Category: Bookish Owl

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The Bookish Owl – Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett Collector's Edition

Next up is Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.

If you have been following this blog, you will probably have noticed that I’m reading all the Discworld books in order. However, I’m also reading them in the lovely hardback Collector’s Edition, and the last few books will not be released in this edition until November.

Obviously, this does not mean I will take a break from Discworld. It just means that I get a chance to reread my favorites and that’s something I’ve been dying to do!

So yes, ‘Guards! Guards!’ is a reread for me, but I’m still ridiculously excited about it. It’s the first book in the City Watch series, and it’s got:

  • Dragons
  • Vimes when he was still only reluctantly doing his job
  • Carrot arriving in Ankh-Morpork and horrifying watchmen and criminals alike by insisting on upholding the law
  • Dragons
  • Sybil pursuing a highly confused Vimes
  • Errol the Swamp Dragon
  • Dragons
  • Vetinari getting locked up in his own dungeon and creating a spy network of rats
  • Carrot still thinking he’s a dwarf
  • …Dragons

The plot might not be as deep and multi-layered as the later books, but no one can convince me this isn’t the greatest Discworld book of all times.

Guards! Guards!
by Terry Pratchett

Here there be dragons . . . and the denizens of Ankh-Morpork wish one huge firebreather would return from whence it came. Long believed extinct, a superb specimen of draco nobilis (“noble dragon” for those who don’t understand italics) has appeared in Discworld’s greatest city. Not only does this unwelcome visitor have a nasty habit of charbroiling everything in its path, in rather short order it is crowned King (it is a noble dragon, after all . . .).

Meanwhile, back at Unseen University, an ancient and long-forgotten volume–The Summoning of Dragons–is missing from the Library’s shelves. To the rescue come Captain Vimes, Constable Carrot, and the rest of the Night Watch who, along with other brave citizens, risk everything, including a good roasting, to dethrone the flying monarch and restore order to Ankh-Morpork (before it’s burned to a crisp). A rare tale, well done as only Terry Pratchett can.

Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett Collector's Edition

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The Bookish Owl – Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones

Castle in the Air Diana Wynne Jones

I’m starting on Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones today.

This is a companion novel to Howl’s Moving Castle, so let’s hope it shares its charm and quirkiness.

I feel like I should say something more, but this week is kicking my ass and my brain is pretty much fried…

Have an owl photo instead.

Castle in the Air
by Diana Wynne Jones

Far to the south of the land of Ingary, in the Sultanates of Rashpuht, there lived in the city of Zanzib a young and not very prosperous carpet dealer named Abdullah who loved to spend his time daydreaming. He was content with his life and his daydreams until, one day, a stranger sold him a magic carpet.

That very night, the carpet flew him to an enchanted garden. There, he met and fell in love with the beauteous princess Flower-in-the-Night, only to have her snatched away, right under his very nose, by a wicked djinn. With only his magic carpet and his wits to help him, Abdullah sets off to rescue his princess….

Castle in the Air Diana Wynne Jones

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The Bookish Owl – I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

I Shall Wear Midnight Terry Pratchett

I’m on to read I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett!

I have been working hard on my own books for the last couple of weeks, revising like crazy to get the new editions ready for a convention in November, and my brain feels like mush at this point. I can’t even tell you how much I need Pratchett-style leisure reading. All the way through my last read, I kept subconsciously entering revision-mode, spending 5 times as long to read a page because I was correcting every slightly awkward sentence in the description-heavy dark fantasy book that I was supposed to be reading for fun.

I think something light and humorous is the only thing that will keep my brain from burning down and sliding out my ears right now…

I Shall Wear Midnight
by Terry Pratchett

As the witch of the Chalk, Tiffany Aching performs the distinctly unglamorous work of caring for the needy. But someone – or something – is inciting fear, generating dark thoughts and angry murmurs against witches. 

Tiffany must find the source of unrest and defeat the evil at its root. Aided by the tiny-but-tough Wee Free Men, Tiffany faces a dire challenge, for if she falls, the whole Chalk falls with her . . .

I Shall Wear Midnight Terry Pratchett

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The Bookish Owl – The Tower of the Swallow by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Tower of the Swallow Andrzej Sapkowski

My 30th book of the year will be The Tower of the Swallow by Andrzej Sapkowski (or ‘The Tower of Swallows’, depending on the translation).

I really hope this 6th book in the Witcher series will be better than the last two. I loved the first books, but the last couple have been dragging their metaphorical feet to the point where nothing actually happened in the last one. Anyone who’s been following this blog knows how much I love the Witcher-verse, so obviously I’m not going to bail on the book series, but I really need some monster hunting or crazy mage fights in this one.

If I get another book of characters just wandering around aimlessly while the author pretends brooding counts as character development, I’m gonna have to go replay The Witcher 3 again, just to rekindle my interest in these characters.

I’m getting a bit ranty, I know, but the first books in this series had so much potential, so I’d just hate for the series to continue the pace set by ‘Baptism of Fire’.

Monsters, Sapkowski. Give me some monsters, please.

The Tower of the Swallow
by Andrzej Sapkowski

The world has fallen into war. Ciri, the child of prophecy, has vanished. Hunted by friends and foes alike, she has taken on the guise of a petty bandit and lives free for the first time in her life.
But the net around her is closing. Geralt, the Witcher, has assembled a group of allies determined to rescue her. Both sides of the war have sent brutal mercenaries to hunt her down. Her crimes have made her famous.

There is only one place left to run. The tower of the swallow is waiting…

The Tower of the Swallow Andrzej Sapkowski

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The Bookish Owl – Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett

It’s time for reading Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett!

It’s been a long time since we got a book about the wizards of Unseen University, so let’s see how much mayhem they’ve been holding back on. Seeing as this book seemingly introduces football to the city of Ankh-Morpork, I can only assume that we’ll have at least one explosion, three murders, and one or two angry and/or confused mobs by page 20.

I haven’t been that fond of the books that tried to introduce overly modern concepts (like movies and rock music) to the Discworld, but I have noticed Pratchett’s style maturing a lot over the last 10 books or so, so I’m willing to believe he’ll manage to make football seem less out of place. Hopefully it will also contain fewer pop references, because I know nothing about football.

I’m aware it’s about a lot of men with weird hairstyles chasing a ball around, but I never really bothered to figure out why…

Unseen Academicals
by Terry Pratchett

Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork. And now, the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match, without using magic, so they’re in the mood for trying everything else. This is not going to be a gentleman’s game.

The prospect of the Big Match draws in a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a dim but beautiful young woman, who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been, and the mysterious Mr Nutt (and no one knows anything much about Mr Nutt, not even Mr Nutt). As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed for ever. 

Because the thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football.

Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!

Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett