Men At Arms: (Discworld Novel 15) (Discworld series)

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Meanwhile, Captain Samuel Vimes, captain of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, prepares for his imminent wedding to Sybil Ramkin, the richest woman in Ankh-Morpork. He also must deal with a new group of recruits that he has been required to take on for the sake of diversity: Cuddy (a dwarf), Detritus (a troll), and Angua (a werewolf—but Carrot is unaware of this, and believes she is included because she is female). When a string of seemingly random murders occur among the Guilds of the city, Lord Vetinari forbids Vimes to investigate in a successful ploy to ensure Vimes does investigate. Cuddy and Detritus are forced to work together, resulting in them becoming friends as they overcome their deep-seated racial enmity. Angua works with the talking dog Gaspode, and also forms a romantic connection with Carrot, who loses his virginity to her but handles the discovery that she is a werewolf poorly. Asymmetric Dilemma: Detritus needs to find something to write with. Then he needs to find someone who can teach him how to write. It’s the beginning of the most awesome epic encounter of all time (or at least all afternoon), in which the fate of a city—indeed of the universe itself!—depends on a young man’s courage, an ancient sword’s magic, and a three-legged poodle’s bladder.

All right, the short of it is I really liked the book. The long of it is, I’m very annoyed at Terry. Take That!: Quirke's thoughtless level of stupid evil is noted to be less like actual evil, and more something that merely tarnishes the soul of all who comes near, "like British Rail." But the depressing thing is that this book was written years before mass shootings became a common day occurrence on my side of the pond, leading it to read more like a warning than satire. If only there were just one gun that we could bury in the ground with one of its victims. And that’s important too, in fact it might be the most essential piece of this story to take note of—the only way you prevent this from running wild and corrupting everything it touches is to do away with the mechanism entirely. Pratchett’s solution isn’t gun control, it’s gun erasure, and people probably go around saying that’s just a function of it being a fantasy world and that’s bullshit. It’s the solution because that is the solution. You get rid of the thing that lets people kill each other with such ease and impunity. Anything else won’t ever be enough.

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Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the book—perhaps as much as everyone told me that I would. Now, my Pratchett experience is limited. I tried The Color of Magic when I was younger (I’ve since learned that it is a poor representation of the series) and have read Good Omens (which was brilliant, and which ultimately led me to give Discworld another go.) Klatchian Coffee: Used to sober up Captain Vimes after he falls Off the Wagon. They give him too much, and have to then provide half a glass of whiskey to take his brain from knurd to sober. Sergeant Colon was lost in admiration. He had seen someone bluff on a bad hand, but he'd never seen anyone bluff with no cards. Vimes (despite hating Assassins) admits that Dr. Cruces was probably a decent man before the Gonne took hold of his mind - or, at least, that he had good intentions.

It's all for the good of the city, sir. Do you know what the word 'policeman' comes from? It means 'man of the city', sir. From the old world polis." Abel, Jennifer (2013-11-14). "Fingerhut boots and the Vimes' Boots paradox". ConsumerAffairs. Archived from the original on 2022-02-08 . Retrieved 2022-02-08.Off the Wagon: Still early in his resolution to become teetotaler (made at Sybil's insistence), poor Vimes falls prey to temptation in the face of his impending retirement. PEOPLE OUGHT TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES... THE PROBLEM IS, PEOPLE ONLY THINK FOR THEMSELVES IF YOU TELL THEM TO.' Vetinari seems to be considerably off his game throughout this story. Whether he actually is or not is never directly specified, though tantalising inferences can be made by reading Feet of Clay.

Presenter: By a combination of violence and sarcasm the Piranha brothers, by February 1966, controlled London and the South East.

Carrot still a focal character here, and he's interesting, charming, all that. But Vimes is consistently stealing the show. He's the Batman to Carrot's Superman.

It turns out that d'Eath has stolen the gonne, the Disc's first and only handheld firearm, from the Assassins' Guild, with the intention of discrediting Vetinari's government through the murders. Any possessor of the gonne seems to become obsessed with the device. After d'Eath reveals his plan to Dr. Cruces, head of the Assassin's Guild, Cruces murders him and takes up the plan himself. The Watch prevents Cruces from killing Vetinari, but Cuddy and Angua are killed in the process. Vimes and Carrot confront and disarm Cruces, and Carrot helps Vimes resist the gonne's allure. Cruces gives Carrot the evidence that he is the royal heir, upon which Carrot kills Cruces with his sword and has both the evidence and the dismantled gonne buried with Cuddy. Angua gets shot 3 times by Cruces but since she is a werewolf she can only be killed with a silver weapon so is revived upon the moon's rising. Major Injury Underreaction: Vetinari's response to an assassination attempt using a secret experimental weapon that leaves him bleeding out and walking with a cane for the rest of his life? "Ah, Vimes. I seem to be losing rather a lot of blood." Red Herring: It turns out Edward d'Eath, despite all the foreshadowing surrounding his unstable mind and, you know, family name, only ever killed one person during the story, and that was quite by accident. It'd help if it could all be sorted out by noon, because that's when Captain Vimes is officially retiring, handing in his badge and getting married.The city dogs tell stories about Big Fido after his Disney Villain Death that are reminiscent of those the Efrafans tell about Woundwort from Watership Down. Sub-Par Supremacist: The main subplot involves a flatulence-prone dog named Big Fido advocating that dogs should rise up against their human masters, and makes long speeches about the nobility and savagery of wolves despite never having met one and being a tiny poodle himself. No prizes for guessing which short, grandiloquent politician Big Fido was based on. Captain Samuel Vimes is forced by Lord Vetinari to take on a group of new recruits for the purposes of ensuring diversity - a dwarf called Cuddy, a werewolf called Angua and a troll called Detritus. Angua becomes involved in a romantic relationship with Corporal Carrot Ironfoundersson, but he does not react well to discovering that she is a werewolf. There has recently been a string of mysterious murders in the city that appear to be connected. Vetinari bans Vimes from investigating the murders in a successful attempt to provoke him into doing so. Damned by Faint Praise: Colon is feeling intellectually inferior to Carrot, Angua and Cuddy, so Nobby tries to comfort him by pointing out that he's at least smarter than Detritus. Colon morosely says that the same can be said about yeast. New recruits have been hired to reflect the city's diversity, including Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance-constable Detritus (a troll), and Lance-constable Angua (a woman... full moons aside).