Men at Arms: A Discworld Novel:15

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And there’s Gaspode the talking dog. And the Patrician. They are among Pratchett’s best characters, as well. Fingers-Mazda, the first thief in the world, stole fire from the gods. But he was unable to fence it. It was too hot."

No clowns were funny. That was the whole purpose of a clown. People laughed at clowns, but only out of nervousness. The point of clowns was that, after watching them, anything else that happened seemed enjoyable. It was nice to know there was someone worse off than you.” Carrot spells "role" as "Roll" in both his letter home at the beginning, and the letter to Vimes at the end. At least his terrible spelling is consistent...To most other dogs, Gaspode is worse off. Gaspode is a real mutt, and a smallish, battered mutt, at that. But, as a dog who can talk, he has the Power as he displays when he is facing a circle of mad canines ready to chew the life out of him: Entertainingly Wrong: The book pulls one of these on the reader (and Corporal Carrot). We're introduced to Angua, a new female recruit to the Night Watch, very much a Boy's Club. Both Vimes and Colon complain about her being the worst of the new recruits brought in to diversify the Watch, because she's "a w—" before being interrupted by an explosion. As it turns out, they're complaining about her being a werewolf.

It is revealed that d'Eath has stolen the gonne, the Disc's first and only handheld firearm, from the Assassins' Guild, with the intention of discrediting Vetinari's government through the murders. Any possessor of the gonne seems to become obsessed with the device. After d'Eath reveals his plan to Dr. Cruces, head of the Assassin's Guild, Cruces murders him and takes up the plan himself. The Watch prevent Cruces from killing Vetinari, but Cuddy and Angua are killed in the process. Vimes and Carrot confront and disarm Cruces, and Carrot helps Vimes resist the gonne's allure. Cruces gives Carrot the evidence that he is the royal heir, upon which Carrot kills Cruces with his sword and has both the evidence and the dismantled gonne buried with Cuddy. As a werewolf can only be killed with a silver weapon, Angua is revived upon the moon's rising. Heroic BSoD: Detritus, after Cuddy is killed. Subverted with Carrot after Angua is shot; there's a different reason why he missed a wedding to stay with her. Those bullets weren't silver.

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How did I not know that Mountain Dew used to be a name for whiskey? It makes a lot more sense than the soda that uses the name now, but it made me wonder if this wasn’t one of those “Coca-Cola used to have cocaine in it” things. Alas, it was just created by two guys who liked putting soda in their whiskey, so they stole the colloquialism in making the soda. It makes me curious because I could never stand the taste of Mountain Dew, but if it was originally meant to be served with whiskey… that’s a very different flavor profile you’re working with. The heroism here is in resisting any urge to use this sort of weapon at all. The Disc is full of dangerous items that can wound and maim and kill, but Pratchett’s very clear on the difference between these weapons and a firearm—it gives you power that isn’t your own: Vimes is a self-described speciesist, with the caveat that he doesn't like humans, either. But when he hears an Upper-Class Twit go on about how terrible trolls and dwarfs are (despite never meeting one of either in his life), Vimes makes a series of outrageously prejudiced and contradictory comments to make the nodding nobles look like idiots. More or less. It was hard to tell. Even a prisoner in a cell manages to stamp his personality on it somewhere, but Angua had never seen such an unlived-in room.