Guards! Guards! [Paperback]

Terry Pratchett (Author), Graham Higgins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2000

Some night-time prowler is turning the (mostly) honest citizens of Ankh-Morpork into something resembling small charcoal biscuits. And that's a real problem for Captain Vimes, who must tramp the mean streets of the naked city looking for a seventy-foot-long fire-breathing dragon which, he believes, can help him with his enquiries. But there's more - now we get to see Ankh-Morpork in all its glory; illustrations so vibrant you can practically smell and taste the denizens of this delightful city (although with Corporal Nobbs, you might rather wish you didn't have to). All rendered in painstaking detail by Graham Higgins (who feels he now knows altogether far too much about the murky goings on inside Nobbs' head).

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen Briggs lives in Oxford. As well as compiling THE DISCWORLD COMPANION and THE NEW DISCWORLD COMPANION, he has also co-authored the Discworld DIARIES, the MAPPS and has dramatised most of the Discworld novels. Terry Pratchett has written 24 Discworld Novels Stephen Briggs is the author of The Discworld Companion and three Discworld Diaries and numerous stage adaptations. Graham Higgins has worked on numerous Discworld related projects. His last graphic novel was MORT.

Product Details

• Paperback: 122 pages
• Publisher: Victor Gollancz Sf (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575070714
• ISBN-13: 978-0575070714
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 0.5 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,161,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Terry Pratchett sold his first story when he was fifteen, which earned him enough money to buy a second-hand typewriter. His first novel, a humorous fantasy entitled The Carpet People, appeared in 1971 from the publisher Colin Smythe. Terry worked for many years as a journalist and press officer, writing in his spare time and publishing a number of novels, including his first Discworld novel, The Color of Magic, in 1983. In 1987 he turned to writing full time, and has not looked back since. To date there are a total of 36 books in the Discworld series, of which four (so far) are written for children. The first of these children's books, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, won the Carnegie Medal. A non-Discworld book, Good Omens, his 1990 collaboration with Neil Gaiman, has been a longtime bestseller, and was reissued in hardcover by William Morrow in early 2006 (it is also available as a mass market paperback (Harper Torch, 2006) and trade paperback (Harper Paperbacks, 2006). Terry's latest book, Nation, a non-Discworld standalone YA novel was published in October of 2008 and was an instant New York Times and London Times bestseller. Regarded as one of the most significant contemporary English-language satirists, Pratchett has won numerous literary awards, was named an Officer of the British Empire "for services to literature" in 1998, and has received four honorary doctorates from the Universities of Warwick, Portsmouth, Bath, and Bristol. His acclaimed novels have sold more than 55 million copies (give or take a few million) and have been translated into 36 languages. Terry Pratchett lives in England with his family, and spends too much time at his word processor.  Some of Terry's accolades include: The Carnegie Medal, Locus Awards, the Mythopoetic Award, ALA Notable Books for Children, ALA Best Books for Young Adults, Book Sense 76 Pick, Prometheus Award and the British Fantasy Award.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining - PS, you can get a cheaper copy from Amazon in Canada, April 7, 2009

By 

E. Richards "Herself" (Alone with my thoughts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guards! Guards! A Discworld Graphic Novel (Hardcover)

I just want to let you all know that you don't have to pay 75 Ankh Morpork or US dollars for this b-OOOK! (ahem) book. The soft cover version is available (at least in April 2009) from amazon in Canada at amazon.ca. I got my copy of the b-oook for 16 dollars plus shipping. The shipping was faster than I thought it'd be. Just select regular shipping.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Graphic SF Reader, September 3, 2007

By 

Blue Tyson "- Research Finished" (Legion clubhouse) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guards! Guards! (Paperback)

A nice job of illustration here. One excellent swamp dragon. The artist has pretty much captured the right feel for the usual silly Pratchett story about bumbling incompetence, and sheer luck, and other such things. How do a bunch of completely useless cops stop a dragon, and an evil politician and a summoning cult? Luckily they do have some help.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good adaptation, but ..., July 3, 2008

By 

Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Guards! Guards! A Discworld Graphic Novel (Hardcover)

This graphic novel of Terry Pratchett's Discworld book "Guards! Guards!" is certainly adequate as an adaptation of the original story, maintaining the original plot structure and characters, but I found the illustration style singularly distracting. Of course, we all have our own ideas about how characters in favorite novels should look, and for the most part I have been satisfied with the way that various illustrators have depicted the many inhabitants of Discworld. But for the most part I found the illustrations in the present volume just too, well, cartoonish. Terry Pratchett over the years has succeeded brilliantly in making a fundamentally ridiculous fantasy universe seem supremely real, but the illustrations in this graphic novel destroys much of that seeming reality. The streets and buildings of Ankh-Morpork as seen here are fine -- quite convincing -- but the characters themselves are mostly refugees from a cheap comic book. Sam Vimes? Sergeant Colon? Lance-Corporal (and soon to be Captain) Carrot? Nope -- they cannot look like this.