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The is a re-read, or rather a re-listen in audio book format. Tony Robinson ha\s the perfect voice and delivery for discworld. Highly recommended. Sam Vimes is my favourite Discworld character, so this is a real treat for me, a Vines book that not only gives us present day Sam, but also an insight into his past and his journey towards being a good copper.
In pursuit of the thug Carser, Vimes runs into a magical storm that plunges both him and his quarry back into Ankh Morpork's shady past, before Vetinari's iron grip cleaned up the city's act, when the City Watch was ineffective and frequently on the make. There Young Sam is under the somewhat dubious tutelage of watchmen the like of Nobby Nobbs, learning how to be a bent copper.
Vimes remembers his mentor, John Keel, the man who taught him what policing was all about - the only trouble is that due to the same magical storm, Keel is dead and Vimes must take his place and his identity, teaching his younger self while trying not to get either of them killed. There's major unrest in the city; revolution is close at hand with the outraged population ranged against a mad ruler and to make things worse Carser has insinuated himself into the ranks of the ruthless Unmentionables, the not-so-secret police). Only Keel and the ordinary coppers of the Night Watch, trapped between the two factions, can avert pitched battle and gory bloodshed.
Will VImes as Keel succeed in preventing needless slaughter, teach his younger self enough to survive and get back to hs own time with Carser in handcuffs, or does Vimes own future end in his own past? For, you see, Vimes knows what young Sam does not, John Keel dies in the riots.
This book is a masterclass in how to stretch dramtic tension almost to breaking point before letting the reader breathe again. I was genuinely afraid for Vimes, wondering if it was time to Pratchett to write him out of the series. I think this is Pratchett's finest book.
In pursuit of the thug Carser, Vimes runs into a magical storm that plunges both him and his quarry back into Ankh Morpork's shady past, before Vetinari's iron grip cleaned up the city's act, when the City Watch was ineffective and frequently on the make. There Young Sam is under the somewhat dubious tutelage of watchmen the like of Nobby Nobbs, learning how to be a bent copper.
Vimes remembers his mentor, John Keel, the man who taught him what policing was all about - the only trouble is that due to the same magical storm, Keel is dead and Vimes must take his place and his identity, teaching his younger self while trying not to get either of them killed. There's major unrest in the city; revolution is close at hand with the outraged population ranged against a mad ruler and to make things worse Carser has insinuated himself into the ranks of the ruthless Unmentionables, the not-so-secret police). Only Keel and the ordinary coppers of the Night Watch, trapped between the two factions, can avert pitched battle and gory bloodshed.
Will VImes as Keel succeed in preventing needless slaughter, teach his younger self enough to survive and get back to hs own time with Carser in handcuffs, or does Vimes own future end in his own past? For, you see, Vimes knows what young Sam does not, John Keel dies in the riots.
This book is a masterclass in how to stretch dramtic tension almost to breaking point before letting the reader breathe again. I was genuinely afraid for Vimes, wondering if it was time to Pratchett to write him out of the series. I think this is Pratchett's finest book.
