Men at Arms: The Play Book

It was a young dwarf's dream. Captain Vimes of the Watch was retiring. That put Corporal Carrot in charge of the new recruits guarding Ankh-Morpork, Discworld's greatest city, from the Barbarian Tribes, Miscellaneous Marauders, unlicensed Thieves, and such. It was a big job, particularly for an adopted dwarf who was so homesick for the gold mines of Ramtop that he often locked himself in a dark room and hit himself on the head with an axe-handle, just for fun. It was a young lord's nightmare. Edward, the 37th Lord d'Eath, newly graduated from the School for Assassins (the ideal institution for those whose rank is higher than their intelligence), had made an astonishing discovery. Ankh-Morpork, kingless for generations, and ruled by Disorganized Crime, had a sovereign! The new king just had to be convinced that he was, in fact, a king. And so began the most awesome epic encounter of all time, or at least all afternoon, in which good and evil, greed and honor, trolls and dwarves, dogs and bells and swamp dragons would clash, crash, toll, bark, shimmer, and simmer. The fate of a city, indeed a kingdom - nay, a very universe! - was to depend on a young man's courage, an ancient sword's magic, and a three-legged poodle's bladder.

Publishers Weekly

In his latest effort, Pratchett skewers the hard-boiled detective novel as effectively as he's satired fantasy fiction all these years. Set on Discworld, there are a few more gargoyles and exploding dragons than Sam Spade ever had to deal with. But there's a trail of corpses and a hero named Carrot determined to track down the killer. His partners-the token dwarf, troll and werewolf on the police force-must overcome discrimination as well as the occasional rampaging orangutan. Although Men at Arms isn't as consistently funny as his earlier novels, the dialogue is hilarious, and Pratchett's take on affirmative action is a whole lot of fun. There's not a lot of rational narrative cause-and-effect here, but it doesn't really matter. As usual, Pratchett provides enough bad-tempered clowns, bloodthirsty trolls and dogs with low self-esteem to keep readers entertained. (Mar.)