Night Watch

[Editor's Note: The following is a combined review with THIEF OF TIME.]--Discworld is a world that defies description. The dry wit of Pratchett is apparent in each series installment, and the same characters pop up now and then. The simple is complex (and vice versa), and the humor is dry and smart. THIEF OF TIME, a finalist for the 2002 Audie Award for science fiction, like many books in the series, is reminiscent of theater of the absurd. Pratchett take the idea of time management into Discworld and has fun with it. NIGHT WATCH deals with topics that are a bit more everyday--crime, cops, people up to no good--but in Discworld they're unlike anything else. Stephen Briggs's voices add dimension to the characters while avoiding exaggeration. He brings out the satire without compromising the subtlety of the humor. Although the review copy of NIGHT WATCH had phantom voices, the distraction was minimal. This series is meant to be read aloud. J.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

September 30, 2002
British author Pratchett's storytelling, a clever blend of Monty Pythonesque humor and Big Questions about morality and the workings of the universe, is in top form in his 28th novel in the phenomenally bestselling Discworld series (The Last Hero, etc.). Pragmatic Sam Vimes, Commander of Ankh-Morpork's City Watch, can't complain. He has a title, his wife is due to give birth to their first child any moment and he hasn't had to pound a beat in ages—but that doesn't stop him from missing certain bits of his old life. Thank goodness there's work to be done. Vimes manages to corner a murderer, Carcer, on the library dome at Unseen University during a tremendous storm, only to be zapped back in time 30 years, to an Ankh-Morpork where the Watch is a joke, the ruling Patrician mad and the city on the verge of rebellion. Three decades earlier, a man named John Keel took over the Night Watch and taught young Sam Vimes how to be a good cop before dying in that rebellion. Unfortunately, in this
version of the past, Carcer has killed Keel. The only way Vimes can hope to return home—and ensure he has a future to return home to—is to take on Keel's role. The author lightens Vimes's decidedly dark situation with glimpses into the origins of several of the more unique denizens of Ankh-Morpork. One comes away, as always, with the feeling that if Ankh-Morpork isn't a real place, it bloody well ought to be.