{"id":13304,"date":"2020-07-25T18:10:06","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T22:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=13304"},"modified":"2021-12-29T20:04:25","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T01:04:25","slug":"men-at-arms-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13304","title":{"rendered":"Men at Arms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Men at Arms<\/a><\/em> (1993) Terry Pratchett<\/a> (Discworld, #15, Watch, #2)<\/p>\n

\"Men<\/a>Someone has stolen something from the Assassins Guild. No one knows what it is, but they’re pretty sure it isn’t a good thing.<\/p>\n

And this was right<\/em>. And it was fate <\/em>that had let Edward recognize this just <\/em>when he\u2019d got his Plan. And it was right <\/em>that it was Fate<\/em>, and the city would be Saved <\/em>from its ignoble present by its glorious <\/em>past. He had the Means<\/em>, and he had the end<\/em>. And so on \u2026 <\/p>\n

Edward\u2019s thoughts often ran like this. He could think in italics<\/em>. Such people need watching. <\/p>\n

Preferably from a safe distance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Captain Vimes is going to get married and retire from the watch. It’s only right, since he’ll be marrying Lady Sybil. But first, he wants to discover what was stolen from the Assassins Guild–and why.<\/p>\n

This book has one of the most perfect explanations of generational poverty that I have seen anywhere.<\/p>\n

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. <\/p>\n

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of okay for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. <\/p>\n

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that\u2019d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years\u2019 time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. <\/p>\n

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes \u2018Boots\u2019 theory of socio-economic unfairness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This books is all sarcastic takes on politics and the world, except he’s never writing about our world. Not really. Except of course that he is.<\/p>\n

Patrician\u2019s view of crime and punishment. If there was crime, there should be punishment. If the specific criminal should be involved in the punishment process then this was a happy accident, but if not then any criminal would do, and since everyone was undoubtedly guilty of something, the net result was that, in general terms, justice was done.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Men at Arms (1993) Terry Pratchett (Discworld, #15, Watch, #2) Someone has stolen something from the Assassins Guild. No one knows what it is, but they’re pretty sure it isn’t a good thing. And this was right. And it was fate that had let Edward recognize this just when he\u2019d got his Plan. And it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,2,41],"tags":[142,141],"class_list":["post-13304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-fantasy","category-reread","tag-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-3sA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":63,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/63","url_meta":{"origin":13304,"position":0},"title":"The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents","author":"Michelle","date":"March 30, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (2001) Terry Pratchett The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents is one of Terry Pratchett's young adult books, are set in Discworld. Talking cats, talking rats, and an appearance by Death (as well as by the Death of Rats). Aside from being slightly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1700,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1700","url_meta":{"origin":13304,"position":1},"title":"Where’s My Cow","author":"Michelle","date":"May 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Where's My Cow? (2005) Terry Pratchett Children's Winner of the Ankh-Morpork Librarian's Award: OOK! Needed something to cheer me up after a particularly depressing mystery. Where's My Cow (click to read previous review) was the perfect palate cleanser. Except, of course, now I want to go read more Discworld books.","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Where's My Cow","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/wheres%20my%20cow.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":139,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/139","url_meta":{"origin":13304,"position":2},"title":"Where’s My Cow?","author":"Michelle","date":"October 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Where's My Cow? (2005) Terry Pratchett If you like Terry Pratchett's Discworld, then you will definitely want to read this book. First of all, it has an award, \"Children's Winner of the Ankh-Morpork Librarians' Award. OOK!\" Also, it has blurbs on the back, \"'...wonderfully instructive' Tuppence Swivel, the Times of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Where's My Cow","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/wheres%20my%20cow.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":491,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/491","url_meta":{"origin":13304,"position":3},"title":"Monstrous Regiment","author":"Michelle","date":"December 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Monstrous Regiment (2003) Terry Pratchett I love Terry Pratchett's books. However, I'll frequently go long periods where I don't read his books, despite his prodigious publication rate, because once I get started I frequently read a lot of his books, sometimes going back and re-reading much of the series. At\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/Monstrous-Regiment.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/32","url_meta":{"origin":13304,"position":4},"title":"Discworld","author":"Michelle","date":"July 2, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Men at Arms, Soul Music, Interesting Times, Hogfather Terry Pratchett Men at Arms I'm rather fond of the night watch. Captain Vimes is getting ready to retire, and not only must they find his successor, they need to discover who broke into to Assassin's headquarters, discover what was stolen, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":494,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/494","url_meta":{"origin":13304,"position":5},"title":"Going Postal","author":"Michelle","date":"January 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Going Postal (2004) Terry Pratchett Going Postal is the next Discworld book in line, and like Monstrous Regiment, the primary characters are new ones. Although other characters continue to make an appearence, and Lord Vetinari plays an important part in the story, like Monstrous Regiment, Going Postal requires no previous\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/Going-Postal.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}