Somehow, it’s been almost three years since the last time I read a Terry Pratchett novel, and that’s if you count Good Omens – the last solo Pratchett novel I read was The Truth, way back in 2021. Nor was I really intending on picking one up, but I found myself in a bit of a reading rut after finishing Chronicles. I was exceptionally busy and stressed (not about reading, but it affected my reading), and nothing on my reading list really appealed. What I really needed was something light, which wouldn’t require too much deep thinking, but which would be substantial enough to occupy my brain when I needed to take twenty minutes and not think about other things. After a little rumination, I realized a Pratchett novel would fit that prescription perfectly, and it wouldn’t even matter much which one I picked. Guards! Guards! was the first one I came across, so it’s the one I read.
There’s an understated brilliance to Pratchett’s writing that makes it easy reading while simultaneously be deeper and more substantial than is immediately apparent. Some authors’ prose is like poetry – beautiful and clearly crafted with great care and deliberation. Rothfuss’s writing is a pleasure to read in this respect, but the effort he puts into it is evident in every line. The same can be said for most of the authors whose rhetoric I most praise: Dunnett, Tolkien, Dickens, and so forth. Pratchett’s writing isn’t like that – never, when you read it, does it feel like it was difficult for Pratchett to write it. It feels while reading it as if it was easy for him to write, and that can lead you to initially not give the work or the author enough credit. Then, you pause a moment, and you realize just how difficult what Pratchett does is to get just right, and yet he makes it seem effortless, and he does it consistently across dozens of novels. The first Pratchett novel you read, you think “that was fun.” The second Pratchett novel you read, you think “huh, that was fun, and it had more meat to it than I expected.” By the third one, you think “wow, Pratchett is a brilliant author who doesn’t need to draw attention to it.”
This is the first in his several Discworld novels following Vimes and the Watch. Many of the Vimes books are akin to police procedurals, or draw inspiration from the genre, but this one is a little closer to a Discworld take on some classic fantasy genre tropes: dragons, heirs, magic swords, birthmarks, and so forth. I prefer that, personally, to the crime genre emphasis. Pratchett strikes a perfect balance between subverting the genre tropes and fulfilling them, which is another aspect which appears effortless but over which many authors stumble in far less ambitious implementations. Really, my only “critique” of the story is that it could have used more Carrot. Which is a turn of phrase which will make no sense to you if you haven’t read the book, so allow me to clarify that Carrot is a character. He receives a good deal of attention in the first third or so of the book, but less and less as the book continues. I enjoyed his perspectives when they occurred, and would have liked to see more of them sprinkled throughout the story.
I know I seek out Pratchett novels when I’m looking for something light, a bit of literary comfort food of a kind, but that makes them sound far less substantial than they really are. Sure, it’s not Great Expectations…except, I actually think there’s a great deal of similarity between Dickens’ and Pratchett’s writings. Both have a conversational omniscient narrative voice, both are social satire, both are replete with humorous asides and commentary for the reader to appreciate. One just happens to be writing about nineteenth century England, and the other writes about a flat fantasy world carried on the backs of four elephants riding a giant turtle through space.
This particular novel is a great read, although I will say it didn’t set me laughing quite as much as some of his others; it was funny, but more in a wry way. However, I really want you to think of this less as a review for a specific Pratchett novel – Guards! Guards! – and more as a reminder to come back to Discworld every now and then. After all, on a world like that, all kinds of strange and wonderful things can happen, and you can read of many of them.
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