Bookraft

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a Bizzarro cartoon were turned into a story setting? Well then you would have Anhk-Morpork of Discworld as sketched in book 9 of some of the finest comic crafting of the past two decades by Terry Pratchett. This is a return to the Night Watch and its growing cast of Keystone Kopper Konstabulary kharacters. Pratchett has added to anti-hero extraordinaire Captain Vimes some new recruits including Detruitus the slow thinking Troll, Angua the sexy moll-cop with a wolfish history, and Cuddy the Dwarf whose size is no barrier to his brass.

Of course misbegotten crime is unleashed on the Night Watch hatched by a plutocratic monarchist who oxymorons his way through one bizarrely massive murder after another. So this gives Pratchett the opportunity to display the Night Watch's died in the wool sankfreud as it stumbles on toward the resolution of major philosophical questions disguised as running jokester crimes. The satire is tart but delicious, the anti-heroes heroically droll and fair-minded to a fault, and the action always suggesting Fire, Ready, Aim.

But in fact the plotline is as ironically taut as the rich and ribald spoonerisms and portmanteaus running rampant in the language. If you like to giggle or laugh out loud or smile silent and knowingly, this is the best comic concoction to be found on a real Terra Gone Terribly Meltdownish Wrong. As Captain Vimes would say "I suppose you could conclude the book is quite good".

PS: The reading by Tony Robinson is nothing short of a virtuoso performance and a magnificent tickle.