Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - Night Watch

Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

8 reviews

wandering_seal's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I've read this book at least once a year for about twenty years and it never fails to hook me in. I feel just as emotional now as I did the first time I read this - actually I think I probably get the story now a lot better than I did as a teen. Certainly I understand the fickleness of memory and the demise of idealism shown here in a way I don't think a teen can.

I adore Vimes, and while I'm not sure this is the story I adore him the most in, it is I think my favourite of his books. His rough, undesired goodness just shines through.

Content Warnings

bluejayreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

I am not generally into books about time travel shenanigans. Not because I have anything against time travel in particular, but it just seems to be rare to have it done well, or at least in a way that I find enjoyable to read about. But, as usual, Sir Terry pulled it off.

I think a lot of that has to do with the character of Commander Samuel Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. Due to some unfortunate wrong-place, wrong-time magical happenstance, Vimes ends up in his own past – the Ankh-Morpork of many decades ago, when he had just joined the Watch and things were, objectively, much worse than they are now. But one of the things that I appreciate most about Commander Vimes is that he is a relentlessly practical man. I recognize a kindred spirit in that, but it also means that the situation may be weird and fairly unpleasant, but he gets right on with dealing with it, with very little pining or philosophizing and absolutely no dithering or worrying about paradoxes.

That’s not to say that he’s emotionless, though. In fact, what makes Vimes so stellar as a character to me throughout this whole series is that he is competent, practical, and stays focused on the problem(s) in front of him instead of wasting time with excessive introspection or philosophizing, but he also has a strong set of personal values, cares deeply for the people around him, and feels his emotions intensely. He doesn’t do the introspection on the page because he doesn’t need to; he already knows himself thoroughly and is in control. To use the cliché, he is in touch with his feelings, but though they may tempt him to act against his values, they never control him. In so many ways, he is a paragon of positive masculinity – competent, principled, practical, honorable, caring, willing and able to experience great depth of feeling, never letting his feelings overrule him. He’s the rare character who is great to read about as a character, and also someone I think I would like, or at least respect, in real life.

Apparently this is the Sam Vimes Appreciation Review. That does make sense, because he really is the star of this book. Sure, there’s the whole time travel thing. There’s the murderer he’s tracking who also got zapped into the past and has the same future knowledge that Vimes does. There’s the fact that this point in the past is a particularly sticky one for Ankh-Morpork. There’s the sheer delight of a character being spectacularly good at what they do (some of it because Vimes has future knowledge, but much of it because he’s just a really, really good watchman). All of that is quite enjoyable to read. But this is a book that pushes Commander Vimes to his limits, and that means that he, as a character, is really what carries this story.

The Discworld series doesn’t generally shy away from getting dark in places. But this book is probably the darkest that I’ve read so far, and since the City Watch sub-series tends to be less funny in general, it’s not tempered with humor into something darkly funny. It’s just dark. Not at all in a bad way, to be sure. As I said, these events push Vimes to his limit, and it’s hard to do that without delving into some darkness. But even in terms of sheer numbers of deaths and injuries, this has got to be one of the more violent Discworld books. It’s not unnecessary violence when it comes to the plot, but it definitely goes (and takes Commander Vimes to) some very dark places.

I can’t necessarily say that Night Watch has replaced Interesting Times as my favorite Discworld book. The two are so different in mood, tone, theme, and content that it’s hard to do a direct comparison. But I can definitely say that Night Watch is among my favorite Discword books. If you like Commander Vimes as a character, love stories where protagonists are pushed to their limits, or just enjoy the very specific trope where a character is sent back in time and has to relive a difficult part of their life from a new perspective, I think you’ll agree.

Content Warnings

eddieboy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Content Warnings

princessofharte's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is the most dark, most tense Pratchett book I've ever read. It is full of anger, hopelessness, anxiety, and fear. And it is worth it.

When reading this, it's important to remember it was published in 2002. In less than 5 years, Terry Pratchett would be diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's.

His thought process on this can be seen with how Vimes interacts with Sam and with Tilden. Terry Pratchett is fighting how his memory is turning.

They did the job they didn't have to do!

Content Warnings

ampharos906's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

ramreadsagain's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

"Maybe the best way to build a brand new world is to peel some spuds in this one."

I was worried I wouldn't like this one but it's become one of my favourite Discworld books. Time travel is usually not a trope that I think is done well, but my god was it done well here! I absolutely loved this glance at Ankh-Morpork history as well as what felt like a deeper look at Sam Vimes himself, as unlike most Pratchett books which tend to switch character perspective a lot, this one focuses almost entirely on Vimes.

As always with Pratchett I love the balance of humour, social commentary, and pure love for these characters.

Content Warnings

crufts's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Man. How did Terry Pratchett do it? In short, another fantastic Discworld novel, this one continuing the Guards arc that started in Guards! Guards! (see my review of that here).
Although Night Watch is Book 29 of the Discworld series, you only need to have read Guards! Guards! (Book 8) to understand what's going on. Actually, you could probably even read Night Watch as a standalone.

Captain Samuel Vimes has long led the Night Watch of the city of Ankh-Morpork. He's seen a lot in his 48 or so years, including the day thirty years ago when a violent revolution ended in the removal of the city's ruler - and the deaths of many of young Sam's colleagues in the Watch. It was an experience that could have turned a good man bad. But fortunately, young Sam and the other watchmen had the guidance of the honest and incorruptible Sergeant John Keel, and so Sam Vimes grew up to be an honest policeman himself.

Thirty years later, the grown Captain Vimes is chasing down the unrepentant murderer Carcer when they're both thrown back in time by a magical anomaly. Carcer immediately murders the past version of Sergeant Keel, and plans to do the same to young Sam Vimes. The older Vimes realizes he only has one chance to save history: he must step into Keel's shoes and lead the Night Watch through the chaotic revolution that is inexorably bearing down on the city.

Since the story steps away from the present day so quickly, I thought I'd miss beloved characters from Guards! Guards! such as Lady Sybil Ramkin, or even the watchmen like Corporal Carrot or Sergeant Colon. What we actually get is a concentrated dose of Sam Vimes by himself, and that was so interesting to read that I'd soon completely forgotten about these other characters. We even get sneak peeks at younger versions of some of the present-day characters such as

Corporal Nobbs, Lord Vetinari, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, and even (briefly) Lady Ramkin

.

In contrast to previous Discworld books which are basically a barrel of laughs tied up with clever wordplay, Night Watch got shockingly dark and emotional at times, and I mean that as a huge compliment. I'm very glad Terry Pratchett dipped into a darker tone for this novel because it made for a terrific ending.

Excellent novel, would totally recommend if you're reading through the Guards arc of Discworld. You might also like the sequel, Feet of Clay.

Content Warnings

anidharker's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.5

Content Warnings

More...