It’s probably one of my favorite Pterry books of all time. I’m just re-reading it and as always bits of it bring me to tears.
When they are about to smash Dorfl:
“I AM WORTH 530 DOLLARS.”
“That’s all you things think about, money!”
“Money is all you can think about when all you have is a price.”
And the moment when Dorfl becomes free: the words “GOLEM MUST HAVE A MASTER” unable to stand against the Universe.
And the golems made a king to make them free, just like humans do. But the king only led them to ruin and destruction and madness, like so many human kings.
And of course
“WORDS IN THE HEART CANNOT BE TAKEN.”
I wish they would make a movie out of this one. I would love to watch it.
And of course Vimes sees the many, many chems the golems put into their king, and thinks “Poor bastard” as he realizes it went mad trying to reconcile them all.
Angua thinking Carrot has come to propose to her, just as she has resolved to leave for good, only it turns out that all he wanted was her help to fix up the dwarf bread museum… or (for this is Carrot) was that all he meant? :dubious:
Carrot? It was about the dwarf bread museum. I liked the part where Carrot had Nobbs, or was it Colon, explain to Angua who all those women were that Vimes was giving money to each month.
And yes, by all visible signs it was about the dwarf bread museum, but note that the upshot was that Angua stayed in Ankh-Morpork even though right up to that point she had been firmly resolved to go home and was making a present of all her dresses to Cherie Littlebottom.
Yeah, Vimes’ payments to the women had to be in one of the first Watch books, since in the later ones, there’s an official pension fund, and Vimes himself is no longer having to scrounge for money for himself (thus removing the personal sacrifice from the payments).
My mistake. Carrot had Nobbs, or was it Colon, explain to Angua who all those women were that Vimes was giving money to each month in the first story Angua appeared in. That would be MAA, where she, and also Detritus and Cubby were Lance Constables.
Although The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic were the first two Discworld Novels, I don’t think they’re anywhere near the best. For a first DW novel to read, I often recommend “Guards! Guards!”, “Reaper Man”, “Wyrd Sisters”, or “Wee Free Men.”
The usual recommendation I’ve heard for first one to read is Small Gods. There’s less baggage in it of characters and settings the reader is expected to be familiar with.
Another great humorous moment in FoC is the revelation that the Patrician has long since worked out how he is being poisoned, and is musing over whether he should start giving Vimes hints. He still wants Vimes on the case, because the longer he is on the job, the more important and influential people he will upset, which is the icing on the cake as far as the Patrician is concerned.