Not panicking now, the goblin pointed a claw at Vimes’ left wrist, looked him in the face, and said, ‘Just ice?’ It was a plea.
Book 39 in the Discworld series, Book 8 in the City Watch subseries.
Sir Samuel Vimes, Commander of the Watch, Duke of Ankh and keeper of the Summoning Dark, may no longer be a man of the people, but he is still very much a man for the people. And he is a man who is realising that the old definitions of who counts as “the people” are woefully outdated and negligent.
Ankh-Morpork has come a long way when it comes to equality, a development that is manifested in the changes that have occurred in the City Watch. What was once a human male club only has expanded to employ women, dwarfs, trolls, golems, vampires, werewolves, Igors, gargoyles and fairies. But one race has been left out of the modern-day acceptance of diversity–goblins.
Forced by Lady Sybil to go on vacation in the countryside, Vimes discovers that the Ramkin estate is home to a society of goblins. Seen as vermin and treated worse than animals, goblins have been exploited, abused and killed for years with no one lifting a finger to help, and the very top of society profiting from it.
Needless to say, that is exactly the kind of situation that will make a righteous man go spare, especially if that man is the egalitarian Sam Vimes, and the upper class is abusing the law he is willing to give his life to protect and uphold.
With the aid of the rather bewildered local constable Feeney Upshot and Vimes’ never in any way flustered butler Willikins, Vimes takes it upon himself to catch a sadistic murderer, oppose the aristocracy, and champion the rights of goblins.
It will be a dangerous and dark uphill battle against prejudice, tradition, ignorance and apathy, and Vimes will have to do it while still finding time to take tea with Lady Sibyl’s many acquaintances, strike a blow for equality in the local pub, and listen to his six-year-old son talk about poo.
Fantasy – Humour – Satire
Leave a comment