Guards! Guards! (1989)
Guards! Guards! is a 1989 fantasy book written by Terry Pratchett.
Ankh-Morpork's Night Watch has dwindled to a handful of drunks and cowards led by Captain Sam Vimes, a man who has given up on the city and mostly on himself. Then a secret brotherhood summons a dragon to seize power, and the beast, being a noble dragon, promptly gets itself crowned king. Into this mess walks Carrot, a six-foot dwarf-by-adoption with an unbending sense of duty. Pratchett launches the Watch sequence with a crime comedy about institutions, kingship, and the stubborn decency of underpaid men. Sardonic, humane, and endlessly quotable, it reshaped Discworld's satire.
Quick answers
What is Guards! Guards! about?
Ankh-Morpork's Night Watch has dwindled to a handful of drunks and cowards led by Captain Sam Vimes, a man who has given up on the city and mostly on himself. Then a secret brotherhood summons a dragon to seize power, and the beast, being a noble dragon, promptly gets itself crowned king. Into this mess walks Carrot, a six-foot dwarf-by-adoption with an unbending sense of duty. Pratchett launches the Watch sequence with a crime comedy about institutions, kingship, and the stubborn decency of underpaid men. Sardonic, humane, and endlessly quotable, it reshaped Discworld's satire.
When was Guards! Guards! published?
Guards! Guards! was published in 1989.
Who made Guards! Guards!?
Guards! Guards! was written by Terry Pratchett.
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Explore Guards! Guards! guides
Guards! Guards! in our writing
- Companion guide: Discworld: The Complete Guide to Terry Pratchett's Flat Planet
- Companion guide: The Thieves' Guild: Rogues, Heists and the Fantasy Underworld
A few thoughts on Guards! Guards!
Fans of dutiful policing in an absurd town should watch Hot Fuzz, which shares the deadpan reverence for procedure and civic order. Brooklyn Nine-Nine offers the same mismatched-precinct warmth. And Terry Pratchett's Discworld, the 1995 point-and-click adventure, lifted much of its plot straight from this book, so it plays like a companion piece for Vimes-era readers.
Ragtag defenders who step up when nobody else will
Guards! Guards! starts with a Night Watch too drunk and too tired to matter, then makes them the only thing standing between Ankh-Morpork and a crowned dragon. These four share that same shape: an unglamorous, overlooked band of defenders who turn out to be exactly what their home needed, comic timing included.