Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

This was my favorite Terry Pratchett so far. The main character was Sam Vimes—to whom I was introduced while reading Guards! Guards!. He was the watch captain in that book. Vimes played a slightly different roll in the majority of this book as he travels back in time 30 years after falling through the ceiling of the Ankh-Morpork library (known to be enchanted). He lives a dual reality in this earlier and darker Ankh-Morpork as he plays the role of John Keel—the boss of the young, rookie copper—Sam Vimes. Vimes, as John Keel leads a rebellion against the corrupt government of Ankh-Morpork while trying to find out how to return to the future where his wife is in labor with their first child.


Night Watch was an intriguing, intense, energetic and entertaining read. I normally view time travel as a cop-out for lack of creativity, but it was very well played in this book. The story had a far more somber tone than some of Pratchett’s other works, but humor interposed.

Favorite Quotes:
“Oh dear, here we go again, thought Vimes. Why did I wait until I was married to become strangely attractive to powerful women? Why didn’t it happen to me when I was sixteen? I could have done with it then.” (pg 214)

“…Vimes found it better to look to Authority for orders and then filter those orders through a fine mesh of common sense, adding a generous scoop of creative misunderstanding and maybe even incipient deafness if circumstances demanded, because Authority rarely descended to street level.” (pg 65)

If this were a movie, I'd rate it: PG-13

Overall Grade: B

Would I recommend this book to my friends: Yes.