[Jim March]

Somebody else around here has to be a fan of the "Diskworld" comedy/parody fantasy novel series by Terry Pratchett, right?

Well in his latest ("Night Watch"), he's still funny as hell but he takes on a more serious subject - crime and policework.

The "Diskworld" is a deliberately silly fantasyland that's clearly a twisted parody of our own, even if it is flat and sits on the backs of four huge elephants which in turn rest on a giant turtle :). OK, get past the "Monty Pythonesque" zanyness and there's lots of biting social commentary at hand.

Sam Vines is a recurring character, a member of the "Night Watch" police force of the capitol city of Ankh-Morepork, which has a river running through it that's so polluted you can walk across it if the stench doesn't get to you first or the local wizard's college didn't just have a horrendous accident like the one that turned the Librarian into an Orangutang...but I digress :).

In this one, Vimes is accidentally sent back in time at the same time as an arch-criminal nemisis...stripped of his clothes of course in an obvious yet amusing ripoff of T2/T3/etc. He goes back 30 years to the days when his younger self has just joined the force, and corrupt city leaders have caused crime to go completely wacked...in large part due to strict weapons control laws.

And Pratchett spends three consecutive pages discussing the inevitable poor logic of THAT, plus shorter references scattered around later. Such as when he's telling a group of cops NOT to go to a certain address where a certain proprieter has all manner of clubs, blackjacks, brass knuckles and similar goodies at a wide range of prices for every budget, including his favorite, the #5 "Negotiator" sap...:D

It's not often you see a detailed, well-written and *effective* primer on the RKBA buried in something like THAT. Something popular enough even all the way in the US that it showed up at a local chain grocery store in paperback...I would estimate the market share to be about 100x that of "Unintended Consequences" (minimum) and it's literally almost as compelling a statement on the theory of civilian arms as UC while not being billed as such.

Worth a read - the series is completely non-linear and the book works just fine on it's own.

I wouldn't call it his funniest piece to date but it's definately the most thought-provoking.

[zastros]

I love his books, though I do remember in an earlier one "Men at Arms" one of the plots based around a magical device so EVIL that it turned it's owners into serial killers. It was called a 'gonne'. I'll have to read this new one.

zastros

[jdege]

Mightily-Praiseworthy-Are-Ye-Who-Exalteth-Om Oats: "There is a very interesting debate raging at the moment about the nature of sin, for example."

Esmerelda (Esme - "Granny") Weatherwax: "And what do they think? Against it, are they?"

Mightily Oats: "It's not as simple as that. It's not a black and white issue. There are so many shades of grey."

Granny Weatherwax: "Nope."

Mightily Oats: "Pardon?"

Granny Weatherwax: "There's no greys, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat
people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is."

Mightily Oats: "It's a lot more complicated than that--"

Granny Weatherwax: "No. It ain't. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they're getting worried that they won't like the truth. People as things, that's where it starts."

Mightily Oats: "Oh, I'm sure there are worse crimes--"

Granny Weatherwax: "But they starts with thinking about people as things..."

[Jim March]

It's possible this latest work represents a real change of thought for him. Wouldn't surprise me, in fact the sheer fervor he puts into what's clearly an RKBA argument for armed defense is so surprising, just shy of heavy handed, that it looks like the work of a "recent convert".

Anyways. It was a REAL pleasure and suprise to see.

(Of course, Sam Vimes did other things during the later portion of his police career...like ending racism in the ranks. Which in this case, meant Trolls were allowed to join the force, and turn out to make really awesome "entry teams" :D.)

[BryanP]

Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors and the books centering around Sam Vimes, Carrot, and the rest of the City Watch are my favorites, followed closely by the ones about the Witches. The others are good, just not quite as high on my list.

I had wondered about the same thing as others - in Men At Arms the "gonne" is a quasi-sentient thing that causes others to do evil, but in Night Watch (which was written several years later) his viewpoints seem to have changed quite a bit.

BTW, "Night Watch" is just the newest released in paperback. "Monstrous Regiment" was just released in hardcover. I picked it up over the weekend and it's next up on the to-read pile.

[LawDog]

Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors. The footnotes in his books are worth keeping all by themselves.

The sergeant put on the poker face which has been handed down from NCO to NCO ever since one protoamphibian told another, lower ranking protoamphibian to muster a squad of newts and Take That Beach.

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People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders often have uneventful journeys. People jump out at them from behind rocks then say things like, "Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else."

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Of course, it is very important to be sober when you take an exam. Many worthwhile careers in the street-cleansing, fruit-picking and subway-guitar-playing industries have been founded on a lack of understanding of this simple fact.

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People have believed for hundreds of years that newts in a well mean that the water's fresh and drinkable, and in all that time never asked themselves whether the newts got out to go to the lavatory.

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His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools -- the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up all three of them in his famous phrase, "You can't trust any bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing you can do about it, so let's have a drink."

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The shortest unit of time in the multiverse is the New York Second, defined as the period of time between the traffic lights turning green and the cab behind you honking.

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The question seldom addressed is where Medusa had snakes. Underarm hair is an even more embarassing problem when it keeps biting the top of the deodorant bottle.

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"I know about people who talk about suffering for the common good. It's never bloody them! When you hear a man shouting "Forward, brave comrades!" you'll see he's the one behind the bloody big rock and the one wearing the only really arrow-proof helmet!"

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This is very similar to the suggestion put forward by the Quirmian philosopher Ventre, who said, "Possibly the gods exist, and possibly they do not. So why not believe in them in any case? If it's all true you'll go to a lovely place when you die, and if it isn't then you've lost nothing, right?" When he died he woke up in a circle of gods holding nasty-looking sticks and one of them said, "We're going to show you what we think of Mr Clever Dick in these parts..."

:D:D:D
LawDog

[vmi93]

I was pleasantly surprised by the seeming philosophical shift in "Night Watch". I could not make it through "Men at Arms" without cringing from the repetition of the antigun (or anti-gonne) rhetoric. I wonder if Britain's gun laws and rising crime rate have something to do with it?

Has anyone read his newest book yet?

[BryanP]

I could not make it through "Men at Arms" without cringing from the repetition of the antigun (or anti-gonne) rhetoric.

So are you saying you didn't finish the book or that you cringed a lot? Because it's still a really good book in spite of the rhetoric.

[striker3]

LawDog,
That is the first post in a LONG time that has made me laugh out loud! I have never heard of this author before, but it looks like I am going to have to go out and read some of his books now.

[vmi93]

BryanP, I cringed, but I finished. I've been a Pratchett fan for too long to let a minor annoyance put me off. :)

[Calanctus]

Seems like more & more fantasy authors are supporting RKBA causes. I haven't read it yet, but doesn't the latest Harry Potter discuss licensing wands?

Another pro-freedom author is Terry Goodkind. His last couple of books in the Sword of Truth series have focused on why bliss-ninnyism is doomed to failure, and what a true "liberal utopian paradise" would look like. Very strong self-defense ideals, as well.

I suppose it's good these ideas are being spread through a fantasy novel, but kind of sad that those ideals are becoming a fantasy at the same time.

[Daniel T]

People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders often have uneventful journeys. People jump out at them from behind rocks then say things like, "Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else."

That's gotta be my new sig, as it describes me perfectly. I've actually had pretty much that exact circumstance happen to me. Plus, it's damn funny.

I guess I need to read Pratchett now. He aways stuck me as too silly before, but maybe he has some promise.

[Pendragon]

Ditto Demise.

6'5" - mid 200s when I was younger, more than that now I'm afraid. But I definately resemble that remark.