Guards! Guards! vs Night Watch: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Samuel Vimes, Discworld, English literature, Fiction
Guards! Guards!
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Here there be dragons ... and the denizens of Ankh-Morpork wish one huge firebreather would return from whence it came. Long believed extinct, a superb specimen of draco nobilis ("noble dragon" for those who don't…
Night Watch
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One moment, Sir Sam Vimes is in his old patrolman form, chasing a sweet-talking psychopath across the rooftops of Ankh-Morpork. The next, he's lying naked in the street, having been sent back thirty years courtesy of a…
Side by side
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Night Watch has the widest readership — 121109 ratings behind its score.
- Night Watch runs the darker storyline; Guards! Guards! stays the lighter read.
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How to choose
Scores by source
| Guards! Guards! | Night Watch | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 4.5 (121109) |
| Hardcover | 4.3 (1321) | 4.5 (559) |
| Google Books | 4.5 (32) | 4.5 (24) |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (441) | 5.0 (263) |
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Reception
| Guards! Guards! | Night Watch | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 1321 | 121109 |
| Editions | 58 | 33 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 45940 |
| Reading it now | — | 2486 |
| Written reviews | — | 3892 |
| Wikipedia attention | 5655 | 2329 |
| Pages | 392 | 421 |
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Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: Guards! Guards! or Night Watch?
Night Watch has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Night Watch 4.5/5, Guards! Guards! 4.3/5).
Which is shorter to read: Guards! Guards! or Night Watch?
Guards! Guards! is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: Guards! Guards! (392 pages, ≈ 7 h 16 m); Night Watch (421 pages, ≈ 7 h 48 m).
Which is harder to read: Guards! Guards! or Night Watch?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — Guards! Guards!: Moderate; Night Watch: Moderate.