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The blurb:
The City Watch needs MEN! But what it's got includes Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), 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).
And they need all the help they can get, because someone in Ankh-Morpork has been getting dangerous ideas - about crowns and legendary swords, and destiny. And the problem with destiny is, of course, that she is not always careful where she points her finger. One minute you might be minding your own business on a normal if not spectacular career path, the next you might be in the frame for the big job, like saving the world...
Things have changed for the Night Watch since the events of Guards! Guards!. For starters, there are a few more of them than just Nobby, Colon, Carrot and Vimes — the Watch is branching out into equal opportunity land (cue me cursing Pratchett for being all prescient again; reading this while ::gestures vaguely at the whole damn world:: is going on is somewhere between appropriate and saddening) with the hiring of Detritus, a troll, Cuddy, a dwarf, and Angua, a w... werewolf. Vimes isn't quite on board — he doesn't like dwarfs or trolls, but he also has a pretty jaundiced view of humans, so he is actually pretty level when it comes to broadly disliking species. No species should feel singled out here.
We also meet our almost-antagonist, Edward d'Eath, who's suffering from a little economic anxiety — on the surface at least. When his motives are given the least little scratch, we're back to the old "things aren't as good as they were in the Good Old Days" (when the G.O.D.s are viewed with a certain shade of rose in one's lenses at least). There's some intrigue between Vimes and Vetinari, who absolutely forbids Vimes from investigating a sudden string of mysterious deaths, or any connection between the Assassins Guild and the Clowns Guild.
Vimes, meanwhile, is having a crisis: he's marrying Sybil Ramkin and he's about to be part of Ankh-Morporkian society's upper crust — a crust that's never wanted anything to do with him before now, and that feeling is mutual, thank you very much. He's got a lot to try and get used to, to make a long story short.
The story is a bit heavier on the mystery and intrigue than Guards! Guards! was. The characterisation also takes a level; in my review of Guards!, I said I hoped that Carrot's character got a little more nuance and depth in future books and it's there. Part of that is just that he's been in Ankh-Morpork for a while and some of the naivety has been rubbed off, but also he feels a bit deeper as a character rather than the somewhat one-note portrayal in Guards!. I'm happy to see it.
We also meet Leonard of Quirm, Discworld's analog of Leonardo da Vinci, who has a similar track record of inventing...well, everything, really. He's currently the permanent guest of the Patrician — but one of his inventions has escaped captivity, and that's what drives the novel. The gonne is a portable firearm, and it seems to do disturbing things to people's minds.
So, two main themes: dealing with people who are different (tackled by Cuddy and Detritus finding some common ground through the trope of one saving the other from certain death) and power (the gonne, and people's inability to resist it — even Vetinari can't bring himself to destroy the thing, even if he can resist the urge to wield it; and also Carrot's discovery of his heritage, and Vetinari becoming aware of it).
It's a solid entry in the canon. I enjoyed the deeper characterisation, and the broadened cast of characters for the Watch.
Started: 28 February 2025
Finished: 4 March 2025
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