Who Will Watch?

Sir Terry Pratchett; Guards! Guards! (Harper Torch; 2001; ISBN 0-06-102064-8; cover artist unknown).

After the solemnity of my last read, I turned to something lighter. With Guards! Guards!, I've now started the City Watch thread of the Discworld novels.

Poor Captain Sam Vines. All he wants to do is to remain in quiet, drunken obscurity. But there's this new recruit, a human adopted by dwarves, who has memorized the laws of Ankh-Morpork. Then there's this noble-born woman who seems enchanted with him and who keeps swamp dragons. Then there's this real dragon, a reeeeaaaaaallllll dragon terrorizing the city. Plus a secret society, a missing book, the Librarian, a king...

Pratchett keeps the series fresh by looking at old settings with new eyes, tossing in new character's and adding new detailwork. I burned through the novel in about a day, laughing madly all the way.