Book Description
Everyone knows that the world is flat, and supported
on the backs of four elephants. But weren't there supposed to
be five? Indeed there were, and what happened to the fifth
elephant is only one of the many perplexing mysteries solved
in this new novel by today's most celebrated fantasy
humorist.
Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent Discworld novels
have been number one bestsellers in England for more than a
decade, securing him a position in the pantheon of satire and
parody alongside Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl
Hiaasen. Pratchett's fame, like his imagination, is now going
global--if such a term can be used in connection with an
author whose creation is so uncompromisingly (though no
longer quite so unfashionably) flat.
Which brings us back to the missing mythical pachyderm. The
Fifth Elephant begins, like so many of Pratchett's
satirical inventions, with an invitation. This one is both
royal and engraved, requiring that Commander Vimes of the
Ankh-Morpork constabulary attend as both detective and
diplomat. The one role he relishes; the other, well, requires
ruby tights.
Where cops (even those clad in tights) go, crime of
course, follows--and an attempted assassination and a theft
soon lead to a desperate chase from the low halls of
Discworld royalty to the legendary fat mines of Uberwald,
where lard is found in underground seams along with tusks and
teeth and other precious ivory artifacts.
Vimes's "elephant" adventure is as profound as
it is hilarious, sending up every aspect of modern life from
royalty (a British specialty) to bureaucrats (inescapable
anywhere), from cops (especially those unusually dressed) to
criminals (who, like fools, have their own guild), from
fantasy literature to satire itself.
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