building in the streets, all while not changing the timeline anymore than he has to. Especially when he realizes that scrawny little twerp who’s in the fast line to get himself killed just happens to be him. Shouldn’t be too hard to find yourself as your own mentor, should it?
I can not do this book justice with a synopsis. I doubt I could give this book justice if I sat you down over a pot of tea and gabbed on incessantly about it for over an hour. I could talk about how Sam Vimes is the cynic we all have deep inside of us somewhere that we need to let out more often. How Vetinari (and it is always a good book when Pratchett brings in Vetinari) is the perfect supportive/hindering other half that Vimes needs both younger and older. How seeing even more of the Watch and what exactly Vimes dragged them into being without even trying. How corrupt the city was at the time and how even if Vimes may not want to acknowledge it, him as the weary up-to-here Commander he is and Vetinari as the “one man one vote; he’s one man so he gets the one vote” dictator that he is are actually the two who are dragging the city into what it needs to be, with copious assistance from Carrot, Angua, Colon and even Nobby Nobbs along the way.
The dialogue, the satire, the way that you get introduced to characters and maybe 200 pages later you’re crying over them. This book gives Rogue One vibes without being Rogue One, because it’s not like you know how the story ends in the Discworld universe, and yet if you’ve ever read this type of book or seen this type of movie, you know how the story ends.
Even though it’s been over 20 years since it’s been published (can it be that long? I remember reading it when it first came out, and I am not that old), the underlying story is timeless, now more than ever. At its heart, Night Watch is a story about how the people in charge are constantly trampling the people down below, though that never stops those common people from trying to fight to get what they’re entitled to in this world.
Maybe in the end, what we all just need is a sprig of lilac to remind us of that fact. And to remember that if we were there we wouldn’t need to ask; and if we need to ask, we weren’t there.
Some of the good quotes (not all; that would be 80% of the book):
Vimes’ glare ran from face to face, causing most of the squad to do an immediate impression of the Floorboard and Ceiling Inspectors Synchronised Observation Team.”
“Oh,” he said.
YES, said Death.
“Not even time to finish my cake?”
NO. THERE IS NO MORE TIME, EVEN FOR CAKE. FOR YOU, THE CAKE IS OVER. YOU HAVE REACHED THE END OF CAKE.”
“You’d like Freedom, Truth, and Justice, wouldn’t you, Comrade Sergeant?’ said Reg encouragingly.
‘I’d like a hard-boiled egg,’ said Vimes, shaking the match out.
There was some nervous laughter, but Reg looked offended.
‘In the circumstances, Sergeant, I think we should set our sights a little higher–‘
‘Well, yes, we could,’ said Vimes, coming down the steps. He glanced at the sheets of papers in front of Reg. The man cared. He really did. And he was serious. He really was. ‘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.”
“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.”
“of sotto voce argument. Then a voice shouted, “Death to the Fascist Oppressors!” This time the argument was more frantic. He heard someone say, “Oh, all right,” and then, “Death to the Fascist Oppressors, Present Company Excepted! There, is everyone happy now?”
