Guards! Guards!

How often have I heard, “Oh, Q. W. Aardvark’s fantasy is awesome, but you really need to read all 8,326 books in the series to get it”! How about no? Fortunately, I learned the secret of Pratchett’s Discworld series: each novel is freestanding.

I like this book because it’s like a cynical, bitter uncle who secretly has a teddy bear—despite the outward grime and gloom of the setting, there’s a hilarious wit, punning, and barrage of pop references underlying the story that gives it a heart. It’s fantasy for those who don’t think they like it.

I like Terry Pratchett’s fresh take on dragons. I’ve always appreciated his sense of humor, and his portrayal of little swamp dragons is hilarious! It cracked me up to read about little dragons like they are purebred lap dogs.

In this book, Sir Terry skillfully uses a big dragon as a metaphor, and I always love a good metaphor. Although I read it years ago, this book has stuck with me.

I fell in love with how absurd the books are in their brilliance and how they seem to evolve together with the reader.

When reading them as a young adult, I found them funny, creative, and quirky, yet with progressing education and experience, re-reading them reveals Pratchett’s philosophical genius with the many things that are hidden in the plots and many details. Only after reading them the third time did I notice how a simple and impressive description of string theory shaped the plot. After finishing my master's in business psychology, I recognized several behavioral patterns from my lectures and… show more.

My whole list of recommendations could be three times as long and still consist entirely of Discworld novels, but I've decided to focus on one.

Guards! Guards! is filled with Pratchett’s signature wit and humor, with characters that channel the kind of concentrated humanity Pratchett excels in. They’re larger than life, yet still true to it. In many ways, they exemplify it.

Through Captain Vimes, Sergeant Colon, Corporal Nobbs, and the naïve but charismatic Carrot Ironfoundersson (a human raised by dwarves), we get a story that tackles inequality, injustice, resilience, and responsibility, all while making time for a stubborn swamp-dragon… show more.

This could fill in for any Discworld novel taking place in the off-the-wall, goofy, and imaginative Ankh-Morpork.

A city of trolls, dwarves, and other fantasy creatures, living together in a parody and pastiche of classic Tolkienesque fantasy. But Ankh-Morpork is no Minas Tirith, no gleaming city on a hill, no, it’s a city where even the assassins and clowns have guilds (and the latter are feared far more), where the river is so silty and polluted you can take an evening stroll on it.

Though every Discworld novel is great, Guards! Guards! remains one of my favorites, as it follows… show more.

I love the series about Ankh-Morpork, full of ordinary people, some of them rather hapless, who every so often rise to greatness.

Pratchett is so funny, and yet there is an undertone of real feeling beneath the comedy, which makes these books rereadable. My favorite characters are the Guards, and this book was my first introduction to them.

A friend of mine once said to Terry Pratchett “I worship the ground you write upon”.

Well, so do I. The “Discworld” is an entirely invented world which still bears a resemblance to some of our own historical eras without precisely specifying which one. 

Sir Terry Pratchett manages the almost impossible by being profound and witty at the same time. His books are never ever boring. They are charming, full of wonderful ideas, great characters, and clever and insightful comments.

And of course, there’s magic, there are vampires and werewolves and great villains being pursued by rather ordinary people. Just… show more.

You know the group of guards who usually run in and immediately get decimated by the hero? What would happen if the big storybook hero wasn't there to fight them, but to get a job with them?

I will forever love this book because it introduced me to one of my favorite characters of all time, Captain Sam Vimes. According to Pratchett, he wasn't even supposed to be the main character in this book. But he was an easier head to get into than the big storybook hero, and before Pratchett knew it he'd taken over. This is the start… show more.

Guards! Guards! is the first of the City Watch books from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. This book was the first book that I’d ever read to lampoon Dragons and Humans in such a brilliant way.

STP had already mentioned Dragons in The Colour of Magic, but I wanted dragons that had characters and were a proper character, not just a side one.

There are two types of dragons in this story – Swamp Dragons, a purse puppy-sized dragon that was more likely to explode from excitement like a spaniel with a new friend, than breathe fire and fly. The other… show more.