Men at Arms (1993)
Men at Arms is a 1993 fantasy book written by Terry Pratchett.
The Ankh-Morpork City Watch is expanding, and Corporal Carrot now finds himself training its newest recruits: a troll, a dwarf who dislikes trolls on principle, and Angua, who has a monthly complication involving the moon. Their timing is poor. Something has been stolen from the Assassins' Guild, people are dying in ways the Watch is quietly told to ignore, and an old document hints that the city has a rightful king after all. Carrot, six and a half feet of adopted dwarf and painfully honest, would be the last person to notice it points squarely at him. Pratchett turns a murder case into a study of monarchy, force, and who gets to hold it.
Quick answers
What is Men at Arms about?
The Ankh-Morpork City Watch is expanding, and Corporal Carrot now finds himself training its newest recruits: a troll, a dwarf who dislikes trolls on principle, and Angua, who has a monthly complication involving the moon. Their timing is poor. Something has been stolen from the Assassins' Guild, people are dying in ways the Watch is quietly told to ignore, and an old document hints that the city has a rightful king after all. Carrot, six and a half feet of adopted dwarf and painfully honest, would be the last person to notice it points squarely at him. Pratchett turns a murder case into a study of monarchy, force, and who gets to hold it.
When was Men at Arms published?
Men at Arms was published in 1993.
Who made Men at Arms?
Men at Arms was written by Terry Pratchett.
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A few thoughts on Men at Arms
Carrot polices Ankh-Morpork by walking straight into trouble and being decent at it, the exact comic engine of Hot Fuzz, where a by-the-book officer meets a tidy town full of secrets. Disco Elysium supplies the other half: a troubled detective, a strange city, and a case that keeps widening into politics and grief. Both share this book's belief that the beat is where a place shows its real face.
Oddball squads holding a strange city's order together
Carrot's new City Watch recruits are a troll, a dwarf who resents trolls on principle, and a werewolf, thrown together to solve a murder nobody in charge wants solved properly. These follow the same kind of mismatched team: a detective working a case in a city falling apart, a small force clashing with a town's cozy corruption, and companions who have to trust each other despite what they are.