Cathy Butterfield, Collections Manager, recommends Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.
Here there be dragons.
Of course, this is Discworld, supported by four elephants, traveling on the back of a giant tortoise swimming through space, where million-to-one odds come true rather more often than they ought. Particularly in the gritty streets of Anhk-Morpork, patrolled by the thin muddy line of the Night Watch.
Dragons are above their pay scale, but they do what they can. Mainly, run. Or hide. As Captain Vimes ponders: “It’s a metaphor of human bloody existence, a dragon. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s also a bloody great hot flying thing.”
I revisited some of my favorite characters in Guards! this month, and it made me laugh, and think, which is sadly rare these days. The book (released in 1989 as Sir Terry was coming into the height of his powers) is also subversively relevant to current events.
Politicians bewitched by the taste for power call up a force beyond their control and take the reins of government…reins which do not stand up to dragon fire. There are eerie portents in the text about inequity, supremacy, charismatic leaders, and the powerful magic of books. . .
Read Cathy's entire Book Review here.
Find more staff book recommendations here.
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