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 OK 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 The Patrician’s smile remained, but his face seemed to pull away from it, leaving it stranded and all alone in the world. Lord Rust here is shown as one of the more cynical and intelligent of Ankh-Morpork's nobles. In Jingo by contrast he's presented as Too Dumb to Live, while in Monstrous Regiment he's about halfway between the two. By the time of Snuff, Rust is elderly, wheelchair-bound, facing reality square on and accepting Vimes has a perfect right to arrest his son for serious crime: it could be said he gets a degree of humility in his final years.

When you were a Watchman, you were a Watchman all the time, which was a bit of a bargain for the city since it only paid you to be a Watchman for ten hours of every day.” The irony here is that there only used to be a handful of jobs that you’d associate with this kind of commanded dedication—military, doctors, news reporters, and so on—but since Pratchett wrote this line, it’s become common for all sorts of jobs, including ones that seem absurd to offer this kind of twenty-four hour a day devotion to… The Reveal: Edward d'Eath died early in the book and Dr. Cruces is the one who has been committing the murders. Vetinari seems to be considerably off his game throughout this story. Whether he actually is or not is never directly specified, though tantalising inferences can be made by reading Feet of Clay.Pratchett's stories are almost always "good to great", but he really shines with his character dialogue. There is a whole host of new characters added to the main cast in this book, and they are wonderful additions that play off each other so, so well. The watch has to recruit more members as part of an affirmative action initiative, so they bring in a dwarf, a troll, and a werewolf. But one of the main characters doesn't know the werewolf is a werewolf and thinks they have been recruited due to being a female. Loss of Identity: The clowns at the Fools' Guild consider a clown's distinctive and unique makeup, his 'face', to define his identity. None of them would ever think to copy another's face, thinking it a taboo. This means they are easily fooled when d'Eath kills Beano and copies his makeup, stealing his identity. Probably one of the most extreme ever written. There's a brief aside near the beginning of the book where Vimes and Carrot look at the disused Post Office building and its sign reading "NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW NOR GLOM OF NIT..." (a parody of the motto on the US Postal Service building in New York). In its place, this seems to be just a typical joke about bad mediaeval spelling on the Discworld, but a full eleven years later, Terry Pratchett wrote Going Postal, in which it's revealed that the sign is spelled like that because several letters were stolen to make up the sign of a nearby hairdresser's called Hugos (no apostrophe).

The Post Office is apparently just as terrified of Mrs. Cake as Ankh-Morpork's various priesthoods. There’s a thematic echo here, where Pratchett reuses a line that we last heard coming from Granny Weatherwax, this time giving it to Carrot after Vimes asks about his desire for revenge against Cruces for killing Angua: “But personal isn’t the same as important.” And it’s beautiful because both Carrot and Granny are good people—but really Good with a capital ‘G’—yet they’re different in how they go about their goodness. Being good is innate for Carrot; he doesn’t know any other way to be. Being good is hard for Granny Weatherwax, but she manages it, even when she’d rather not. But they both arrive at the same conclusion.

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Part of me wishes that Angua's character and plot was bigger. But that's just fiddling and griping. Not every book can have everything. And this book has so much more than most. So a fair warning: this review will be yet another love letter to Discworld and his creator Sir Terry Pratchett. There my be some fangirl gushing. Read at your own risk. Meanwhile, Captain Samuel Vimes, captain of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, prepares for his imminent wedding to Sybil Ramkin, the richest woman in Ankh-Morpork. He also must deal with a new group of recruits that he has been required to take on for the sake of diversity: Cuddy (a dwarf), Detritus (a troll), and Angua (a werewolf—but Carrot is unaware of this, and believes she is included because she is female). When a string of seemingly random murders occur among the Guilds of the city, Lord Vetinari forbids Vimes to investigate in a successful ploy to ensure Vimes does investigate. Cuddy and Detritus are forced to work together, resulting in them becoming friends as they overcome their deep-seated racial enmity. Angua works with the talking dog Gaspode, and also forms a romantic connection with Carrot, who loses his virginity to her but handles the discovery that she is a werewolf poorly.

She’s got to marry someone once she’s turned up. Can’t have unmarried brides flapping around the place, being a danger to society.” Pixieltd on Reading The Wheel of Time: Taim Tells Lies and Rand Shares His Plan in Winter’s Heart (Part 3) 3 hours ago Fingers-Mazda, the first thief in the world, stole fire from the gods. But he was unable to fence it. It was too hot." Srinivas, Sitara (2020). STITCHING A NEW NARRATIVE: ENGAGING WITH SUSTAINABILITY IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY (PDF) (Report).I am not sure how many dark fantasy comedy detective novels could be seen as heirs of this idea of investigating trolls, werewolves, vampires, zombies, whatevers,…, but the potential of using the magic abilities for finding the nasty criminals has great potential, as it unites plot, character, and ability and enables manifold expansion options. As far as I know, Butcher did it best with his close to legendary Dresden Files series and I am too lazy to remember and name similar authors. Shout-Out to Shakespeare: The scene with SILAS! CUMBERBATCH! the town crier being recruited for Carrot's militia is quite similar to a gag in Henry IV, Part 2 where a former herald with No Indoor Voice is being drafted into the king's army.

And they need all the help they can get, because someone in Ankh-Morpork has been getting dangerous ideas - about crowns and legendary swords, and destiny. Bjorn, the dwarf who believes in reincarnation. Meaning he'll be Bjorn-again. Made more hilarious the fact that the one making the comment is Death, and he's saying it to a race that generally doesn't understand figures of speech, puns, etc. And Death himself, generally completely unable to get even the simplest of humor and wordplay, is immensely proud of having come up with "Bjorn-again" all by himself.Sergeant Colon was lost in admiration. He had seen someone bluff on a bad hand, but he'd never seen anyone bluff with no cards. How Many Fingers?: After being forced to turn in his badge, Sam Vimes gets so drunk that the only answer he can give to the question "How many fingers am I holding up?" is "Bleargh". When Carrot follows it up with "How many hands?", Captain Vimes manages to guess "four". While discussing the merits of kings, Colon and Nobby chat about how if you make yourself useful to a king, he makes you a Knight. At the end of the book, Vetinari knights Vimes at Carrot's "request". Translation: Helle Barden [German] ( 1996) Helle Barden ( two puns, meaning Clever Bards or - if the title is spoken as one word - Halberds So… we gotta talk about gun control and the relative ease and thoughtlessness with which modern weaponry allows us to kill each other.