“Ain’t no dwarfs or trolls or humans in the Watch, see,” said Colon. “Just Watchmen, see?”
Book 15 in the Discworld universe, book 2 in the City Watch subseries.
The City Watch is a job for real men. Or at least, that’s how it used to be. But now Lord Vetinari has declared that the Watch needs to be more in touch with the city’s many “ethnic” groups, and has foisted three new recruits on the Watch, a troll, a dwarf and, to the general horror of most, a woman.
Meanwhile, Sam Vimes is getting ready to marry Lady Sibyl and quit his job to take his place among the city’s most rich and powerful families. A mangy dog has taken to following members of the Watch around, and it’s almost as if you can hear the poor little guy begging for treats. And a terrible invention that should never have been created in the first place has been stolen, and Lord Vetinari has expressly forbidden Vimes to investigate.
Men at Arms is a story about discoveries. Vimes discovers that he never feels more alive than when someone is trying to kill him. Detritus the troll discovers math in a freezer house. Carrot discovers a toothy secret about one of the new recruits, and a whole bunch of humans, dwarfs and trolls discover the strangely hypnotic effects of Carrot’s charisma.
And it is a story about contradictions. About doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do, and about doing the wrong thing because it is the right thing to do. It is a story about Watchmen who aren’t men in the strictest sense of the word, and Watchmen who aren’t men in any sense of the word.
It’s about cunning leaders who lead not by telling people what to do, but by telling them what not to do. It’s about reluctant leaders who lead because they don’t know what else to do, and it’s about natural-born leaders who lead by not doing anything at all.
But most of all this is a story about Ankh-Morpork and about the City Watchmen, of whom some are men, and some are women, nonhuman, or other.
Fantasy – Humour – Satire
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