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Terry Pratchett

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Men at Arms: A Discworld Novel Kindle Edition

by Terry Pratchett (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.8 9,765 ratings

Part of: Discworld (41 books)

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“Unadulterated fun.”—San Francisco Chronicle

The fate of Ankh-Morpork rests on the unlikely shoulders of newly promoted Corporal Carrot and his hapless charges in the City Watch in this wildly wacky Discworld novel from the legendary New York Times bestselling author Terry Pratchett.

Corporal Carrot is now in charge of the new recruits guarding Ankh-Morpork from barbarian rribes, miscellaneous marauders, unlicensed thieves, and other dangerous Discworld denizens. It’s a big job for an adopted dwarf keeping the likes of young coppers Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance-constable Detritus (a troll), Lance-constable Angua (a woman. . . most of the time) and Corporal Nobbs (disqualified from the human race for shoving) in line.

Especially since someone in Ankh-Morpork has been getting dangerous ideas about crowns and legendary swords, and destiny—which points its crooked finger again when an ancient document reveals that Ankh-Morpork has a secret sovereign.

What's more, Captain Sam Vimes is getting married and retiring from the Watch. For good. Which is a shame, because no one knows the streets of Ankh-Morpork or its criminal underworld better than him.

It’s the beginning of the most awesome epic encounter of all time (or at least all afternoon), in which the fate of a city—indeed of the universe itself!—depends on a young man’s courage, an ancient sword’s magic, and a three-legged poodle’s bladder.

The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Men at Arms is the 2nd in the City Watch collection and the 15th Discworld book.

The City Watch series in order:

Guards! Guards!
Men at Arms
Feet of Clay
Jingo
The Fifth Elephant
Night Watch
Thud!
Snuff

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[An] always entertaining. . . hysterically funny series." — Kirkus Reviews

"Pratchett skewers the hard-boiled detective novel as effectively as he's satired fantasy fiction all these years. . . . The dialogue is hilarious, and Pratchett's take on affirmative action is a whole lot of fun. . . . As usual, Pratchett provides enough bad-tempered clowns, bloodthirsty trolls and dogs with low self-esteem to keep readers entertained." — Publishers Weekly

From the Back Cover

Corporal Carrot has been promoted! He’s now in charge of the new recruits guarding Ankh-Morpork, Discworld’s greatest city, from Barbarian Tribes, Miscellaneous Marauders, unlicensed Thieves, and such. It’s a big job, particularly for an adopted dwarf. But an even bigger job awaits. An ancient document has just revealed that Ankh-Morpork, ruled for decades by Disorganized crime, has a secret sovereign! And his name is Carrot . . .

And so begins the most awesome epic encounter of all time, or at least all afternoon, in which the fate of a city—indeed of the universe itself!—depends on a young man’s courage, an ancient sword’s magic, and a three-legged poodle’s bladder.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000TU16RC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Paperbacks (October 13, 2009)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 13, 2009
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2550 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 363 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #20,497 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #68 in Satire Fiction
- #74 in Humorous Science Fiction (Books)
- #139 in Humorous Fantasy (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.8 9,765 ratings

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Terry Pratchett

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Terry Pratchett sold his first story when he was fifteen, which earned him enough money to buy a second-hand typewriter. His first novel, a humorous fantasy entitled The Carpet People, appeared in 1971 from the publisher Colin Smythe. Terry worked for many years as a journalist and press officer, writing in his spare time and publishing a number of novels, including his first Discworld novel, The Color of Magic, in 1983. In 1987 he turned to writing full time, and has not looked back since. To date there are a total of 36 books in the Discworld series, of which four (so far) are written for children. The first of these children's books, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, won the Carnegie Medal. A non-Discworld book, Good Omens, his 1990 collaboration with Neil Gaiman, has been a longtime bestseller, and was reissued in hardcover by William Morrow in early 2006 (it is also available as a mass market paperback (Harper Torch, 2006) and trade paperback (Harper Paperbacks, 2006). Terry's latest book, Nation, a non-Discworld standalone YA novel was published in October of 2008 and was an instant New York Times and London Times bestseller. Regarded as one of the most significant contemporary English-language satirists, Pratchett has won numerous literary awards, was named an Officer of the British Empire “for services to literature” in 1998, and has received four honorary doctorates from the Universities of Warwick, Portsmouth, Bath, and Bristol. His acclaimed novels have sold more than 55 million copies (give or take a few million) and have been translated into 36 languages. Terry Pratchett lived in England with his family, and spent too much time at his word processor. Some of Terry's accolades include: The Carnegie Medal, Locus Awards, the Mythopoetic Award, ALA Notable Books for Children, ALA Best Books for Young Adults, Book Sense 76 Pick, Prometheus Award and the British Fantasy Award.

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Thomas Moore

The watch stories are some of Patchett’s best.

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2024

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I believe it comes down to his character work. Each individual has many interesting quirks. I’ve never been a connoisseur of mysteries, so I did not anticipate the turns in the story, which brought the entire story to a satisfying conclusion. Just great fun.

One person found this helpful

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John C

Men At Arms

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2023

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Another outstanding Pratchett. This dive into the Disc continues the adventures of the Night Watch as they investigate several murders that are taking place with a new and unknown weapon. Funny, endearing and exciting. Highly recommended!

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Amazon Customer

Fast delivery and nice package

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2023

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Fast delivery and nice package, the book is great and arrived in good condition

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Gilbert M. Stack

The City Watch Is Back!!!

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2022

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The City Watch returns as Sam Vimes is leaving the institution to marry into the nobility (he generally despises all nobles except his soon-to-be-wife) and a conspiracy acts to get rid of the patrician by restoring the descendant of the last king (who died centuries ago) to the throne. The king is—unsurprisingly—on the City Watch.

Pratchett is in true form here, satirizing just about everything from politics to policemen. He also takes a very humorous look at such serious questions as racism, getting people to think about tough topics without preaching at them. This is the book that also proves that the City Watch has legs as the focus of a novel (just in case the first one featuring them wasn’t proof enough) and happily leads him to write many more about this great crew.

3 people found this helpful

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historybuff

One of my favorites

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2023

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One of the most thoughtful of the Discworld series. Focuses on Sam Vimes and Corporal Carrot, and the relationship between the police and the city.

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2006

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This is the Discworld novel wherein Captain Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork's Night Watch retires and gets married, the Night Watch itself becomes an equal species organization, and Gaspode the Talking Dog falls in love with new recruit, Angua, the werewolf. She has just joined the Night Watch under the Equal Species Act, along with Detritus the Troll and Cuddy the Dwarf.

No wonder Sam, who is a bit of a male chauvinist speciesist is going to retire.

Not since Stephen King's "It" have clowns gotten such bad press as in "Men at Arms." They seem to be the saddest creatures on Discworld. One of them, Beano is murdered and ends up playing 'Knock Knock - Who's There?' with Death, who is trying to develop a sense of humor.

Humor will never be the strong suite of a hooded, seven-foot skeleton with glowing blue eyes, but Death does get in one inadvertently funny line. He tells Beano to think of his newly deceased state as being 'DIMENSIONALLY DISADVANTAGED.'

Meanwhile back in the world of the living and undead, Captain Sam Vimes and his command investigate the circumstances of Beano's death. Sam is also under orders from his wife-to-be to find a missing swamp dragon, which is likely to explode if it comes under stress.

When a large hole is blown in the headquarters of the Assassin's Guild, Sam has a pretty good notion of what caused the explosion. What he really wants to know is whether this latest calamity has something to do the Beano's death. After all, the Assassins are right next door to the Guild of Fools and Clowns.

What he does not yet know is that mad genius, Leonard of Quirm's deadliest invention has fallen into the hands of a rabid monarchist who will do everything in his power to restore Ankh-Morpork's rightful king---and that king is a member of his own Night Watch.

"Men at Arms" (1993) is another great slapstick-with-a-message adventure in the Sam Vimes/Night Watch Discworld novels. If you'd like to read them in order of publication, they are: "Guards! Guards!" (1989); "Men at Arms" (1993); "Feet of Clay" (1996); "Jingo" (1997); "The Fifth Elephant" (1999); "Night Watch" (2002); and "Thud!" (2005).

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jstrachan

One of my favorite Terry Pratchett books!

Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2023

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I am a fan of Terry Pratchett. This is one of my favorite of his 40 DiscWorld books! It’s the perfect sequel to Guards, Guards!

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2023

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This book is fire, love me the guards series of these books, never misses, always a very good read tbh

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Cat Lady

Value for price

Reviewed in Canada on April 4, 2022

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Best author ever! It's becoming difficult to find his older books.

John Finn

The city watch at their best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2024

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This is the second in the Discworld City Watch series. Commander Vimes and his gang of guards deal with a serial killer who is determined to restore the old kingdom. Funny, witty with sometimes dark humour makes this a compelling read. I would recommend that the you read” Guards!, Guards! “ book first then you’ll really enjoy this one.