Rating: 5/5
Review:
Possibly Pratchett's finest book
Terry Pratchett wrote a lot of truly excellent books, but if
I had to choose one as his masterpiece, this would be it. Night Watch has all his qualities in
abundance: wit, an engrossing story, wonderful characters, deep insight and a
great, great humanity. (It really helps
to be familiar with The Watch so I'd recommend reading the preceding Watch
books first.)
In Night Watch, Commander Vimes gets caught in a temporal
event (and quantum, of course) which transports him and the vicious criminal he
is pursuing back to the time when the young Sam Vimes has just joined the
Watch. It's a clever and incredibly
thoughtful story about power and its abuses, the moral complexities of policing
and the law, and about decency, humanity and inhumanity. There are scenes in a corrupt Watch House
here which, even though they are not at all graphic, still haunt me and I have
cherished for years the exchange between Vimes and his enraged, vengeance-bent
younger self:
"You *don't* bash a man' brains out when he's tied to a
chair!"
"He did!"
"And you don't.
That’s because you're not him."
That sums up the moral situation as pithily as I've ever
heard it.
Night Watch has everything for me; it's a great, involving
read, it's funny at times, it's very affecting at others and it says some very
important things in a way which allows you to hear them easily and
enjoyably. Very warmly recommended.
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