I love Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and hopefully you will too. You can jump into the series at any time - they're books set in the same world, but there's not really a set order that you should read them in. I like to describe his books as doing for fantasy what The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy did for science fiction - take the genre, add some humor, whimsy, and common sense. This one's a nice introduction - maybe not his absolute best, but I love the City Watch and Sam Vimes, and they're front and center here. Enjoy!

Passing on to a good friend who said she always loves the Discworld guards!