The Night Watch (original title: Night Watch ) is the twenty-ninth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett from 2002. The place of the action is Ankh-Morpork, but in two time levels, namely the present and the recent past. The night watchman is one of the city watch stories with Commander Mumm as the protagonist. The night watchman satirized historical novels and events, especially Les Misérables , the French Revolution and the Peterloo massacre .
The book begins in the present when Lady Sybil is pregnant and about to give birth. That makes Samuel Vumm nervous, but it doesn't stop him from doing his job. During a chase over the roofs of the Invisible University , both Commander Mumm and the persecuted criminal are struck by a magical lightning bolt and transported into the not-too-distant past.
In old Ankh-Morpork before the Lilac Revolution, corruption, arbitrariness and sheer terror prevail. The night watch had to go through the streets with a bell ringing and shouting “Everything is fine!”. It consists of officers who are ready for retirement, petty thieves and social failures. Mumm's first impulse in this situation is to find a way home. However, the leap in time has irrevocably mixed up history, and ultimately it must ensure that Ankh-Morpork's future is the right one.
To do this, he takes on the role of John Keels, his former trainer. Then it is time to put the doomed and yet victorious revolution on the right track and, last but not least, to put an end to the criminal who tampered with the past.
He meets a large number of well-known characters who were just collecting their first life experiences at this time. He buys his first sausage from the young Schnapper and inspires him to his future brand motto: "And-with-it-I'll-drive-myself-to-ruin!" Cecil W. St. J. Nobbs, in short "Nobby" , gets his first job as a supervisor from Mumm, which has a major impact on his future fate. The patrician next but one also has a strict assassin's eye on Mumm's safety. Ultimately, he still receives help from Lu-Tze with his history monks , who can actually send Mumm into his own time towards the end.
Lady Sybil is still in labor and Mumm manages to arrest the serial killer.
The book shows the first cover that is not by Josh Kirby due to his death . His successor, Paul Kidby , who is also experienced in the world of discs , painted a parody of Rembrandt's Night Watch and, as an homage, placed his predecessor at the point where Rembrandt himself is said to have painted himself.
The Scholars of the Disc World (1999, German 2004) • The Philosophers of the Round World. More from the scholars of the Discworld (2002, German 2004) • Darwin and the Gods of the Discworld (2005, German 2006) • The Last Judgment. The Science of Discworld 4 (2013, German 2013)
Other books
The Disc World from A – Z (with Stephen Briggs ; 1994, German 1996) • The Disc World Album (1996, German 2001) • GURPS Disc World (with Phil Masters ; 1998, German 1999) • Nanny Oggs Cookbook (1999, German 2001) . 2001) • GURPS Discworld Also (with Phil Masters ; 2001) • The Art of Discworld (2004, German 2006) • Where's my Cow (2005) • Wit and Wisdom of Discworld (2007, German 2010) • Myths and legends the Discworld (with Jacqueline Simpson ; 2008, German 2009) • The World of Poo (2012) • Fools, Thieves and Vampires - The best of ten years of Discworld calendars (with Stephen Briggs ; 2012, German 2012)
Discworld maps
The Streets of Ankh-Morpork - A Discworld Map (1993; Ger. 1996) • The Discworld Mapp (1995) • A Tourist Guide to Lancre - A Discworld Mapp (1998) • Death's Domain - A Discworld Mapp (1999) • More complete and indispensable Ankh-Morpork city guide (2012, German 2013) • Mrs. Bradshaw's most useful handbook for all routes of the Hygienic Railway Ankh-Morpork and Sto Plain (2014, German 2015)
The whole madness (2004, German 2007) • Big words (2012, German 2018) • Twisted dragon (2014, German 2015) • The vacuum-sucking fright screw (2016, German 2018)
