Book Review: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

Book: Night Watch

Author: Terry Pratchett

Genre: Fantasy

Julia Rating: 10

Comments: This is a great Discword book. Sam Vimes (Commander of the city watch) is one of my favorite Terry Pratchett characters and I think this book is a great one for those who are just starting to read about Discworld, as well as for those who are old hands. (Come one, come all!)
The basic idea is that Sam Vimes accidentally travels back in time with a really horrible criminal. Sam travels back to when he was just beginning in the city watch, before the current regime and during the time when he was first learning how to really be a watchman. Unfortunately for Sam, the wretched criminal he's brought with him has interfered with a very major part of Sam's coming into his own. The monks of time step in and talk Sam (the Commander of the City Watch in his time) to teach Sam (a snot nosed kid just joined up with the city watch) all about how to be a good copper.
Terry Pratchett always makes me laugh and usually makes me hope. He has succeeded in doing both of those things in this great book.
Let me know if you have read it or would like to recommend any other Terry Pratchett books to me!

Book Review: The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

The Book: The Colour of Magic

The Author: Terry Pratchett

Julia Rating: 7 out of 10

My Comments:
This is purported as the first of the famous Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett and I have to say that I think his later books are much better. This primitive beginning of his series was funny and adventurous with great characters and so forth, but the end was a little disappointing and the book flew off in all directions. I'm sure that the author was flying off in all directions when writing it, wanting to explore different parts of the new world he had created, but as a reader I felt like was being dragged along for the ride - not sitting in the passenger's seat. All in all I love Terry Pratchett's Discworld Series, but this first book didn't do it for me.

Book Review: The Fifth Elephant - by Terry Pratchett

I read Terry Pratchett's The Fifth Elephant over the weekend. It was an excellent book and is a part of his Discworld series.

The Fifth Elephant is a myth in Discworld, which is a flat world that is carried on the back of four elephants riding on a turtle, which is swimming through space. Legend has that there used to be five elephants, but one got knocked loose and entered the atmosphere of Discworld, crashing into an area that is now an excellent resource for fat. Scientists actually believe that something like a meteor hit the world, covering the animals in the area at the time, allowing their bodies to form into huge pockets of fat. Which theory is true is anybody's guess on Discworld.

This sounds like a strange premise for a book, but Terry Pratchett is forever fabulous when it comes to satyr. The situations surrounding the fat that is mined out of the ground is suspiciously similar to the European/American oil situation. Alliances have to be made with the ultra exclusive dwarfs for Ankh Morpark - a huge city in Discworld - to get the tallow and fat it needs for candles, butter, etc. The fat mines of Ankh Morpark are long dry, and the fat the dwarfs mine is far superior to any that the citizens of Ankh Morpark are likely to produce. There is a catch, most dwarf's don't like Ank Morpark, though quite a lot of their popullation lives there. To make matters worse, a new dwarf king is about to be "crowned", and his throne has been stolen! Also, the primary condom maker for Ankh Morpark has been found dead in his own rubber melting vat!
The main character in this book, Commander Vimes, has to solve the throne situation and murder, while on official duty as Duke of Ankh Morpark.

With vampires, werewolves, dwarfs, trolls and the undead, this story addresses prejudice, law & order and much more. I love how Terry Pratchett always manages to insert his own ideas and opinions along with situations that are happening in our current society by creating a story in his fantastic world and letting his characters work them out.

Very cleverly done. Good show old chap, good show.