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Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett (Discworld 15)

"And visitors say: how does such a big city exist? What keeps it going? Since it's got a river you can chew, where does the drinking water come from? What is, in fact, the basis of its civic economy? How come it, against all probability, works?"

Book fifteen of the Discworld saga sees us return to the world of Ankh-Morpork's night watch. It's been expanded to include a more diverse roster and just as a new wave of murders is popping up in the twin cities.

This book is very much a whodunnit, but twisted around in an amusing and enlightening way as Sir Terry generally does. A strange theft at the Assassins' Guild. People killed by unusual bits of metal. There's a plot similar to Guards!Guards! present, but it moves in very different ways. We of course have all our original watchmen (Vimes, Colon, Nobby, and Carrot), but it also has some members: Cuddy the dwarf, Detritus the troll, who is trying to become more legitimate to impress Ruby, who we met back in Moving Pictures, and we also have Angua, a lovely young woman that first appears to be hired because she's a woman, but it quickly becomes obvious that it's for a different aspect of who she is. The relationship between Angua and Carrot can get a bit rocky at times, but it's also charming. And speaking of Carrot, he's amazing here. He's still our beloved Carrot, but there's more to him, making him even more impressive than ever.

The plot begins with Edward D'Eath's ideas for the twin cities. He is the new patriarch of his ancient noble house and he's not happy with the current state of things. One such thing he laments is the lack of a king. He longs for the return of the monarchy and like what was hinted at earlier in the series, he is certain that Carrot of the night watch is the rightful heir and has the research to prove it. He formulates a plan to bring about the return of royalty to the city, but things don't exactly go as he intended. This scheme includes getting his hands on a special weapon. It's not magical or cursed or anything like that, but it's so powerful that wielding it alters one's thoughts. This effect causes things to spiral out of control, gets various guilds involved, including the dogs' guild, a bunch of citizens being conscripted into the guards, and the UU staff gets involved to a small degree as the book's conclusion, and the wedding of Lady Ramkin and captain Vimes, draws near.

As always, we have some recurring characters along some interesting new ones besides our growing collection of watchmen. C.M.O.T. Dibbler is back and tries his hand at ethnic troll and dwarf food, although not particularly successfully. The Patrician is his usual Machiavellian self; he's always such a fascinating character. Lady Ramkin is brilliant again, and she's great with and for Vimes. Gaspode the dog that could talk and think but then lost that capability at the end of Moving Pictures, has had his intelligence returned, due to him sleeping on the UU campus and soaking up some of the inherent magic present there. Angua has some interesting discussions with Gaspode due to her dual nature. Leonard of Quirm, who is basically the Disc's version of Leonardo Da Vinci, is the inventor of the strange new weapon that drives a lot of the plot, and many other things of genius, but he's terrible at naming them, and not a fan of his own deadly invention.

I love how we get to see the old and new members of the watch grow and develop here. I especially want to give Detritus his due. He started off as just a dumb troll that hits people for a living when we first him in the series, but his growth as a character, which started in earnest in Moving Pictures, really hits the reader in this novel. His growing friendship with Cuddy opens his eyes and his mind to an impressive degree here, and this is further improved by the special cooling helmet Cuddy makes for him once he discovers that trolls think better in the cold, thanks to their silicon-based brains. Angua's unique dual nature is something that is not only useful for the watch, but it also makes her an intriguing character, and many readers have felt seen by Sir Terry with how she has to pretend she's a normal woman to hide her true self so she can fit in. This book also has one of Discworld's most famous theories, the Sam Vimes Boots Theory of Socio-Economics:
"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of okay for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socio-economic unfairness."

As someone who worked for minimum wage many years ago, when it was at least somewhat survivable, I find this theory to be extremely accurate. That wealth imbalance has only grown over recent years, exacerbating the situation. Another key part of Vimes reflecting real world issues is how he ponders the illogic of a nobleman at a party at Lady Ramkin's estate, who states that trolls and dwarves are taking human jobs by working too hard at them, while also being shiftless and lazy. The real-world connotations of that level of cognitive dissonance are obvious and disturbing. Other people display some speciesist attitudes towards dwarves and especially trolls that mirror some of the worst attitudes of our own roundworld's reality as far as racism and other prejudices. This is one of the hallmarks of Sir Terry's writing, combining the ridiculousness of his humor with a fantasy world twist of situations in real life. It holds up a kind of funhouse mirror on our own lives, making you think while you laugh.

Another aspect of real life that leaks into this book is the idea of having killing power so easy to use, reducing the act of murder to something as simple and dispassionate as activating a mechanical and chemical reaction that it alters how those that come in possession of it perceive the world and themselves. It's a sobering thought, and something so profound that it gives me pause when reading this volume of the Discworld novels.

There's some sadness in this book, despite the humor and the hopefulness that is present in most of Discworld's many books. Sir Terry makes even very minor characters relatable, and those that we've been with longer feel like actual friends, or at least acquaintances. This attention to detail can be a mixed blessing at times, as it certainly is in this excellent book. I have to again award the highest rating for this book. We get some great new characters and many of the older ones get significant character development, the plot is intriguing and reads like a serious police procedural mixed with just the right amount of humor, and while part of the ending is truly sad, it's also poignant and inspires at least one of the characters to greater heights. A wondrous and difficult feat that Sir Terry once again pulls off brilliantly.

4 troll and dwarf buddy cop stories out of 4.

Some fun quotes:

"No clowns were funny. That was the whole purpose of a clown. People laughed at clowns, but only out of nervousness. The point of clowns was that, after watching them, anything else that happened seemed enjoyable."

"'Hah! Your uniform doesn't scare me,' he said. Vimes looked down at his battered breastplate and worn mail. 'You're right,' he said. 'This is not a scary uniform. I'm sorry. Forward, Corporal Carrot and Lance-Constable Detritus.' The Assassin was suddenly aware of the sunlight being blocked out. 'Now these, I think you'll agree,' said Vimes, from somewhere behind the eclipse, 'are scary uniforms.'"

"C.M.O.T. Dibbler had a number of bad points, but species prejudice was not one of them. He liked anyone who had money, regardless of the colour and shape of the hand that was proffering it."

Morella is a Gen Xer who likes strange things a bit too much.

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