Saxton Reads! & Reviews

*****Mercedes
I may have said this when I finished the last Discworld book but this was by far the best Discworld book yet. Perhaps the best Pratchett book I've read. I loved it. It was not laugh out loud funny the way many of Pratchett's books are but it was so good. It was darker, delving into the history of Ankh-Morpork (Discworld's largest city) and allowing us glimpses into the past of several repeat characters, primarily Sam Vimes, Commander of the Night Watch, but also Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, and several others. Pratchett has an amazing talent at looking at universal themes from a fresh perspective, poking fun at our preconceived notions, and simply making us think. This book looked into the black hearts of men but rather than having to go into gory detail, Pratchett knows we can imagine more horrors than he could write and so he leaves us to our own minds. This book has such merit I would recommend anyone to read it but you can't fully appreciate its complexities or the heartbreak and challenges of the characters without having read the other books that pertain particularly to the Night Watch. Sam Vimes has come such a long way. In the first book he's featured in, he's a drunk with a horrible outlook on life, merely a captain, no family, no life except for the Watch. Now, several books and years later, he is a Duke, the Commander of the Watch, sober, married and about to have a child. I have never seen such redemption in a character and have to wonder if Vimes isn't Pratchett's favorite character. Rather than let him stew in his own miserableness (as typical cop movies, books, shows do) Vimes rises above his own demons to know another, better world (and he doesn't sacrifice any of his character to do so). I was very much looking forward to reading this book and was never let down.