Synopses & Reviews
This morning, Commander Vimes of the City Watch had it all. He was a Duke. He was rich.He was respected. He had a silver cigar case. He was about to become a father.
Review
“Masterful and brilliant.” Fantasy & Science Fiction
Synopsis
This morning, Commander Vimes of the City Watch had it all. He was a Duke. He was rich. He was respected. He had a silver cigar case. He was about to become a father.
This morning he thought longingly about the good old days.
Tonight, he's in them.
Flung back in time by a mysterious accident, Sam Vimes has to start all over again. He must get a new name and a job, and there's only one job he's good at: cop in the Watch. He must track down a brutal murderer. He must find his younger self and teach him everything he knows. He must whip the cowardly, despised Night Watch into a crack fighting force -- fast. Because Sam Vimes knows what's going to happen. He remembers it. He was there. It's part of history. And you can't change history . . .
But Sam is going to. He has no choice. Otherwise, a bloody revolution will start, and good men will die. Sam saw their names on old headstones just this morning -- but tonight they're young men who think they have a future. And rather than let them die, Sam will do anything -- turn traitor, burn buildings, take over a revolt, anything -- to snatch them from the jaws of history. He will do it even if victory will mean giving up the only future he knows.
For if he succeeds, he's got no wife, no child, no riches, no fame -- all that will simply vanish. But if he doesn't try, he wouldn't be Sam Vimes.
And so the battle is on. He knows how it's going to end; after all, he was there. His name is on one of those headstones. But that's just a minor detail . . .
Synopsis
"Night Watch turns out to be an unexpectedly moving novel about sacrifice and responsibility, its final scenes leaving one near tears. . . Terry Pratchett may still be pegged as a comic novelist, but . . . he's a lot more." -- Washington Post Book World
Getting knocked back in time thirty years, Sam Vines, Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch experiences a day like no other in which past, present, and future collide with hilarious--and poignant--results in this rollicking Discworld adventure from Terry Pratchett.
One moment Commander of the City Watch Sam Vimes is chasing a murderer across the rooftops of Ankh-Morpork. The next, he's lying in the street below, naked--and back in his own tough past thanks to a lightning strike and a group of meddling, time-manipulating monks.
It's a dark Discworld that is all too familiar. Worse, the cop-killing psychopath he'd been pursuing has been transported back with him, and it's the eve of a deadly street rebellion that took a few good (and not so good) lives. Vimes is determined to do his duty-- track down the murderer and change the outcome of the rebellion. By changing history he might just save some worthwhile necks, and steer a novice watchman straight--an impressionable young copper named Sam Vimes.
But if he succeeds, Sam knows it could cost him the future--including the job and the family he loves.
The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Night Watch is the 6th book in the City Watch collection and the 29th Discworld book.
The City Watch series in order:
Guards Guards Men at ArmsFeet of ClayJingoThe Fifth ElephantNight WatchThud Snuff
Synopsis
Commander of the City Watch Sam Vines experiences a day like no other in which past, present, and future collide with hilarious-- and poignant-- results.
About the Author
Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular living authors in the world. His first story was published when he was thirteen, and his first full-length book when he was twenty. He worked as a journalist to support the writing habit, but gave up the day job when the success of his books meant that it was costing him money to go to work.
Prachett's acclaimed novels are bestsellers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and have sold more than twenty-one million copies worldwide. He lives in England, where he writes all the time. (It's his hobby as well.)