Guards! Guards! - (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published: London: Victor Gollancz, 1989.

Book Synopsis

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?

From the Back Cover

Long believed extinct, a superb specimenof draco nobilis ("noble dragon") 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.

Meanwhile, back at Unseen University, an ancient and long-forgotten volume--The Summoning Dragons--is missing from the Library's shelves. To the rescue come Captain Vimes, Constable Carrot, and the rest of the Night Watch who, along with other brave citizens, risk everything, including a good roasting, to dethrone the flying monarchand restore order to Ankh-Morpork(before it's burned to a crisp).

Review Quotes

"Brilliant, and on everybody's reading list." -- SFreviews.net

"At once brilliant and ludicrous, borrowing heavily from traditional mythology and fantasy writings, and then turns them on their heads, spins them around, flips them inside out and mirrors them onto the page. Nothing is the same when you step inside the world of Discworld, and you love Pratchett for it." -- Fantasy Book Review (UK)

"There's no wrong place to start reading Pratchett. . . . The film-noir-with-dragons novel Guards! Guards!, the series starting point for sharp, dutiful City Watch head Commander Vimes, is [a] solid entryway." -- NPR

"As traumatic as it is to only choose one Pratchett, this first entry in his Guards sub-series encompasses everything that is brilliant about his writing: terrific characterisation and plotting, a completely believable world, and new details that come up with each re-reading. Thirty years after it was published, the story of dwarves, dragons and good police work remains fresh, sharp, and incredibly funny." -- Telegraph (UK)

About the Author

TERRY PRATCHETT is one of the most popular authors writing today. He lives behind a keyboard in Wiltshire and says he 'doesn't want to get a life, because it feels as though he's trying to lead three already'. He was appointed OBE in 1998. He is the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series and his trilogy for young readers, The Bromeliad, is scheduled to be adapted into a spectacular animated movie. His first Discworld novel for children, "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents," was awarded the 2001 Carnegie Medal.