Men at Arms
by Terry Pratchett · first published 1993
14% recommend86% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A fun, detective-style entry in the City Watch series of Discworld novels, and a good starting point for newcomers to Pratchett.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Unadulterated fun." —San Francisco Chronicle "Pratchett has now moved beyond the limits of humorous fantasy, and should be recognized as one of the more significant contemporary English-language satirists." —Publishers Weekly The fifteenth novel in the Discworld series from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett, featuring a lycanthropic recruit and a sword in a stone! Corporal Carrot has been promoted! He’s now in charge of the new recruits guarding Ankh-Morpork, Discworld’s greatest city, from Barbarian Tribes, Miscellaneous Marauders, unlicensed Thieves, a
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Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, particularly: "Mort" and "Reaper Man"; "Guards! Guards!", "Men at Arms", and "The Night Watch"; "Wyrd Sisters", "Witches Abroad" and "Lords and Ladies"; and "Small Gods" and "Pyramids". The first two are about Death, the second three about Samuel Vimes, the third group…
on “What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?” ↗My favorite Pratchett book is probably Men at Arms, though he has many greats (and I have not even read all of them yet).
on “WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism” ↗Men at Arms (the direct followup to Guards! Guards!) was my first Pratchett book and really had me hooked. I think any of the Vimes-centric books are great starting points, because the detective mystery style of…
on “Discworld on Page and Screen, Part 1: Serious Comedy” ↗I like the way Terry Pratchett put this in Men At Arms: The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair…
on “Why everything you buy is worse now [video]” ↗…little to do. I had a Bulgarian phrase book, so I decided to test out this technique: http://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/LearningLanguages.html?HN I went to the local shops and bought a copy in Bulgarian of "Men At Arms" by Terry Pratchett, and I set about decrypting it. As you might expect, I didn't really get all that far in four days, but I was able to go to the local shops and order coffee, comment on the weather,…
on “ My English sucks. How much does it devalue my message? ” ↗…nearly every chapter can be read in 15 minutes or less, which is how we've been able to stretch it out. Books that I've started but haven't finished (primarily due to W&P): - Dune (Frank Herbert) - Men At Arms - Discworld (Pratchett) - The Diamond Age (Stephenson) - Neuromancer (Gibson) - The Shadow Rising - Wheel of Time (Jordan) - Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas) Books that I plan on reading in 2020: -…
on “Ask HN: 2019 Winter Reading List?” ↗…he ran the city, and there are lots more like him. And what’s happening now is wrong. And as for your damn parrot fanciers [...]" ____ With respect to "we've had rulers", a bit from a previous book Men At Arms: > "[...] He wielded the axe, you know. No-one else'd do it. It was a king's neck, after all. Kings are," he spat the word, "special. Even after they'd seen the... private rooms, and cleaned up the...…
on “A cryptography expert on how Web3 started, and how it’s going” ↗…cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.” ― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
on “Off-Grid, Solar-Powered, Zero-Battery Refrigerator” ↗…cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness. — Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
on “Being frugal is for the rich” ↗…cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. > This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness. Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
on “Most Money Advice Is Worthless When You’re Poor” ↗A quote comes to mind: "[She] lived in the kind of poverty that was only available to the very rich, a poverty approached from the other side." -- Terry Pratchett, in "Men at Arms"
on “Small Businesses Doing Well Building and Maintaining Backyard “Microfarms”” ↗Precisely. I know it's fiction, but Terry Pratchett sums it up nicely in "Men at Arms": 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'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who…
on “The Worst” ↗…cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.” ― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play
on “Fewer, Better Things” ↗…cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness." - Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play
on “In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers” ↗…cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.” ― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play
on “Almost 40% of Americans Would Struggle to Cover a $400 Emergency” ↗