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May. 24th, 2023 08:57 pmTomorrow is the Glorious 25th of May, so I have been relistening to the Night Watch audiobook this week.
The one real problem with Night Watch is that I know several people that I think would love it but it is, alas, really the only Discworld book that you can't start with. I mean, I guess you can - it's presumably comprehensible without reading the previous Watch novels - but the emotional texture isn't there. It's not even just the big stuff, like seeing younger versions of characters you know and love from previous books. It's little things like reading the roll call of watchmen who don't even get lines and realizing that their names match up with the list of widows and orphans from way back in Men At Arms.
Any of my other favorites I can hand to someone and say, "You would like Discworld and more specifically you would like Small Gods/Going Postal/The Truth/Feet of Clay/etc." With Night Watch, it's like, "You would love this book but first I need you to read five other Watch books and also probably Thief of Time first and then you can have this one. And a handkerchief." That's a bit of a hard sell, really.
Anyway. Happy early Crying About Lilacs day to all of you who celebrate.
The one real problem with Night Watch is that I know several people that I think would love it but it is, alas, really the only Discworld book that you can't start with. I mean, I guess you can - it's presumably comprehensible without reading the previous Watch novels - but the emotional texture isn't there. It's not even just the big stuff, like seeing younger versions of characters you know and love from previous books. It's little things like reading the roll call of watchmen who don't even get lines and realizing that their names match up with the list of widows and orphans from way back in Men At Arms.
Any of my other favorites I can hand to someone and say, "You would like Discworld and more specifically you would like Small Gods/Going Postal/The Truth/Feet of Clay/etc." With Night Watch, it's like, "You would love this book but first I need you to read five other Watch books and also probably Thief of Time first and then you can have this one. And a handkerchief." That's a bit of a hard sell, really.
Anyway. Happy early Crying About Lilacs day to all of you who celebrate.
