captaind's Full Review: Terry Pratchett - Men at Arms
Because I’ve not read them in anything like the right order (this being about the twentieth one I’ve actually read), this is one of the earlier Discworld novels to heavily feature the City Watch, but I've read several that come after it. Thus my view of the characters in this book were already formed. Whether or not this made any difference to how I viewed Men At Arms I’m not really sure, though it was kind of strange reading characters I’m very familiar with being presented for the first time - a little like watching a football match already knowing the score, perhaps? At any rate, because this is one of the most plot-driven novels in the Discworld series, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of reading the book at all.
Discworld is a world not unlike our own… except that it is flat, and inhabited by various mythical creatures along with humans. Things from our universe keep popping up in theirs, causing various degrees of consternation - not that they aren’t capable of causing their own problems, of course…
Men at Arms focuses heavily on Corporal Carrot, the seven feet tall dwarf (adopted) who was first seen in Guards, Guards. Apparently there’s something very important about his true lineage, although he’s unaware of it - though other influential people are not only aware of it but have it as part of their plan and are actively going around killing people in an attempt to make it work. You see, the city of Ankh Morpork has no king - at least, not until one of untainted regal blood is found. This clearly mimics the city of Minis Tirith in Lord of the Rings, and the parodying doesn’t stop there - the relationship between two of the new City Watch recruits, Cuddy (a Dwarf) and Detritus (a troll) obviously borrows from Gimli and Legolas. It’s not a straight satire of Tolkein’s masterpiece, though - there are two other distinct plot strands going on here and even a love story….
One of the plot strands (and by extension the love story) involves poor old Stan Vimes, Commander of the City Watch (at least the night shift), and the new recruits. Due to the new city policy of having some of the smaller ethnic groups represented in the Watch, the new recruits consist of the aforementioned dwarf and troll, along with… I’d better let you find out for yourself as it may spoil parts of the book if I told you in advance. The trouble is, Vimes is not too happy with these new recruits being forced on him - not that he doesn’t like dwarves and trolls, just that he’d be happier if they were all on the other side of the Disc… Not that it really matters to Vimes, since with his imminent marriage to Lady Sybil he’s retiring from the Watch and will become a gentleman. He wonders why exactly can’t he manage to feel happy about that?
Meanwhile an old invention of Leonard of Quirm (a caricature of Leonardo de Caprio… no wait, I meant Leonardo de Vinci) is stolen… an invention terrible and so dangerous that it can turn ordinary people into killers before they even realise it.
Men At Arms is a hugely enjoyable book, though to my mind it doesn’t quite make it into the very top echelon of the Discworld series. It’s very funny (more so if you’ve read Lord of the Rings or at least seen the films, and possibly more so if you’ve lived in / know a bit about London and its police force) and the plot moves along nicely, pausing for breath in the right places to stop the action becoming a meaningless blur. Vimes is one of my favourite Discworld characters and Carrot is such an appealing individual that you can’t not like him - in fact, a key element of the book is that everyone likes him. As always, the set pieces are extremely well written. The writing shows glimpses of the genius that Pratchett displays in some of his later books, but for the most part it is just funny rather than inspired. There is a little bad language but nothing major, though slightly more than in most of the Discworld books. Fans of the series will enjoy this one, and it’s one of the most accessible for people who have never read a Discworld novel before, though a familiarity with fantasy fiction would definitely be an advantage in that case.
As far as rating it goes, there are two main reasons why I’ve given it 4 stars instead of 5. One is that I’ve recently decided to be a little harsher with my ratings in general (because some of the things I’ve reviewed in the past and given 5 stars to, considered in retrospect, probably didn’t quite deserve it - though this mainly applies to my movie reviews). The other is that I can’t review any Discworld book without (at least to some extent) comparing it to other books in the series - and this falls short of any that I’ve rated 5 stars so far.
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