Night Watch

by Terry Pratchett, Rob Wilkins (foreword), David Lloyd (introduction)

A definitive annotated edition of one of the greatest of Terry Pratchett’s multi-million-bestselling Discworld novels

'A master storyteller' A.S. Byatt

‘Both comic and dark, blending high fantasy, twisted storytelling and all manner of wordplay ... a fine place to start reading Pratchett’ The New York Times Book Review

Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is in hot pursuit of a serial killer. The trouble is, a well-timed lightning strike has thrown both policeman and pursued into the city’s past. Now Vimes must relive the history that made a cruel regime, a bloody revolution, a corrupt police force, and, most unnerving of all, a keen young recruit named Sam Vimes… Night Watch, which draws on inspirations as far ranging as Victor Hugo and M*A*S*H, is a keen satire about the true nature of political power, and the sacrifices made in the name of the greater good; but also a profoundly empathetic novel about community, connection and the tenacity of the human spirit.

This edition of Night Watch – written at the height of Pratchett’s imaginative powers – includes a new foreword by Rob Wilkins and an introduction and annotations by Dr David Lloyd and Dr Darryl Jones, contextualising the novel and Pratchett’s far-reaching legacy for new readers and current fans alike.

380 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 24, 2025

About the author

Sir Terence David John Pratchett was an English author, humorist, and satirist, best known for the Discworld series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983–2015, and for the apocalyptic comedy novel Good Omens (1990), which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman.
Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.
With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.
In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed three television programmes chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron of ARUK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, at the age of 66.

Reviews

[Sam Snyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nu dat is ne goeie boek. Het is midden in de "Night Watch serie" maar kan echt als een van de eerste boeken worden gelezen om kennis te maken met de serie.

Spannend
Stof tot nadenken

[Shona_reads_in_Devon · Rating 5 out of 5]

No review I ever write about this book will do it justice so I'm not even going to try.

All I will say is infinite stars. This is one of the best books ever written. It wraps me up and whispers 'everything will ok' even as it's stabbing me in the back and reminding me of the futility of it all.

Sam Vimes for president, prime minister, King and Emperor.

All hail Pratchett, one of the best.

'How do they rise up, rise up high?'

[Alexander Theofanidis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This exquisite masterpiece, born of Terry Pratchett’s masterful pen, is not merely another chapter in the grand narrative of the Discworld — it is a heroic rhapsody of philosophical inquiry, civic upheaval, and psychic vulnerability, much in the way that a worn, timeworn shoe might harbour an entire cosmos of memories, pain, and perseverance.

Here, Pratchett is not jesting. Or rather, he jests as he always has — with that singular, penetrating irony that crushes the absurdities of power and satirises them with compassion. In Night Watch, Sam Vimes — that ultimate embodiment of the anti-hero with a core of iron-clad morality — finds himself flung backward through time, into the heart of a revolution he once lived through, yet never truly understood.

Pratchett writes here with a maturity and depth that only one who has traversed all the forms of his own world can wield. The introspective portrayal of Vimes borders on the Dostoevskian — his struggle with himself, with his “Shadow”, Carcer, with the burden of mentoring his younger self, John Keel, is a profound exploration of moral accountability to time, to society, and to one’s very self.

Ankh-Morpork, in this book, is a city on the brink of combustion; grimy, sullied, human and inhuman all at once, each stone sweating tension. Pratchett sets the board for a revolutionary game of chess, with pawns as Citizens, Watchmen, and Assassins — yet never loses sight of the soul behind each piece.

Terry Pratchett is no longer writing to entertain you, not solely. He writes to tell you the truth — and does so in the most courteous, mischievous, and deeply empathetic voice ever gifted to a reader by a writer of fantasy. This book looks you in the eye and says: “Do not wait for heroes. Be the one who rises to meet your moment.”

And Vimes… our Vimes… stands. Not to become a legend. But because he cannot do otherwise.

Rating: 11/10 — Not because it is perfect (though, to me, it is), but because it reminds you why you read in the first place.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a long time. Last time that I read a Discworld novel was in the nineties. And I read a lot of them, and quickly. Like this one went down the gullet. And that's Pratchett's art. It's funny. It's fluid. The characters are memorable, the plotting never drags on, and they're well crafted novels and true entertainment. The humour is British to the bone. Satirical. I hadn't read Night Watch before and this edition caught my eye at the local bookstore. I bought Good Omens for a friend, then came back and bought this edition a little later on. The only other Penguin Modern Classic I'd read before was Chernobyl Prayer, which is of a completely different, non-satirical, order. And I'd say this is a very good book, but perhaps not a classic as such, thought the foreword, introduction, and footnotes are very interesting in and of themselves, making the edition worthwhile reading. But the edition also serves as a bit of puff piece when no puff is necessary. Pratchett wrote entertaining, deliciously funny, books and this has some literary art in it - "Thunder . . . rolled. It was the roll of a giant iron cube down the stairways of the gods, a crackling, thudding crash that tore the sky in half and shook the building." - but it's quintessential Pratchett, driven by madcap dialogue and witty interchanges, and basically a joke a line. Pratchett is the comedic genius of his genre and age. I can't think of anyone else like him.

[Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent edition of a Pratchett tour de force, with notes that can be useful both to Discworld newcomers and to long-time fans

[Annelies · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very wonderful edition of a very wonderful book! GNU Terry Pratchett, thank you so much for this one.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

with annotations!