Men at Arms (by Terry Pratchett)

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I’m slowly re-reading my way through Terry Pratchett’s lengthy ‘Discworld’ series. There are some books I remember well, others where I have only the vaguest recall. I wasn’t particularly keen on starting ‘Men at Arms’, which is fifteenth in the series; for some reason I didn’t think I liked it all that much. I was never really a fan of the ‘Watch’ books when I last read them.

Indeed, I don’t know when I last read ‘Men at Arms’. I acquired it in 1995 and presumably read it then; I’m pretty sure I also re-read it around twenty years ago, but it’s not one I’ve picked up to peruse randomly. Indeed, it felt a bit heavy-going at first.

The Night Watch were properly introduced in ‘Guards, Guards!’, eighth in the series, which I re-read (and thoroughly enjoyed) towards the end of last year. This book is a continuation, and takes place as Captain Vimes is preparing to marry Lady Sybil. At least, she and her household are preparing for the wedding. Vimes is wondering how he will cope when he’s no longer a watchman. He doesn’t much like mixing in upper crust circles and being sociable.

New recruits have come to the force, which is required to have representatives of minority groups. So Detritus the troll, Cuddy the dwarf, and a young woman called Angua are all lance-constables. Angua isn’t quite what she seems; I did remember what was eventually revealed about her, and noticed the various hints in the early part of the book. Suffice it to say that she and Corporal Carrot - the six-foot dwarf - are rather attracted to each other…

Gaspode the talking dog - who appears first in ‘Moving Pictures’ - also plays a significant role in this book. So I’m glad I’m reading them in order, as it does mean there’s some continuity. Each book stands alone, but there’s a growing maturity in the writing, increased complexity of plotting, and the reappearance of many characters which would be quite confusing - or more confusing than it is anyway - if picking up a book like this without any prior Discworld experience.

This story is essentially a murder mystery, involving Assassins, clowns, and a very dangerous weapon known on the Disc as the ‘Gonne’. We learn a lot about this implement; Pratchett was clearly making some political points as well as weaving an excellent story. There’s violence too - battles between trolls and dwarfs becoming more serious, and also some quite unpleasant scenes (albeit brief) as corpses are discovered.

By the time I was half-way through I was entirely hooked - an advantage of not having read the book in a couple of decades is that I had no idea how it was going to end. Some of the plotting was a tad complex and I’m not sure I followed all the ins and outs, but it didn’t much matter.

As with other Discworld books, there are many subtle allusions to literature or quotations from our world… not so well-known in this book, and I’m sure I missed many of them. It really doesn’t matter. I appreciate the wit when I spot one, and if I don’t, the writing is good enough that it’s not intrusive.

I liked the way Carrot’s character developed in this book, and I also very much liked the development of Detritus the troll, and the discovery that he becomes more intelligent when the temperature is lowered. I was surprisingly sad when a likeable character died towards the end of the book; I hadn’t seen that coming and had entirely forgotten about it (although it explains why I didn’t remember the character from other books - this is the only one in which this particular character appears).

Overall, I liked this very much and am glad I have finally re-read it. There’s a lot of story in the Watch books, and I’m already looking forward to others later in the series.

Recommended.

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