title: A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction
author:  Terry Pratchett 
description: &ldquo;A book meant to be cherished.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The New York Times Book Review</i><br><br>&ldquo;Some writers simply possess the Gift. No matter what they bring out. . . . That&rsquo;s certainly the case with Terry Pratchett.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The Washington Post Book World</i><br><br>&ldquo;In the history of comic fantasy, Pratchett has no equals for invention or for range.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The Wall Street Journal</i><br><i>&#160;</i><br>&ldquo;Clever . . . insightful. . . . [Pratchett&rsquo;s] wry wit is as good as gold.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The Boston Globe</i><br><br>&ldquo;Pratchett is one of the great comic writers and storytellers of our time.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The Guardian</i><br><br>&ldquo;One of the giants in the world of fantasy literature.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>New York Daily News<br></i><br>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t call what Pratchett does satire&mdash;it&rsquo;s far too good-natured for that&mdash;but he has a satirist&rsquo;s instinct for the absurd and a cartoonist&rsquo;s eye for the telling detail.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The Daily Telegraph </i>(London)<br>&#160;<br>&ldquo;A short story collection covering the entire career of one of our most prolific, and beloved, fantasy writers. . . . One of the main draws of&#160;[<i>A Blink of the Screen</i>]&#160;for serious fans, or aspiring writers, will be the chance to trace the evolution of Pratchett&rsquo;s craft&mdash;but there&rsquo;s plenty here for readers who have never heard of him to enjoy.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>Kirkus Reviews</i><br><br>&ldquo;A little absurdism, a little wordplay, a lot of inventive fantasy, a lot of heart, and a deep-seated fascination with the way technologies change societies. . . . Pratchett can easily fill an entire bookcase by himself. . . . But he has kept the piquant sense of someone playing with language, with new worlds, and with the familiar old tropes that he enjoys upending.&rdquo; &mdash;NPR<br><br>&ldquo;What Pratchett does is not just great, but unparalleled. In five hundred years, it won&rsquo;t be the Nobel laureates who are being studied. It&rsquo;s going to be this guy.&rdquo; &mdash;Brandon Sanderson, Tor.com<br>&#160;<br>&ldquo;One of the greatest comic novelists of all time, in his way the equal of Wodehouse and Waugh.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>GQ </i>(UK)<br>&#160;<br>&ldquo;The master of humorous fantasy . . . [Pratchett] should be recognized as one of the more significant contemporary English-language satirists.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>Publishers Weekly</i>
zlib_text: Terry Pratchett
  M
  en at Arms
  A Novel of Discworld®
  
  Contents
  Begin Read ing     
  Ab out the Author     
  Praise     
  Other Book s b y Terry Pratchett     
  Cop yright     
  Ab out the Pub lisher     
  
   
  Begin Read er
  Corporal Carrot, Ankh-Morpork City Guard (Night Watch), sat down in
  his nightshirt, took up his pencil, sucked the end for a moment, and then
  wrote:
  “Dearest Mume and Dad,
  Well here is another fine Turnup for the Books, for I have been
  made Corporal!! It means another Five Dollars a month plus also I
  have a new jerkin with, two stripes upon it as well. And a new copper
  badge! It is a Great responsibility!! This is all because we have got
  new recruits because the Patrician who, as I have formerly vouchsafed
  is the ruler of the city, has agreed the Watch must reflect the ethnic
  makeup of the City—”
  Carrot paused for a moment and stared out of the small dusty bedroom
  window at the early evening sunlight sidling across the river. Then he bent
  
  over the paper again.
  “—which I do n