Aphelion Review # 18

Night Watch

A Discworld Novel
By Terry Pratchett

Review by Dan L. Hollifield

Type of music/work:

Fantasy / Humor
28th novel in the series.

Musicians/Performers/Author(s):

Terry Pratchett
terrypratchettbooks.com
Published by HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 0060013117

General impressions of the album/book:

This may be the best book he's written in the series. Terry Pratchett has come out with another winner! I've had this book for 48 hours and have read it twice already. The only thing that could possibly be better will be the next book he writes.

Specifics:

If you think that the Discworld books are just pun and games, then this book will set you straight-- Straight into uncontrolable giggles. His characters are believable, in an unbelievable situation, and make you care what happens to them. Richly developed, well-rounded people, set in a fantastic world that makes you wish there were inter-universal travel agents that could set you up with vacations on the Discworld. There are plenty of familiar characters from previous volumes in the series, seen as if for the first time, in this time-twisting exploration of cause and effect. They bore right into your heart so fast that when one of Mr. Pratchett's characters suffers a horrible death, you want to join the mourners at the wake. There are few writers who can grab you as quickly and as thoroughly as can Pratchett, and even fewer that can make you salivate at the mere thought of a new book by them coming out. This is a truely excellent book! I can't express how well-written this book is. And the series as a whole is one of the best you'll ever read.

If you've never had the pleasure of reading a Discworld novel, I envy you for the sheer joy that you will find once you discover this series. What are you waiting for? Go! Now! Hie thee hence to the bookstore and demand your copy of "Night Watch" (and every other book in the series) before they're sold out. You'll thank me for talking you into it later.

Background info:

Terry Pratchett has been a published author since 1971 and has more books out now than I can count. The first Discworld novel "The Color of Magic" was published in 1983. As I said above, there have been 27 other Discworld novels since then. A non-Discworld book, Good Omens, his 1990 collaboration with Neil Gaiman, has been a long-time best-seller as well. He has also written two science fiction novels and seven for younger readers.

Quoted from terrypratchettbooks.com: 'Regarded as one of the most significant contemporary English-language satirists, Pratchett received the British Fantasy Award for best novel (Pyramids), in 1989, was named an Officer of the British Empire "for services to literature" in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1998, and received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Warwick in 1999. His acclaimed novels have sold more than 28 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 27 languages. Terry Pratchett lives in England with his family, and spends most days at his computer, writing.'

Review Copyright 2002 by Dan L. Hollifield




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