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Men at Arms: A Discworld Novel [Paperback]

Terry Pratchett
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
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Book Description

10 Nov 1994

'Be a MAN in the City Watch! The City Watch needs MEN!'

But what it's got includes Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance constable Detritus (a troll), Lance constable Angua (a woman... most of the time) and Corporal Nobbs (disqualified from the human race for shoving).

And they need all the help they can get. Because they've only got twenty-four hours to clean up the town and this is Ankh-Morpork we're talking about...


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Men at Arms: A Discworld Novel + Soul Music: (Discworld Novel 16): A Discworld Novel (Discworld Novels) + Feet Of Clay: (Discworld Novel 19): A Discworld Novel (Discworld Novels)
Price For All Three: £16.77

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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Corgi; New Ed edition (10 Nov 1994)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0552140287
  • ISBN-13: 978-0552140287
  • Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 2.6 x 17.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 14,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon Review

Another wild romp through Discworld! Corporal Carrot, a young dwarf, is newly in charge of the recruits guarding Ankh-Morpork. Edward, the 37th Lord d'Eath, has just discovered that Ankh-Morpork, kingless for generations, has a sovereign ruler, who must be convinced that he is, in fact, the King. The fate of Ankh-Morpork rides on a young man's courage, an ancient sword's magic and a three-legged poodle's bladder.

Review

"

'Funny, wise and mock heroic...The funniest and best crafted book I have read all year'

" (Sunday Express )

"

'Like Jonathan Swift, Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own, and like Swift he is a satirist of enormous talent ... incredibly funny ... compulsively readable'

" (The Times )

"

'His spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction'

" (Mail on Sunday )

"

'The great Terry Pratchett, whose wit is metaphysical, who creates an energetic and lively secondary world, who has a multifarious genius for strong parody ... who deals with death with startling originality. Who writes amazing sentences'

" (A.S. Byatt New York Times )

"'Persistently amusing, good-hearted and shrewd'" (Sunday Times )

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By Craobh Rua VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
"Men at Arms" is the fifteenth novel in Terry Pratchett's hugely popular Discworld series and the second to focus on Sam Vimes and Ankh-Morpork's City Guard. Although its reputation may have raised very slightly, having rescused the City from a large and angry dragon, it's still not the fine and noble profession it once was.

Sam is the Captain of the Night Watch, though he is on the verge of retiring and will soon marry Lady Ramkin, the noted dragon-fancier. It isn't entirely clear, however, whether or not he's entirely happy about either the retirement or his impending life of marital bliss. It's fair to say he's not your typical hero : he hates the Undead (some of my best friends are werewolves), Assassins (a perfectly respectable profession) and - in keeping with an old family tradition - Kings (not an ideal musketeer then). Sam's also trying to quit drinking and has taken up smoking cigars to soften the blow.

The Night Watch has had a couple of new recruits since "Guards! Guards!" - largely at the insistence if the Patrician, the city's ruler. The recruits - Lance-Constables Cuddy (a dwarf), Detritus (a troll) and Angua (a woman, for most of the month) - have been selected to reflect Ankh-Morpork's `ethnic makeup'. Although Sergeant Colon and Corporal Nobbs are Sam's most experienced officers, the most capable is Carrot. Although born human, Carrot was raised as a dwarf and is an incredibly innocent character - he still hasn't figured out what seamstresses do for a living. He has, however, figured out how Ankh-Morpork works and has stopped trying to arrest the President of the Thieves Guild. The trouble begins when Edward d'Eath suspects that Carrot may be the rightful king of Ankh-Morpork.

Edward is the latest Lord d'Eath, albeit a very poor one, following the recent death of his father. He was educated at the Guild of Assassins, where he became the first student to gain full marks at postgraduate level. His suspicions about Carrot are a little worrying, given that he wants to restore the monarchy. This will, of course, see the Patrician `removed' from office - something that should be easier now that he has acquired a weapon that shouldn't exist.

Pratchett's books are always very funny and this one is no exception. Despite being the second book to focus on the Night Watch, there's no real requirement to have read the first - the newcomer won't feel 'left out'. (However, I would recommend reading it, all the same !). Another big plus is Gaspode, Ankh-Morporks finest talking dog. Like Carrot, he's also devoted to Angua - though he's a lot less innocent ! Definitely recommended.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Personal isn't the same as important 11 Aug 2005
By Daniel Jolley HALL OF FAME TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Men at Arms reunites us with the stalwart defenders of our beloved Ankh-Morpork: the Night Watch. Along the way we also meet up with some of the Discworld's most distinctive secondary characters (including Foul Ole Ron and Big Fido), get a glimpse of affirmative action Ankh-Morpork-style, discover the identity of the rightful king (if Ankh-Morpork still had a king, which it doesn't, which isn't the fault of the shady characters in this book trying to replace the Patrician with the aforementioned heir to the throne, who doesn't want the job anyway), converse once more with Gaspode the talking dog, and - if that's not enough - make ready for the wedding of the year between Captain Samuel Vimes of the Night Watch and Lady Sybil Ramkin, proprietor of the Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons and the richest woman in Ankh-Morpork. Captain Vimes is in fact retiring from the Watch, but his retirement involves much more than the traditional gift watch presentation from his men. A washed-up aristocrat named Edward D'eath takes it upon himself to restore the long-lost monarchy, a circumstance that can only come about over the Patrician's dead body. Even clowns aren't safe from this deadly conspiracy.

The trouble begins with an explosion and robbery at the Guild of Assassins. Someone has stolen nothing less than the only "gonne" on Discworld, and a series of murders shock the town. OK, nothing's really going to shock the people of Ankh-Morpork, but the fact that people keep turning up full of holes where guts should be definitely stirs up the Watchmen. The Patrician is also less than happy about things, so he makes sure the Watch gets to the bottom of things by forbidding Captain Vimes to investigate. The Watch itself is growing; thanks to some new laws pushed through by the Silicon Anti-Defamation League, it has ethnically balanced itself with the addition of a dwarf, a troll, and a woman to the force. The woman, Angua, also happens to be a werewolf, and I don't have to tell you that dwarfs and trolls are natural enemies. Luckily, Constable Carrot, the 6'6" dwarf (he was adopted, you know) who is just so doggoned nice that people will actually listen to him and do as he requests, is there to keep the Watch united and performing its duty the way Carrot (alone) thinks it should be done. After a dwarf is killed and a troll arrested by the Day Watch (on the basis that any troll is surely guilty of something), there's an ever-present danger that the city's trolls and dwarfs will have a go at each other (and it won't be like last time, when both groups somehow managed to ambush one another at the same time).

Constable Detritus really steals the show here. Watching a troll think is always entertaining, but Detritus really comes into his own as this story progresses. At first, he can't salute without knocking himself out, but by the end he's recruiting and training fellow trolls (in his own endearing way) and warming up quite well to his dwarf partner. He also manages to show us that, in the right conditions (such as the kind of very cold temperature you find in a pork futures market), trolls can be brilliant thinkers.

People always die in Discworld novels, but there was one death in Men at Arms that really took me by surprise. A bit sad, it was. Don't be sad about Captain Vimes leaving the Night Watch, though. Furthermore, don't worry about the future of the City Guard, as it does not fall into the hands of Sergeant Colon or Corporal Nobbs (who, as we all know, has already been disqualified from the human race for shoving). I'm sure the men and women and dwarfs and trolls and werewolf of the Night Watch will be as ready as ever for the next threat that rears its ugly head in Ankh-Morpork; after all, Carrot's still on the job.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Pratchett at his best 9 Nov 2009
By A. Whitehead TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Captain Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is retiring and getting married in a few days. But an explosion at the Assassins' Guild attracts his interest, and soon a trail of bodies is forming. The Guilds don't want his help, the Patrician has ordered him to lay off and his fellow Watch members seem more concerned about the new intake of ethnic minorities (Lance-Corporal Cuddy of the dwarfs and Lance-Corporal Detritus of the trolls) than the mystery. But somewhere in Ankh-Morpork a killer is on the loose with a very powerful new weapon...

Men at Arms is the second Discworld novel to focus on the City Watch, introduced in the classic Guards! Guards! As told in that volume, the City Watch saved the city from a marauding dragon and at the end of the book the Watch gained fresh resources from a grateful city government. However, it is still regarded as a joke, as Men at Arms makes clear.

Pratchett once again uses the cliches and ideas of police procedurals to generate humour and satire, although this volume is much more of a hard-bitten (in some cases, literally) mystery novel. Sam Vimes is portrayed as the cynical, weathered old cop doggedly pursuing his case in the face of all opposition, whilst Corporal Carrot is his enthusiastic young sidekick. Of course, that would be a bit too cheesy, so Pratchett subverts this idea earlier on and takes the story in a more interesting and original direction.

The city of Ankh-Morpork comes to life in this book more successfully than in any prior volume, to the extent that Pratchett's playwright and friend Stephen Briggs was able to use information in this book (and the prior ones) to map the city so everything tracked and made sense (the results can be found in the spin-off product, The Streets of Ankh-Morpork). The city's ethnic make-up, the political structure of the guilds and the office of the Patrician are all portrayed convincingly. In addition, Pratchett aims high with his characterisation, with the most affecting death of a Discworld character to date and some brilliant development for Carrot and Vimes. There is even a reasonably well-portrayed romance and some (tastefully off-screen) sex, a first for the series. Men at Arms is Discworld aimed at a slightly maturer level than arguably any of the previous books bar Small Gods.

Which isn't to say that Pratchett doesn't bring the funny. The Colon/Nobbs double-act is excellent, the return of Gaspode the Wonder Dog (from Moving Pictures, but much better-utilised here) is genuinely funny and there is some fantastic material to be mined from the Cuddy/Detritus relationship.

Men at Arms (*****) is Pratchett yet again firing on all cylinders, delivering a novel that is by turns brilliantly funny, genuinely thought-provoking and consistently entertaining. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book by a fantastic author
I can't recommend this book enough.
From the first page to the last this is a brilliant read. It is funny, wise witty and bloody good.
Five stars from me
Published 2 days ago by StevieC
5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, sad, clever, and funny.
Classic Pratchett with his best ensemble cast. The guards novels are as good as it gets.

A pleasure to 're-read
Published 1 month ago by Ian Richards
5.0 out of 5 stars One of his best
Being a lover of sarcasm and whit, i find pratchett a master. This particular book i think is one of the finest in the discworld collection. Read more
Published 1 month ago by mr nicholas lloyd
5.0 out of 5 stars God bless Terry Pratchett!
I am writing this review on the day a news item online informs us that North Korea has threatened a nuclear strike on the U.S.A. Read more
Published 2 months ago by MARIE MCCLURE
4.0 out of 5 stars Great so far!
Not finished reading yet but really good so far. The last one I read was a witches novel which are normally my favourite characters on the Disc, but it was a bit underwhelming. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Pikah
4.0 out of 5 stars Men at Arms a amusingly Brilliant
Another great disc world adventure :) the darker side of Ankh-Morpork, a very worthwhile and entertaining read. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Spike
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Just as good on the third reading!!
Terry Pratchet is a genius of the use of irony in its true sense.
Published 4 months ago by Mr. N.A.May
5.0 out of 5 stars One of his best
Been a discworld fan for years, and this is one of the funniest and readable books of his, good for first timers to the series too.
Published 4 months ago by MR DJ MATTOCK
1.0 out of 5 stars Library copy
As a long standing fan of Terry Pratchett I have managed to collect all of his work. Recently I loaned one of my books (Men at Arms) to a "Friend" and didn't get it back. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. T. J. Griffiths
5.0 out of 5 stars Pratchett on top form
This is one of the more thoughtful Discworld novels: clever and funny as always, but with moments of astonishing beauty.
Published 7 months ago by Juliet Gore
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