Men at Arms
Categories: [ Books/Discworld ]
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Fifteenth volume in the Discworld series, Men at Arms has been published in 1993 by Terry Pratchett.
An explosion happens at the assassin's guild. A clown from the neighbour Fool's guild is found dead in the Ankh. A dwarf is found dead in his weaponmaking workshop with a hole instead of his chest. The Night Watch is investigating the case, augmented by three new members, representative of ethnic minorities: Detritus (a troll), Cuddy (a dwarf) and Angua (a woman, and a werewolf). And captain Sam Vimes is depressed because he's going to get married in a couple of days, forced to retire, and in top of that, Vetinari forbids him to investigate the deaths of the dwarf and the clown. The guards soon discover that something labeled “Gonne” has been stolen from the Assassin's Guild museum, that the dead clown has been seen leaving the Guild one day after his death, that the document found in the dwarf's workshop is the formula for a firework powder. While Cuddy and Detritus are investigating together, they are attacked by someone they couldn't see and trapped into a warehouse of future porks which is very cold, and makes Detritus much smarter than usual. Meanwhile, the maid of the head of the Beggar's Guild is killed by the same weapon as the dwarf. Later, Cuddy and Detritus, escaping an angry mob of dwarves and trolls, get lost in the sewers of the city and discover the body of the clown (except that it is not the clown but the thief of the gonne, wearing the same makeup as the clown's). At the same time, Carrot falls in love with Angua (although she's a werewolf and he hates the undead), and Vimes is completely depressed; the Watch then starts to rely on Carrot to take decisions, and since the Day Watch got the order to dismantle the Night Watch, Carrot organises a milicia and starts hiring many new recruits. The next day, Vimes is getting married, and but as the men of the milicia are guarding the surroundings. When the Patrician arrives to the wedding, he's attacked by the holder of the gonne who is shooting from the top of the Tower of the Arts. Cuddy, who had been sent to watch that place, is killed by the shooter. Vimes puzzles out that the killer is Dr. Cruces, the head of the Assassin's Guild (although the dwarf and the clown have been killed by Edward d'Eath, an assassin who wanted to restore the monarchy in Ankh-Morpork and kill all the heads of the guilds. He also discovered that Carrot is the heir of the royal family, whose last king had been killed by an ancestor of Vimes. He had taken the gonne from d'Eath and had been overpowered by the gonne's will to kill everyone). Carrot and Vimes finally meet Cruces in his office, and Carrot eventually kills him. Vimes gets married and becomes Commander of the Watch, Carrot is promoted Captain and the Night Watch is expanded and becomes the only Watch.
[ Posted on June 8th, 2007 at 21:28 | 1 comment | permanent link ]
Read it again.