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The Fifth
Elephant What, exactly, is The Fifth Elephant? Well, in Pratchett's skewed universe of the Discworld, it's one of the great legends, a possible truth, a MacGuffin, and probably one of those things that is the Thing, and All Of The Thing. It is referred to, periodically, in a way that makes it a slang term for the fantasy equivalent of vaporware. The Fifth Elephant focuses on the travails of Sam Rimes, the Commander of the Ankh-Morpork CIty Watch. As he happens to also be the Duke Of Ankh-Morpork (having married the Duchess), he makes a good candidate -- or target -- for ambassador to Uberwald, a large and forbidding area of Discworld that's inhabited by dwarves. It also happens to be imhabited by werewolves and vampires. Plots and plans are afoot, subplots abound as the Watch Captain resigns and sets off in pursuit of his werewolf girlfriend, the Watch itself meets with the fearful problem of Fred Colon in command (mind the sugar cubes, then), and all of this is without mentioning Igor. Any of him. Them. Vimes and his companions (including his wife, two Watch members of vastly differing sizes, and the very odd clerk, Inigo) are to attend to coronation of the new Low King of the dwarves. The problem is ... the coronation throne, the ancient Scone Of Stone, made of dwarf bread, has been stolen, and without it, the Low King cannot be crowned..... While the plotting is bit on the slender side -- story keeps moving by sheer momentum alone at times -- the writing certainly makes up for it. While unusually serious in tone at times, the tale has more than enough humor of various kinds to keep readers amused. While Douglas Adams tends to lay it on with a trowel, and the Monty Python alumni lean towards explosions, Pratchett has somehow mastered the art of delivering a screamingly funny line with a great deal of subtlety, sometimes even lampooning his own jokes (as he does when Vimes starts uttering witticisms about the Igors.) Overall, a fun read, and one that generates high expectations for the November release of the next Discworld novel, The Truth. A paperback edition of The Fifth Elephant is due in April 2001. ©2000 by Steven E. McDonald |
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