Not to be confused with the Russian Fantasy Series (which is good by the way)
In my Discworld readthrough I’ve been really looking forward to Night Watch. It seems to list among many fans favourite and the book certainly stands out among the series in many ways. I wouldn’t necessarily say that Night Watch would be my favourite but I do have a lot to say about it which will commence after a brief general review (in no particular order).
Night Watch finds Vimes pursuing a Carcer, a notorious serial killer who murders watchmen, as familiar watch characters gather around a tense scene where it appears the killer is about to be caught, a magical storm pushes Vimes and Carcer back in time a generation or two – where Vimes is mistaken for a heroic Sergant John Keel, and Carcer is employed non other than in the Day Watch. While Vimes initial priority is getting back to the present, he becomes caught up, not only the historic events of the moment, but also the time paradox he must navigate to save his present.
The story is very action packed, semi-dystopian, tense and surprisingly dark. While the trademark humour is present, its constrained to brief gags while a lot of serious business goes on. Given its a time travel adventure there is a strong sense of cameo and fun as you see many familiar characters in young form, and Vimes busy going around setting up certain modern gags.
Random thoughts.
Guards versus Vimes. The Guards series in the Discworld is I think the longest in book numbers and certainty one of the most popular. In my opinion the series is split somewhat between the first few ‘Guards’ books and then the series changes and becomes more ‘Vimes’ (not that this is a bad thing). For example Men-At-Arms didn’t actually feature very much of Vimes, and was really more of a Carrot book, however as the books progress particularly in Jingo and Fifth Elephant Carrot has an important subplot but the stories are really more about Vimes – and of course with Night Watch its really a solo Vimes outing (in a way, more on that later).
The second, and stranger observation I have is that Night Watch, in my opinion is a lot more structured than earlier books (and well many Discworld books) this is not a criticism of Discworld novels, far from it, Pratchett if anything is not formulaic, his stories have a sense of organic progression – sometimes with many subplots woven together, sometimes with plotlines co-existing more than weaving and sometimes just a frenetic main story.
(mild spoilers ahead) Anyway, while I think that Fifth Elephant could be considered similar, Night Watch stands out to me as a having a bit more of a structure to it – in part I think because Pratchett is playing with the Bootstrap Paradox i.e. Vimes travels to the past (and does not sleep with his grandma) and in the process of trying to catch a serial killer who came along too, ends up being an important part of both City and his own history.
I didn’t want to spend too long on the time travel part (yet) but I think because Pratchett usually took a fairly casual approach to time travel this is the first book where he is adding some consequences, and it required a slightly more formal ‘eye’ over the book to make it work. By structure I mean the book has more conventional literary techniques such as opening imagery, call-backs, rising and falling tension (again these things aren’t absent in other books just more notable here).
SPOILERS EVER INCREASING FROM THIS POINT
One that note a bit more about Vimes, one of Discworld’s most developed characters, and I’ve often suspected the one that Pratchett related to the most (although admittedly I suspect he sees himself as a bit of a Granny Weatherwax). Night Watch takes a more in depth look at Vimes as the majority of the book is laser focussed on him. Again where other books are slightly more organic I feel that Night Watch is more overt. Vimes is described as having a ‘beast’ inside him and a lot of the story focusses on the nature of conflict and who is on the right side – basically the moral lesson being that anyone who resists the ‘beast.’ Again compared to other Discworld’s which have tonnes of lessons and morals but are usually more organically snuck in, I wouldn’t describe Pratchett’s works as being particularly moralistic on the surface, but Night Watch feels much more overt.
One more minor critique is that I didn’t really gel with the idea that Vimes had a ‘beast’ I’ve always found his nature to be a more just and intelligent man, brought down by the grey-area challenges of the world. So it doesn’t 100% fit for me that in Night Watch he’s wrestling with his internal need to aggress – don’t get me wrong, everything pragmatic fits with the story – a big part of the plot is that Carcer a deranged serial killer is creating a kind of Batman/Joker challenge where Vimes very much wants to kill Carcer – all of this makes sense and works its just odd to me that there is narrative about Vimes having a murderous beast inside per se.
My last nitpick (which contains finale spoilers) is that I feel the final few pages were quite rushed, and perhaps Pratchett didn’t lean into the the dramatics of the final climax quite as much as he could have. There is a very real sense that after writing quite a heavy book Pratchett couldn’t quite commit all the way to a more tense ending.
By all this I mean in the final scene in the fast, we are rapidly approaching a massive climax, the rebellion is over, but there is still conflict in the street largely led my Carcer and a last few angry Day Watch. “John Keel” has been doomed by the new Patrician who doesn’t want powerful popular men undermining him. Vimes knows all this and has taken steps to protect his younger self, Colon and Nobbs, and sets out ready to take the fight not really knowing what will become of himself or his future-present.
Suddenly the Time-Monks appear instruct Vimes with what to do, and basically after (a sill pretty bad ass) moment of dual sword welding Vimes grabs Carcer and returns to the present. The reason I whinge about this, is that a lot of the building tension surrounded Vimes’ choices around the whole time travel paradox and basically would he sacrifice himself as John Keel did in the ‘original’ past. The fact that the Monks appear and drop Keel’s body on the battlefield and whisk Vimes away, is actually kind of time except I think it happened a few beats too early.
Although really is a nitpick – the story is still sad and intense it just had a strange sense of holding back a little?
Anyway to summarize I feel its obvious why this is many a fans’ favourite its a complex and intense Discworld book, and provides an insight into the past of both characters and city that you might not have been able to experience quite the same without this narrative.
Lonely Power Poles 