A Guards! Guards! Essay | Discworld Book 8
Introduction
Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards! is the 8th book in the Discworld series, making this the eighth post in our ongoing chronological read-along. It’s also the first book from the City Watch collection. More importantly, though, it’s one of my favorites, and is the point in the series where Discworld really starts to find its footing and identity. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at Guards! Guards!. We’ll summarize it, then I’ll share my thoughts, and then I’ll respond to some of the thoughts that you shared. If you didn’t have the chance to share your thoughts prior to this post, don’t worry! You can talk about Guards! Guards! in the comments, and you can subscribe to see when the discussion post for the 9th Discworld book, Eric, pops up for you to share your thoughts then.
Without further delay, because this post is already a couple of months delayed, let’s take a deep dive into one of the best Discworld books out there: Guards! Guards!.
Summary
The Setup
A scheme in Ankh-Morpork is underway… one that is doomed to go horribly awry. A cult is plotting to return the city to the Dark Ages of 1640s England by unseating the Patrician and putting a king in his place. To achieve this, they naturally need a dragon for the usurper to slay. With a book of magic, they can summon just that, though their first attempt causes the dragon to appear only for a brief instant. They’ll need something more powerful in order to keep the dragon around long enough to pose a threat to the city for their usurper to slay.
Meanwhile, Carrot Ironfoundersson, a human raised by dwarves, arrives in Ankh-Morpork and joins the City Watch. Carrot, being raised among dwarves, takes everything entirely literally and follows the letter of the law above all else. This makes him a rather interesting choice for city watchman; after studying the laws and ordinances of the city, he takes every single last one of them extremely seriously. He also doesn’t understand that, as has been established in previous Discworld books that he must not have read, the Thieves Guild is a sanctioned operation that is just part of what keeps the city balanced and ticking.
After Carrot arrested the leader of the guild (and feeling satisfied with himself for having done so), that leader goes straight to the Patrician and informs him of the issue. The Patrician commands the Captain of the Watch, Vimes, to resolve the matter with Carrot. After a bit of an adventure in the city that leads to a fight in a tavern as Carrot attempts to cite them for various infractions, Carrot is told how things work in the city and that he can’t just go around… you know, arresting people.
Not long after, the members of the City Watch see flames incinerate people in front of them, and they immediately seek an audience with Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, to inform him that a dragon is in the city. The Patrician, though, insists they leave the matter alone. He tells his secretary, Wonse, to look into the issue instead.
Vimes meets with a dragon breeder named Sybil Ramkin, though she breeds small dragons rather than the gigantic, terrifying one seen earlier. During their conversation, Sybil tells Vimes of her work breeding dragons and gives him the information she can. Not long after, they see the tremendous dragon flying over the city, and Vimes pursues it, though he loses track and is unable to meet up with it. Still, he’s seen the thing with his own eyes, and so have numerous others. There’s no denying it, now, and so the Patrician puts out a reward for the slaying of the dragon.
Later, members of the Watch are studying the sky, trying to catch a glimpse of the dragon as so many others are down below. The dragon doesn’t appear at first, but then takes off from a tower and lets flames loose on the tower. Vimes wakes later, having been taken to Sybil by Carrot, who saved his life. She tends to his wounds (classic Wounded Soldier trope, eh?), and they discuss the dragon further. Shortly after, angry citizens reach Sybil’s door, accusing her of being the source of the chaos due to all of her dragons. Vimes disperses the crowd and then Sybil gives him one of her dragons, who has come to like him: Goodboy Bindle Featherstone, whom he renames Errol.
Errol is used to help find the dragon… though it’s not too hard, given that the dragon is on their roof. A resounding noise in the distance calls the dragon away from them before they’re incinerated. The group chases after the creature to find that a self-declared “rightful heir to the throne” is here to fight the dragon in the city square. This heir slays the dragon, though it just bursts and vanishes rather than appearing slain. The Patrician is arrested so that Ankh-Morpork can transition into being a kingdom again, and the coronation of this would-be king is scheduled.
The Usurper
Vimes, with Errol, investigates the site of the dragon’s supposed death. While there, lightning rockets from the sky and strikes the library, a source of tremendous magic, and the dragon reappears in the plaza. Vimes begins to understand that dragons require magic to exist, and that this dragon was likely fed with magic but has now started to feed itself using the library. Errol distracts the dragon for a bit to cover Sybil and Vimes’ escape, but the larger dragon is far superior and knocks him out of the sky. The great dragon goes on to incinerate the cult that had summoned him, though one survives because he was sent to get the pizza (he was always sent to get the pizza), so Vimes takes him in for questioning.
Vimes takes Carrot with him to the palace (now belonging to the usurper king) to inform Wonse that the dragon is, in fact, not slain at all, and is very much still terrorizing the city and turning folk to ash. It takes a bit of extra effort to get into the palace due to the guards not being cooperative, but Vimes eventually makes it in to talk to Wonse, who… doesn’t really care, and tells Vimes that he’s probably just overworked and burned out. Vimes learns later, after a nap, that their suspect has escaped and that the coronation is tomorrow, which they are expected to attend.
At the coronation, Wonse tells Vimes to hand over his badge (dang, hitting all the classic beats for a cop drama, are we). Vimes complies, to his dismay, and leaves. The other members of the Watch are on the rooftops, keeping an eye on things, when they realize that they’re sharing the roof with the dragon, which departs to cause further terror. Vimes seeks to help, despite no longer being a member of the City Watch, and is there to see… the dragon coronated as king. The dragon takes Wonse to the palace, eager to begin ruling over Ankh-Morpork in a bizarre turn of events… which the people just accept. No one really denies the dragon king, they just decide that this is what it must be the case and it’s probably fine.
Wonse speaks for the dragon, who conveys his desires as king to him. The dragon wishes to have treasure brought to him from throughout the city. They’ll also start taking treasure from other kingdoms, including their allies. Additionally, the dragon king wants monthly food: a virgin woman, as per usual. All of this seems distressing for Wonse, who, it turns out, is the cult leader who summoned the dragon in the first place, but he is now in a very different situation than what he initially wished for.
Meanwhile, members of the City Watch sans Vimes are trying to figure out the right way to kill a dragon, with Carrot suggesting that you just have to hit its weak point (I guess he played lots of Zelda while living with the dwarves or something). Colon is supposed to be pretty good at archery, so he’s the one who’s determined to make the shot. A pretty amusing scene occurs shortly after wherein the crew tries to figure out how to ensure that they have exactly million-to-one odds of success, because having hundred-to-one odds or anything else is bound to fail, but million-to-one should succeed (I guess that Carrot was putting off his statistics and probability lessons while he was playing Zelda). While all of this is going on, Sybil Ramkin is taken by guards because she has been selected for the virgin sarifice.
The Overthrow
Sergeant Colon fires his arrow at the dragon when the opportunity arrives, though he hasn’t figured out where the dragon’s weak point (or voonerable [sic] spot, as they keep calling it) is. I suppose Carrot didn’t play enough Zelda to know to tell him that it’s almost always the gigantic eyeball somewhere on its body. The arrow misses (they didn’t quite get the odds right), and the dragon shoots a ball of fire in their direction.
Terrified that the members of the City Watch have been burned to a crisp, Vimes rescues Sybil Ramkin from her chains, only for the dragon to arrive shortly after. His terror over the loss of his companions is short-lived, however, as he finds that the rest of the City Watch survived by leaping into water below the roof as the fireball rushed toward them. Collectively, they watch as the little dragon Errol engages in one of the most bizarre and interestingly-written dragon fights you’ve ever encountered in your years of reading about these fire-breathing, winged lizards. Even more bizarrely, Errol succeeds, and then Carrot… arrests the dragon. Wonse is killed when Carrot, taking the phrase “throw the book at him” literally, launches the laws and ordinances of the city at Wonse and sends him tumbling out of a window as a result. Whoops. Or maybe not “whoops”; it’s a pretty good ending for the sniveling man, as he dies on the ground below, and Death claims him.
We end with Vimes and Sybil in her home, having dinner together, as a romance slowly starts to blossom… but that’s something we can explore in later books.
Discussion
I loved rereading Guards! Guards!. Up to this point in our chronological read-along of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, Mort is the first book that has really felt like the Discworld I know and love, and that was the fourth book—four books ago! That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the other ones (go check out the other Discworld read-along posts and you’ll see I did enjoy the others), but it is to say that those other books have still felt like Pratchett was feeling out what he wanted Discworld to be. In Guards! Guards!, the eighth book in the series and the first book from the City Watch collection, it feels like Discworld’s identity has been settled on. From here, we’ve got Eric (which I am admittedly not terribly familiar with and have only read once), but then it’s Moving Pictures and—my personal favorite, at least far as I can recall—Reaper Man. As I look ahead at what’s coming up, but I’m realizing that we really are at the point where Discworld truly and fully becomes the series I have loved so much.
So let’s get into my thoughts on Guards! Guards!, and then dive into the thoughts you provided to me regarding the novel. I’m excited to talk about this one—there’s so much to go over!
My Thoughts on Guards! Guards!
I’m going to be honest here: I have written, erased, and rewritten my thoughts here several times because the more that I wrote, the more I realized that I was analyzing the character of Commander Vimes over the story of Guards! Guards!. Samuel Vimes is an extremely well-written character and there’s a lot to get into with him. But that may be a post for another time. However, to give a simplified version of the essay I kept accidentally writing: Vimes is a really interesting and honest approach to the tropes we typically see in stories of this nature. Two things that really stood out to me personally were his alcoholism and his relationship with his job. Vimes is a good leader, but he’s also a flawed man, and Pratchett wrote this character compellingly and honestly. I picked up on things this time around—especially surrounding his alcoholism—that I had not really thought much about on previous rereads. Part of this, I believe, is because I myself have historically had issues with alcohol but have been sober since 2019. This meant that when Terry Pratchett made off-handed comments about things like Vimes getting drunk and completely losing time but never lingered on such truly devastating things, I still felt their impact significantly—perhaps more so than if he had spoken about such things at length. It doesn’t seem like a big deal when it’s happening; once you start noticing what’s going on, though, it’s terrifying.
But again, I don’t want to turn this essay about Guards! Guards! into an essay about Samuel Vimes, so perhaps I’ll save that for another time. Instead, let’s talk more about the story surrounding this imperfect hero: a dragon has usurped the throne of Ankh-Morpork in the most ridiculous turn of events, leading to further ridiculousness and plenty of social commentary. I’ve picked just a few things I really want to focus on here: human complacency, law enforcement, and systems of government.
None of these topics are at all controversial, I’m sure.
Human Complacency
Throughout Guards! Guards!, commentary is made on humans just accepting things. They don’t fight back—or if they do, they don’t fight very hard or for terribly long—they just accept even the most absurd and ridiculous notions. Let’s think for a moment about how insane this novel’s progression actually is, specifically in terms of the things that people just have to accept. We start out with the Patrician, Lord Vetinari, ruling Ankh-Morpork as per usual, but he is unseated because… someone makes a dragon disappear. This is about as reliable a system of government as strange women in ponds distributing swords. However, when the usurper would be crowned king, the dragon is accidentally crowned instead… and now the dragon is king.
And all the way through, humans just accept these things. The people of the city simply roll over and do very little about it all. We get a couple of moments of minor protests here and there (which are quickly shut down), but overall, the civilians involved in this simply allow it to happen. We don’t see them really start resisting until the dragon king has already been taken down toward the end of the novel when it’s safe (and popular) to do so. And that’s actually the main thing I want to talk about here: the Ankh-Morpork mobs.
Early on when the dragon first appears and begins to terrorize the city, the people do fight back… but they don’t fight the dragon; they fight the innocent woman, Sybil Ramkin, because she keeps small dragons. She’s an easy target—they don’t have to risk much of anything by going after her. She represents what they dislike, rather than actually being what they dislike, and going after her doesn’t require much risk. She’s a… MacGuffin? No, that’s not right. Red herring? Maybe? No, scapegoat! She’s a scapegoat (and an easy one at that).
This happens again when the dragon is taken down and vulnerable (sorry, voonerable). It’s not a threat to the people of the city, anymore—they can’t really be harmed by it (though that threat does loom), so now they decide to throw themselves at it with yet another angry mob. It’s easy and low-risk to do it now, so they will. The people of Ankh-Morpork aren’t heroic, they aren’t bold, they aren’t passionate, they’re just… dumb and violent, a dangerous combination.
I draw parallels between these aspects of Guards! Guards! (and Discworld in general, as this is commentary we have seen before and will see many times again) and the real world, where we as humans also have a tendency just to accept everything, especially when doing otherwise could pose a risk to us. This seems to have worsened over the years—I mean, it was only 250 years ago we didn’t want to pay taxes on tea and threw a bunch of it into the harbor. Heavy, unrepresented taxation was one catalyst for the American Revolution, yet the Personal Income Tax was established just a short time after that during a different war with the promise it would be temporary, only for it to continue on afterward, becoming more unmanageable and ridiculous over time, and yet… no further revolutions were fought over it. Everyone just rolled over.
I know I’m oversimplifying it, but you get me, right? The point is that, over time, while we may have once fought against things, we’ve come to be complacent for one reason or another. In part, of course, this is because protesting such things has been made incredibly dangerous for the everyday civilian, just as fighting a dragon would be—when we do protest, it seems to be over significant extremes. We don’t protest tea taxation, but we’ll protest severe violations of human rights (not minor violations, mind you—it has to be a certain caliber in order to get folks out there on the street). Part of it, though, is because it is far easier to be complacent than not.
With that in mind, though, let’s look at what the civilians did to Sybil Ramkin. They didn’t like that the dragon was flying around destroying everything, and they knew the dragon was the source of the problem, but taking down the great dragon was difficult and dangerous. So, instead, they found something more manageable to blame: a woman who bred small dragons. This, too, is something humans do when they wish to be complacent while still patting themselves on the back for having “tried”. Not only does this still happen today, but it’s something that is easily taken advantage of by leadership, much the dragon took advantage of it when Sybil was chosen as the first sacrifice.
If, for example, the problem being faced by a society is… let’s say, housing (just to make something up). There is a real solution that’s extremely complicated and difficult to overcome, but there are plenty of scapegoats to offer. If you were a politician, how would you approach it, then? Would you offer the real, complex solution that many people probably won’t like (stop treating housing like an investment intended to increase in value constantly while also increasing residential zoning and ceasing overregulation of the industry)? Or would you offer the simple, scapegoat solution that isn’t actually a solution but could get folks to form a mob in your name, potentially rallied against those you view as opponents at the same time?
If I cared more about power than improving the world around me, I’d definitely go for the latter. It’s easy, it gets your constituents riled up, and it keeps you from having to actually solve anything. And if the mob takes care of that scapegoat, there’s always another one lined up for slaughter. If anyone chose the former, though… well, that wouldn’t be met with as much support. Hell, it may make a lot of people really angry. It certainly wouldn’t compel them to join your cause. I don’t think I’ve seen any homeowners in the streets yelling out, “Our property values can’t keep increasing like this; it’s unstable!” but I see plenty of folks on any side of the argument yelling about other things that either don’t contribute to the housing crisis or that contribute only minimally to the issue.
If I go much farther on this part of the discussion, though, I fear it’ll turn into grandstanding; I’m not ready to announce my presidential run yet, but I’ll somehow be 35 in 2029, so keep an eye out for my T. L. 2033 signs in about a decade. I’ll leave this part of the discussion here then: human complacency is a recurring theme in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. This complacency manifests in a number of ways, but the key takeaway from Guards! Guards! in this regard is the civilians of the city were willing to do something; they just wanted that something to be easy and to carry very little risk.
Law Enforcement
From one controversial topic to another, eh? Put your rotten tomatoes down, though, because I still have to talk about systems of government after this.
I am not someone who likes cop dramas or shows. They very often miss the mark. Such shows either glorify law enforcement or ride the line so hard that they have nothing to say. Brooklyn Nine-Nine was a rare exception. I’ve heard that The Rookie starts off pretty well before going downhill, but I haven’t watched it myself. Terry Pratchett, though, has an incredible portrayal of law enforcement in his novels. Terry Pratchett’s approach to law enforcement is what law enforcement should be without serving as traditional “copaganda”.
Sam Vimes is a master of de-escalating, being accessible, and taking care of his city. He clearly loves his city and cares about his role in keeping it running. The other members of the watch are bizarre and lovable, and they care about their city and the people in it just like Vimes does. This is a group of watchmen that you want to follow. The cast is diverse, their stories are interesting, and you know, at the end of the day, they just want their city to be safe. They all go to tremendous lengths to take the city back from the dragon, succeeding at the end of the day despite the city's people seemingly not caring. They go to war with the oppressor while everyone else is happy to remain complacent. Hell, some of those complacent civilians are still violent, as we saw with Lady Ramkin, and Vimes still safely dispersed that crowd.
We won’t stop exploring law enforcement in Discworld here, though—pretty soon, we’ll cover even more intense topics with Sam Vimes. My first adult Discworld novel was Thud! (my actual first Discworld novel was The Wee Free Men from the Tiffany Aching series, but Thud! was the one I nabbed as an adult). In that one, we explore timely themes like racism and aggressive propaganda. Terry Pratchett’s far from done talking about social issues through the eyes of the gruff Commander of the City Watch, Samuel Vimes.
Systems of Government
Okay, one more thing I want to talk about here before we dive into your thoughts on Guards! Guards!, and that’s systems of government. Terry Pratchett was from England, so he has quite a lot to say about monarchies. I’m from America, so I also have a lot to say about monarchies, but they’re said while I fire a gun into the air and an eagle screeches the national anthem in the distance. Before we delve into what we see the government of Ankh-Morpork become, however, let’s talk about what it is at the start.
Truthfully, I cannot find real-world examples of the system of government used for Terry Pratchett’s Ankh-Morpork. It is ruled by a patrician, which is the head of an aristocratic family. So it should be an aristocracy, except that he doesn’t share his power with other nobles. Vetinari rules Ankh-Morpokr as the head aristocrat with no rivals.
He does, however, share the power with a smaller council, but those council members are not other aristocrats. Instead, they are the leaders of various guilds in the city, which would lead me to believe that the system of government is a weird mixture of a free state and a constitutional monarchy, as the guild leaders do have power, but at the same time, they sit in some sort of weird parliament headed up by Vetinari. There isn’t, as far as I can tell, an official name for this government system, so I’m going to call it a patricianocracy… or something to that effect. It’s a bit of a mouthful.
Anyway, under Vetinari and his patricianocracy, Ankh-Morpork actually runs smoothly. He maintains a delicate balance within the city through his political maneuverings and cooperation with the city’s many guilds, including guilds whose roles in the city are conducting illicit activities, like the Thieves’ Guild and the Assassin’s Guild. Ankh-Morpork has operated well enough for quite some time under Vetinari’s leadership, yet in Guards! Guards!, an upset occurs, and he’s taken to his own dungeon upon being usurped by… some random fellow he allegedly slew a dragon in the plaza, who would be crowned king, replacing Ankh-Morpork’s patricianocracy with a monarchy.
Now, Sir Pratchett’s thoughts on monarchies are relatively clear to us. He doesn’t necessarily hate the idea of a single ruler, at least as far as I can tell, but he does hate people achieving power for stupid reasons, which would include causing a dragon to disappear, accidentally receiving a crown that wasn’t intended for you, or just being born into a royal family. There’s actually a quote mocking monarchies quite aptly in Jingo, which we’re a good ways off from, but is still relevant to understanding Pratchett’s ideas on government:
“The city of Genua had run out of royalty, inbreeding having progressed to the point where the sole remaining example consisted mostly of teeth.”
But this quote is there to give us a glance at Terry’s thoughts on royalty as whole. Guards! Guards! treats monarchy as a regression, with off-handed comments about how the people of Ankh-Morpork just accept that they are no longer under the patrician and have instead regressed to a monarchy. In fact, they even seem to accept it before it actually happens. As I mentioned earlier in this discussion, they’ll take the easiest solution that allows them to remain complacent, and having someone kill the dragon to become king is pretty easy. Before the would-be dragonslayer arrives, a discussion takes place between Vimes, Sybil, and the Watch. It’s page 164 in my book:
“It’s all gone mad,” [Vimes] shouted. [...] “Kings. [...] Of Ankh. And Thrones. Are there?”
“What? Oh, yes. There used to be,” said Lady Ramkin. “Hundreds of years ago. Why?”
“Some kid says he’s heir to the throne!”
“That’s right,” said Throat [...]. “He made a big speech about how he was going to kill the dragon, overthrow the usurpers, and right all wrongs. Everyone cheered.” [...]
“Everyone cheers any speech in this city,” growled Vimes. “It doesn’t mean anything!”
[...] “Could be good for business, could monarchy,” [said Throat…].
“What wrongs?” said Vimes urgently. “Come on, tell me. What wrongs is he going to right?”
“We-ell,” said Throat, “there’s, well, taxes. That’s wrong, for a start.” [...]
“That’s right,” said an old woman next to him, “And the gutter of my house leaks something dreadful and the landlord won’t do nothing. That’s wrong.”
“And premature baldness,” said the man in front of her, “That’s wrong, too.” [...]
“Ah. Kings can cure that, you know,” said another proto-monarchist knowingly [...]. “And they can’t answer back, you know[...], that’s how you can tell they’re royal. Completely incapable of it. It’s to do with being gracious.”
“Fancy,” said the leaky-guttering woman.
[...] “It’s a fire-breathing dragon!” screamed Vimes [...], “And he’s just a guy on a horse, for heaven’s sake!”
The people Vimes is talking with seem to have not only accepted the new monarchy before it’s happened, they actually want the monarchy to happen because they believe it will solve all their problems. In typical Pratchett fashion, he uses hyperbole to get his point across, having the people all list out issues they have which having a monarchy absolutely will not resolve. This, too, is a reflection on how humans operate. For this instance, the scapegoat isn’t a person, but an entire system of government. This is not far-fetched because we have seen this happen all over the world in recent days, including right here where I am: America.
Unseating incumbents during difficult times is a pattern that has occurred for many, many years. Really, for as long as we’ve had a way to do so, humans have done this out of some belief that doing so will solve all their problems. Nuance is removed from the conversation in favor of scapegoating. We don’t want to actually think about what will solve the problem (or even understand what the problem is), we want to do the easiest thing and we want the simplest entity to blame for all our issues. How many times have you seen people blame (or thank) the President of the United States for gas prices (or, I don’t know, the King of England for tea costs, I dunno), an extremely complex and nuanced subject that absolutely cannot be attributed wholly to a single individual or that person’s choices? It happens a lot. People put stickers on gas bump saying “Thanks Obama” or whatever, as though one day in 2012 Obama sat down in the Oval Office and said, “Today I want gas to be $4.92 until 3 ‘o clock, then $4.98 until 6 ‘o clock!”. How many people do think got gas on the way to their local polling location this year, saw the price of gas, and made their decision on who to vote for in light of that? Whatever you’re thinking, double it, because it’s what always happens, and it happens worldwide.
So, is it really any surprise that, when the dragon is eventually crowned king, no one really seems bothered? Everyone, again, just accepts it. Some of them fully embrace it! Their problems are solved and everything is going to be okay again! This makes it extra ironic when the new monarch’s taxes are so much more exorbitant than before the dragon’s crowning, given that was one of the problems being discussed in the scene I quoted earlier. Yet, when they suddenly start having to give all their treasure to the greedy dragon, do the people revolt against him, refuse, and storm the palace to take its head?
Nope. They justify it and go on with their day. Same as when the dragon wants a woman sacrificed to him every month. Do they draw the line there? Surely that’s not better than the system they had before! Nope, they go on with their day. They only have a true revolt against the dragon when it’s convenient and safe to do so… when the dragon is already defeated.
What does this say about systems of government, though? I kicked off saying that Pratchett doesn’t like rulers who achieve power for no reason, but there’s other commentary here to be had regarding our approaches to any government. It mingles with the human complacency I discussed earlier, as well. Humans will just accept and justify things. When they see a big blue police box in the middle of the street, they’ll walk past. When a boy on a horse rides into town claiming he’s going to slay the dragon and become king, they cheer for it. When a dragon demands their valuables, they tell themselves it’s okay and keep going.
And when the going gets tough, humans look for the easiest, least-complicated solution. They find something to blame that doesn’t require a lot of effort on their part, and they tell themselves that getting rid of that thing will resolve their issues. In Guards! Guards!, they decide that since some fellow is going to get rid of the dragon for them, this person might as well become king, and then all sorts of good things will come their way as well, because surely the current system of government is the reason they’re going bald and their pipes are leaking.
Instead of pursuing real solutions, the people unseat the incumbents and call it a day.
Your Thoughts on Guards! Guards!
All right, so that was a lot of yapping from me. Let’s get to your thoughts on Guards! Guards!, now. If you don’t know, I put up a discussion post on my YouTube Community tab a few months after a video drops asking for your rating and thoughts on the current book we’re reading. This last discussion post went up in September, and I got a good number of responses from everyone that I’m eager to get into. If you didn’t have a chance to participate in that post, don’t worry! I’ll let you know when the next post is going up at the end of the video, and you can also leave some comments with your thoughts on Guards! Guards! as well. I read every comment and try to respond to as many as I can, so I’d still love to hear what you think.
With all of that said, let’s kick off the full discussion by looking at the star rating that everyone gave Guards! Guards!.
Guards! Guards! Rating
Personally, I gave Guards! Guards! five stars. I think it’s a four-star Discworld novel as while it’s a terrific read, I know how much better Discworld gets. As far as all of literature is concerned, though, Terry Pratchett does it again with an outstanding five-star novel. This book has terrific characters, great worldbuilding, interesting villains, and well-executed social commentary. As an introduction to the City Watch, it’s perfect.
Guards! Guards! Got 61% 5 stars, 25% 4 stars, and only 4% three stars. That is great to see, although I’m extra curious to know why someone would give this one less than four stars. I can see it being three stars if only being compared to the whole of Discworld, but I can’t imagine giving it less than four stars when I factor in all the books I’ve ever read. If you gave or would give Guards! Guards! three or fewer stars, I’d love to hear from you!
Guards! Guards! Comments
Sassysuzy4u Says…
Guards! Guards! is one of my favourites! I love the character arc of Vimes. He is good and cares about people deep down but years of fighting the system has just worn him down so he has to self-medicate to survive… this book shows it isn’t too late to be rallied and see there are good things that are still worth fighting for.
This is great insight! Vimes has a fascinating character arc not just in this book, but across the City Watch collection and I cannot wait to explore it. I really had to refrain from writing an entire essay just about Vimes from this book, because his character is so tremendously interesting, but I greatly appreciate your insights here too. He’s been beaten down, he’s given his life to a city that rejects him at the drop of a hat, but he keeps going, albeit fueled by a problematic vice at times. He and the rest of the watch—even after he is relieved of duty—fight the whole way to keep the city they love, and that’s really inspiring.
Scotth4598 Says…
Guards! Guards! is great. Most of that greatness comes from the characters themselves, I think. They’re all so memorable and have a great dynamic.
The characters really lift up Guards! Guards! and the entirety of the City Watch collection, I strongly agree. They all have such distinct voices and personalities, and the way that they connect with one another is truly compelling. It only gets better from here, too! Now that they’ve been introduced with us and we saw Carrot join the watch, I’m stoked to explore their relationship further.
Wolervine Says…
I love comparing Discworld to the MCU and this one is the first that feels like an Avengers in that it has many elements from the previous books combined along with a lot of new, some wizards, the Librarian, the Patrician, Dragons, Dwarfs. The City. (it's a wossname) And Death.
All the Watch books get progressively better as the they go till near the end so I find it hard to pick favourites but it's iconic in the way the others aren't if only for that Kirby cover with the four of them cowering beneath the flames.
I certainly see what you’re getting at, here! Discworld is a vast, living world that continues to grow and expand from itself while Terry writes it over the years. We’ve seen a few recurring characters already, but seeing Sam Vimes introduced is huge because he makes many appearances throughout Discworld, including beyond the novels where he is a main character. He doesn’t show up nearly as frequently as Death, of course, but he’s all over the place.
The City Watch collection also improves dramatically over the course of its run, for sure. Even though Guards! Guards! is so incredible already, it’s just an introduction to this cast of zany characters and the city as seen through their eyes. I can’t wait to keep going, especially as the watch expands to include even more incredible characters. Speaking of…
Domdomdominique says…
I loved this book. My fave character is Angua. 📖
Angua is a great member of the watch! I’m basic and have to say that Vimes is my favorite, but my second favorite Watch participant hasn’t shown up, yet. Angua actually appears in—I believe—the next book in the City Watch collection, so we’ll get to her shortly!
Sarsoups says…
I loved Guards! Guards!! I think this has to be my favorite Discworld book so far (for context, I'm on my first read through going in release order). I think what did it for me was the characters, especially when compared to the previous book. Although I liked Pyramids, non of the characters really resonated with me like they did in Guards! Guards!. It's hard to explain, but this book just felt so very distinctly Discworld to me, more so than some of the previous.
I’m right there with you on this being a favorite thus far! In this chronological read-along, Guards! Guards! is where Discworld really becomes the setting I recognize, and Vimes appearing feels like the final piece of the puzzle that makes the setting whole. Pyramids certainly had a weak point when it came to characters, with the exception of You Bastard, of course. I’m glad you found this book to really feel like Discworld, and I can’t wait to dive into more!
Amymyers5503 says…
I am going to be condensing this for the sake of post length, but I strongly recommend going to check out Amy’s whole comment as it’s really insightful! Amy says that she read this book for the first time back in 2020, and is sharing her thoughts from that perspective.
I read Guards! Guards! and tried to frame our country's current political situation in context of the book. A power-hungry civil servant lead a group of working class men who felt disempowered and oppressed by the system. They conspired to overthrow the patrician's dictatorship rule of the city-state of Ankh-Morpork. [...]
The dragon killed all but two men in the group who summoned it. The dragon killed the hero/king. The guild presidents and wealthy citizens of Ankh-Morpork allowed the dragon to take over the city-state and appoint itself king. The dragon-king's new privy councilors were desirous of the power the dragon could wield and fear the dragon could inspire in neighboring city-states and the control they could have over the region. Very quickly the leaders were willing to go along with the dragon-king's demands[...]. That's where we're at politically in America. Offering up people to feed the dragon-king, so it doesn't destroy everyone and everything.
[...]In any other story, the dragon would have been slain, or the dragon would have destroyed everyone and everything. The power-hungry civil servant was defeated by the book and rule of law - literally. We learned from Lady Sybil Ramkin the power of curiosity and compassion. (In this way, she's very much like the Doctor when he encounters new aliens and monsters in Doctor Who.) We learned from the Librarian to listen to those who have different perspectives but have the same motivations and might become unexpected allies. We also learned from Sam Vimes and Carrot Ironfoundersson (and Fred and Nobby, reluctantly) that the police could overcome their corruption and apathy and actually do good without killing people.
A good chunk of this I already touched on in my own part of the discussion post, so I won’t reiterate too much of what’s been said there, but I do want to focus on that last paragraph there, where we look at Ankh-Morpork following the end of the dragon’s rein and the lessons learned therein.
First, as you stated, Guards! Guards! doesn’t slay the dragon in a manner that would occur in a traditional fantasy novel. Instead, a tiny, less-powerful dragon outwits it, rather than another knight in shining armor striding up with a sword to cut off its head. Secondly, the civil servant Wonse, who caused this whole mess, is slain by having the book thrown at him in a very literal sense. Comparing Sybil to The Doctor is another really interesting take that I had not considered, but that makes a lot of sense to me! She may actually have succeeded in her attempt to quell the dragon earlier in the story had she not been distracted, as well, preventing all of the violence that occurred thereafter. For the Librarian and the rest of the Watch, learning to look at things from new angles, trying new things, and pursuing methods outside the norm to improve the world are great takeaways with outstanding examples to follow.
Wrapping Up!
As always, thank you so much to everybody who participated in the discussion for Guards! Guards!. My whole reason for doing this is to talk with other Discworld fans about my favorite author and my favorite series. Discworld is incredible, Terry Pratchett is insightful, and Guards! Guards! feels like the point at which the whole world has totally come together. It’s been a pleasure talking with all of you about this book and about this series, and I’m so excited for what’s to come next.
Final Thoughts on Guards! Guards!
Guards! Guards! has a lot to say with so few words. We didn’t even cover every possible topic in this post, as a matter of fact. I had to be selective to prevent this from being hours in length, so I focused on Discworld’s commentary on humanity, law, and government, instead. This has been such a fun post to work on, though gathering my thoughts and writing them, as well as filming and editing them, unfortunately took quite a lot longer than expected.
What’s Next?
All of this said, I’m so excited for the next book, Eric. I’ve only read this one once, as far as I can recall, and it was a good while ago. It’s a bit of a shorter one to my recollection, and it will also see us returning to the Unseen University Collection where this all began, so get ready for return to form… and Rincewind! I’ll be putting out the Discussion Post for Eric in mid-to-late February 2024, with the discussion video following sometime after that, so you’ve got plenty of time to knock this one out and gather your thoughts for me the post!
Conclusion
Thank you all so, so much. I can’t thank you enough both for being part of this read-along and for your patience while I juggle this read-along and everything else. This read-along is a ton of fun for me to do, even when the posts end up as tremendously long as this one. I hope my love and passion for Terry Pratchett and his writings is really showing in these posts—I know that I’m elated at the passion for Discworld that I see in your remarks on my discussion posts, and I’m glad I get to share this read-along with so many other fans.
I’ll see you in the next one! Until then, bye.
