The Lifesavers Book

My favourite Pratchett novel, but I'm not really sure why.

I think that Sam Vimes' being in it definitely helps: I think my favourite "series" in the Discworld novels are the City Watch series (along with the witches of Lancre and Death). His character arc really comes to a head in this one, even though he still has another level to go to in Thud!

I also think that time travel being in it also definitely helps. Though not the quantum, metaphysical, zany fun of Thief of Time (though Lu Tze makes an appearance), this trip through the Trousers of Time is meaningful, poignant, even tragic.

Oh. I think this was the first Discworld novel to make me cry. I don't cry a lot when I read: rarely do I even get weepy. Discworld always, always makes me laugh (a lot); it makes me want to write, wonder, think, grin, ponder, mull, and all that... but this book was the first to make me cry.

I think this is the first Discworld novel in which I really realized that Pratchett is who I want to be as a writer. Night Watch is funny, yes... it's fantasy, yes... but it's more than that. It's human. It tells a story of being human. Pratchett has some great characters with great arcs (like Moist in Going Postal), and he has some epic, meaty stories (like Thud!) with so much behind them you can hardly breathe... but Sam Vimes, in Night Watch, is about as truly human as Pratchett gets.

And that is probably why this is my favourite Discworld novel.