Guards! Guards! (1989)

by Terry Pratchett

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Discworld: City Watch (1), Discworld (8)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
13,630	228	415	(4.19)	534
Welcome to Guards! Guards!, the eighth book in Terry Pratchett's legendary Discworld series. Long believed extinct, a superb specimen of draco nobilis ('noble dragon' for those who don't understand italics) has appeared in Discworld's greatest city. Not only does this unwelcome visitor have a nasty habit of charbroiling everything in its path, in rather short order it is crowned King (it is a noble dragon, after all...). How did it get there? How is the Unique and Supreme Lodge of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night involved? Can the Ankh-Morpork City Watch restore order - and the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork to power? Magic, mayhem, and a marauding dragon...who could ask for anything more?… (more)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by

barrius383, Chuckh707, private library, orngbld, siamm, cjjmember, 91squirrels, Rakketytam, mbaushke

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Member recommendations

51
The Streets of Ankh-Morpork: Being a concise and possibly even accurate Mapp of the Great City of the Discworld by Terry Pratchett (Sylak)
Sylak: As a companion to the book it's a bit of fun.
00
Dragon Precinct by Keith R. A. DeCandido (infiniteletters)

▾Lists

Best Fantasy Novels (142)

BBC Big Read (72)

Books Read in 2020 (27)

» 27 more

Best Satire (10)

Books I've Read More Than Once (30)

Books Read in 2016 (102)

Books featuring alcoholics (8)

Favourite Books (433)

One Book, Many Authors (26)

Books Read in 2022 (140)

Books Read in 2021 (272)

Speculative Fiction to Read (48)

1980s (51)

Genre Benders: Comic Fantasy (3)

Here There Be Dragons (7)

20th Century Literature (440)

Books Read in 2018 (637)

Overdue Podcast (153)

Books Read in 2023 (1,870)

Books tagged favorites (151)

Books Read in 2013 (645)

Mind Expanding Books by hackerkid (71)

Books Read in 2006 (52)

Genre Benders: Fantasy + Mystery (5)

Huxley's reading log 2016 (23)

Recommended Fantasy Books (5)

Funny Books (7)

Allie's Wishlist (17)

Survey of Fantasy Classics (49)

Best Science Fiction Novels (787)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 534 mentions

▾Member reviews

English (216) Spanish (4) Polish (2) Norwegian (1) German (1) Swedish (1) Italian (1) French (1) Danish (1) All languages (228)

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 216 (next | show all)

It took a bit to appreciate the humor, but once I did I really enjoyed myself. I'll be reading more of Discworld shortly. (

)

Cryyo | Nov 22, 2023 |

62. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
series:Discworld Book 8
OPD: 1989
format: 355-page HarperTorch mass market paperback, 2001 edition
acquired: 2002? read: Nov 5-15 time reading: 11:05, 1.9 mpp
rating: 4½
genre/style: humor/fantasy theme: TBR
locations: Discworld
about the author: English author born in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire (1948-2015). The UK’s best-selling author of the 1990’s.

A Discworld at its best, when Pratchett was rolling.

As an aside, it struck me how much the intense cleverness and humor built-in slows the pace of these books down. A challenge becomes not how to make it funny, but how to manage the humor. Here he does a lot of stuff to keep it flowing, and it mostly works.

But, to the point, this is one of Discworlds best. Vimes, Carrot, Nobby, Colon and Vertinari are all, I think, introduced. Errol is a wonderful little dragon, and our noble dragon and villain are entertaining too. Pratchett just did everything right here. Humor and charm managed with a well-worked pacing. And scattered little enlightening observations on life. Terrific stuff.

Discworld was wacky for the 1980's and 1990's. It's a sort of specific kind of semi-intelligent kitchen-sink-ish humor. So mainly recommended to anyone who likes that kind of specific sort of wackiness that hasn't already read this.

2023
https://www.librarything.com/topic/354226#8287301 (

)

dchaikin | Nov 18, 2023 |

I just love Terry Pratchett's humour! And the world he created. And this book has dragons, which is great for me (

)

Stefuto | Oct 31, 2023 |

The new audio version isn't in the goodreads system yet. New audio version is really good. Well acted, modern recording, some music stings where appropriate. As much as I like the old audiobooks they've aged badly. (

)

A.Godhelm | Oct 20, 2023 |

This was the first Discworld book that I thoroughly enjoyed. Especially the characters were a lot of fun. For example, in my mind the patrician was just a slightly posh version of John Cleese. And dragons exploding unexpectedly are an image I won't forget very soon. (

)

bramboomen | Oct 18, 2023 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 216 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (14 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Pratchett, Terry	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Aaranovitch, Ben	Introduction	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Andersen, Doug	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Coulon, Patrick	Traduction	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Ittekot, Venugopalan	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Kaer, Krista	Toimetaja.	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Kantůrek, Jan	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Kidby, Paul	Illustrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Kirby, Josh	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Kopp, Armin	Sprecher	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Lindforss, Peter	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Macía Orío, Cristina	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Mets, Hillar	Kujundaja.	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Monn, Thomas	Sprecher	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Pieretti, Antonella	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Pieretti, Antonella	Traduttore	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Planer, Nigel	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Riera, Ernest	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Schwegler, Ruth	Sprecher	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Sohár, Anikó	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Sweet, Darrell K.	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

Discworld (8)

Discworld: City Watch (1)

Belongs to Publisher Series

L'Atalante - La Dentelle du Cygne

The Discworld Collector's Library (8)

Heyne Allgemeine Reihe (4805)

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

BBC's Big Read (Best loved novel, No 69 – 2003)

Margaret A. Edwards Award (2011)

Prix Imaginales (Patrick Couton, Prix spécial du jury – 2002)

Prix Ozone (Roman fantasy étranger – 1998)

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

Guards! Guards!

Original title

Guards! Guards!

Alternative titles

¡Guardias! ¡Guardias! (España)

Original publication date

People/Characters

Carrot Ironfoundersson

Havelock Vetinari (The Patrician)

(show all 9 items)

Important places

Ankh-Morpork, Discworld (fictional)

Discworld (fictional)

City Watch Headquarters, Ankh-Morpork, Discworld (fictional)

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

They may be called the Palace Guard, the City Guard, or the Patrol. Whatever the name, their purpose in any work of heroic fantasy is identical: it is, round about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered. No-one ever asks them if they wanted to.

This book is dedicated to those fine men.

And also to Mike Harrison, Mary Gentle, Neil Gaiman and all the others who assisted with and laughed at the idea of L-space; too bad we never used Schrodinger's Paperback . . .

First words

This is where the dragons went.

Quotations

"Have another drink, not-Corporal Nobby?" said Sergeant Colon unsteadily. "I do not mind if I do, not-Sgt Colon," said Nobby.

-- The joys of working undercover (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)

The dragon—the dragon—was peering down interestedly over the guttering. Its face alone was taller than a man. Its eyes were the size of very large eyes, colored a smoldering red and filled with an intelligence that had nothing to do with human beings. It was far older, for one thing. It was an intelligence that had already been long basted in guile and marinated in cunning by the time a group of almost-monkeys were wondering whether standing on two legs was a good career move. It wasn’t an intelligence that had any truck with, or even understood, the arts of diplomacy.

"When you really need them the most," he said, "million-to-one chances always crop up. Well-known fact."

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Copies of this work with the ISBNs 0575063025, 0575070714 and 3442545331 may be Graphic Novel versions. Changing the Title of your copy to reflect this may facilitate correct combination with other Graphic Novel versions of the work.

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Other dimensions of the Discworld

▾Book descriptions

Welcome to Guards! Guards!, the eighth book in Terry Pratchett's legendary Discworld series. Long believed extinct, a superb specimen of draco nobilis ('noble dragon' for those who don't understand italics) has appeared in Discworld's greatest city. Not only does this unwelcome visitor have a nasty habit of charbroiling everything in its path, in rather short order it is crowned King (it is a noble dragon, after all...). How did it get there? How is the Unique and Supreme Lodge of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night involved? Can the Ankh-Morpork City Watch restore order - and the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork to power? Magic, mayhem, and a marauding dragon...who could ask for anything more?

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

This is where the dragons went. They lie…not dead, not asleep, but…dormant. And although the space they occupy isn't like normal space, nevertheless they are packed in tightly. They could put you in mind of a can of sardines, if you thought sardines were huge and scaly. And presumably, somewhere, there's a key...

Haiku summary