Guard! Guard! (1989)

Here Pratchett stopped parodying and started building. In 1989, he introduced the police in the Discworld — or rather, its pathetic remnant: the Night Watch, three people and a captain, drinking from the realization that the city has long outgrown him. Then a dragon appears in Ankh-Morpork, summoned by a secret society of disgruntled clerks, and the question of 'who is to blame' turns into 'who benefits from this'. The novel is structured like a real detective story, only the investigation is carried out by people whom no one takes seriously, and because of this, the satire hits harder: Pratchett speaks about power, about the crowd ready to love any king, and about how a bunch of disgruntled men in a basement is more dangerous than any monster. This gave rise to the best line of the series, and Captain Vimes became Pratchett's main character — evil, honest, and very tired. An excellent entry point into the Discworld.

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