A worthwhile dedication

As part of Patti's Forgotten Friday series I've plucked off the shelf Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.  The task is to write a review of a book that you'd read whilst at College age (18-23).  I went through a Pratchett phase about then.  I started reading last night and will hopefully have it finished by Friday.  I was particularly taken with the dedication, which runs thus:


'They may be called the Palace Guard, the City Guard, or the Patrol.  Whatever their name, their purpose in any work of heroic fantasy is identical: it is, round about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into a film) to rush into the room, attack the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered.  No-one ever asks them if they wanted to.


This book is dedicated to those fine men."

That seems a pretty noble gesture to me - a dedication to the minor characters that know that they're going to be in the narrative for a couple of seconds at best and pay the ultimate sacrifice for the plot.