The newest in the series, 'Night Watch' features two of the best things about fiction (or at least, fiction I recommend to people):

1). It's by Terry Pratchett.

2). It's about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.


What? You need more than that to go and read it? Honestly!

Okay, so a brief synopsis: It starts off in the time of the watch we all know and love with Cmmdr Vimes waiting expectantly for the birth of his first child. As he waits there's a summons to capture Carcer, a typical murderous villain with a good sense of humour

Anyway, in his confrontation with Carcer...something odd happens. Vimes finds himself transported back to the time when Lord Winder still held patricianship over the city. It's also the time when Lord Snapcase is just about to depose Winder. And the time when a young lad named Sam Vimes joined the watch.

Assuming the title of his old sergeant, Vimes must teach himself and the rag-tag watch to become a police force - and fast. The city is on edge and Carcer is the least of Vime's worries. History led to the death of his sergeant, and the last thing Vimes wants is to die in the past...but if he doesn't, he won't have a future to go back to...


Once again Pratchett has summoned a great plot, unearthed the characters we know but this time at a point in their lives we've never seen before. Among the regulars are the young (and living in Reg Shoe's case) Fred Colon, C.M.O.T. Dibbler and Nobby Nobbs, but we also meet the old watchmen; Sergeant Dickins, Wiglet, Nancyball and Ned Coates.

The best character by far is of course Vimes, but then again this is Vimes's story - even though told through the eyes of John Keel, Sergeant at Arms.

In this story though Pratchett has given his answer to the question: 'Can we change the past?' Interestingly enough, his answer comes across as obvious to that question, and he instead goes on to ask another: 'Do we have the right, or can we take the choice to change the past?'

Excellent reading as always, and a plot that does keep you guessing right up to the end. My favourite part is the conversation between Ponder Stibbons and Captain Carrot early in the book though, it's quite good at revealing the wizard's ego and Carrot's tendency to surprise people.

Yoda

Edited to correct a name

It is only fair that I vote of course, I went for 'no'. This is because while there are events I would change in my past, I know there would be consequences that could change the future of others for the worst. The other thing is, if I built a time machine that would take me back to the past, how would I be able to get back to the past if I changed the event that made me want to do that? Now there's something to think about...

Much as I love Terry Pratchett, particularly his Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat books, I'm finding that some of the newer books are just chugging along and using the familiar formula. The older ones were spectacular because they were parodying Macbeth or the concept of fairy tales and his quirkyness really made it come alive.

I read "The Truth" last and it felt a bit flat compared with his other stuff - how does this new one compare with it?

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I read "The Truth" last and it felt a bit flat compared with his other stuff - how does this new one compare with it?

Aw no! You would pick another one with the Watch vaguely featuring to measure up against! Um...erk. I'm really biased in favour of books featuring the Watch, gah! I'll have to get back to you on it, but I enjoyed this more than The Truth...it was similar in type to Thief of Time and that's a non-Watch one I really enjoyed.

You know when my friend William recommended me to read some of the discworld things the other day it was the last straw... Hearing various people going on about how good the books are I could resist asking for some for christmas... I felt like an idiot with about 10 Pratchett books at Borders today... Oh and I'm off to ask Mum if I can have one early... Teehee

!!!!! He is making new books?!!?!! JOY!!!! I thought he retired the Discworld series years ago!! Im gonna cut school and go to a bookstore tommorow!! Well... mabey after school...

Am about halfway through NW and while it's not one of his best, it's certainly one of the better ones out of his recent stuff, and has succeeded in making me giggle and splutter out loud on the bus on the way to work the other day, which he hasn’t done for a good few books now.

of cause the real question should be not whether you would change things in the past, but whether you would look at a bottle of ginger beer, the same way again :shock

Night watch is one of the best. I think it depends on whether (is that the right spelling?) you like stories about the watch or not. I do so I love night watch but my friend loves all the ones with rincewind in and I don't. Does anyone like monstrous regiment as well? Because thats another i like.

I voted no because I think along the lines of if you had changed things then you wouldn't know you had because to you what you changed is what happened rather than what originally happened. If that makes sense? I also think there is no use living on regrets and wanting to change things because then you are not living as much as you could giving you more regrets.

Yoda -I think what you get with the time machine possibly disappearing is called a time paradox and they are scary to think about.

If you want to read stories with sort of time travel in I would recommend the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. The stories aren't actually mainly about it but they have a theory (and dragons that can travel through time) that if they did go back in time then they already have if that makes sense.

A thought I think I like the newer books more because they are more ironic and are parodying history and not literature as much.