Review: Night Watch

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

this is my second time reading the book. The rating remains 4/5 stars.

I didn’t remember liking this book so much given the fact that I’m not much of a fan of time loops, at least, not since I got use to the idea. (I remember thinking the Terminator/Terminator 2 time loop was pretty neat) But, as in the best of Pratchett’s books, this one only incidentally has the time loop to set the plot in motion. It’s really a character study about Samuel Vimes. By this point Pratchett has been building him up and getting the audience to really understand how he works. This book puts it all to the test by asking him to make some impossible choices.

We also finally get some backstory on Vetinari, my favorite Discworld character (at least after the retcon that starts after the first two books).

And, of course, for a book that involves time travel there are lots of little easter eggs and jokes.

I’m now slightly more than halfway through my Discworld re-read and I have come to the conclusion that the best Discworld books are those where Pratchett isn’t trying to be too cute - isn’t stretching a joke to book-length. I think this is probably why folks love the city watch books.

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