The Fifth Elephant
 | von Terry Pratchett
ISBN: 0061020400 |
Terry Pratchett has a seemingly endless capacity for generating inventively comic novels about the Discworld and its inhabitants but there is in the hearts of most of his admirers a particular place for those novels which feature the hard-bitten captain of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch Samuel Vimes. Sent as ambassador to the Northern principality of Uberwald where they mine gold, and iron and fat, but never silver, he is caught up in an uneasy truce between dwarfs, werewolves and vampires, in the theft of the Scone of Stone (a particularly important piece of dwarf bread) and in the old werewolf custom of giving humans a short start in the hunt and then cheating... Pratchett is always at his best when the comedy is mixed with a real sense of jeopardy that even favourite characters might be hurt if there was a good joke in it. As always the most unlikely things crop up as the subjects of gags--Chekhov, grand opera, the Caine Mutiny--and as always there are remorselessly funny gags about the inevitability of story: "They say that the fifth elephant came screaming and trumpeting through the atmosphere of the young world all those years ago and landed hard enough to split continents and raise mountains. No one actually saw it land, which raised the interesting philosophical question: when millions of tons of angry elephant come spinning through the sky, and there is no one to hear it, does it--philosophically speaking--make a noise? As for the dwarfs, whose legend it is, and who mine a lot deeper than other people, they say that there is a grain of truth in it". All this, the usual guest appearances and Gaspode the Wonder Dog... -- Roz Kaveney
Dwarfs, wolves and werewolves, the Watch and some Igors...
The Fifth Elephant is the 24th Discworld novel.In Ankh-Morpork, the Scone of Stone, the Dwarfs' sacred relic, has been stolen, and the director of the rubber factory has just been murdered. As Sam Vimes is sent on a diplomatic mission to Uberwald for the coronation of the new King of the Dwarfs, and Captain Carrot has gone in search of missing Angua, Lord Vetinari reluctanctly promotes Fred Colon as Captain of the Watch... Although presented as a novel of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, the action is principally centered on Sam Vimes and his struggle with the not-so-nice werewolves of Uberwald. With its numerous winks to our own world, as well as the guest appearence of dear characters such as DEATH or Gaspode the Wonder Dog, the Fifth Elephant turns out as funny as I expected a Pratchett novel to be. Definitely a very good read!
Discworld's Finest...
Everyone who has read Discworld knows, that there are four major Discworld story threads (with the exeption of a few "standalone" books like "Small Gods"): one includes the all-famous Rincewind, one the allmighty witch Granny Weatherwax, one Death and his "relatives" and one that follows the path of the drinking copper Samuel Vimes, who has become - much to his own disgust - the Duke of Ankh. "Fifth Elephant" is now the fifth Book about Sam Vimes. And personally I think it is simply amazing how well the characters and their relationship have developed through these books. One example is the relationship between the cunning Patrician Vetinari and Vimes. And the story? Well, as matter of fact, Pratchett often uses his storys as a thread to line up his jokes (which is perfectly allright) and in this context I would say it is a pretty good story, spanning from Überwald to Ankh-Morpork, featuring Werewolfs, Vampires, a lot of dwarfs, a Troll with a "Piecemaker" and a wife "you'd don't argue with". I think after you have read the book there is only one thing left you wish for: let it go on! And since the last eight books continued one of the mentioned thread, my wish may even come true...
DISCWORLD SEEMS TO BE SLOWING DOWN
In this book the wonderful characters we Discworld fans love seem to be maturing, growing less zany and more contemplative. I will especially miss Carrot the way he used to be, before he fell in love. Where is the earnest, innocent boy? He's become a sober and intense man. Sir Samuel is facing new responsibilities in his odd marriage. Nobby hasn't changed much but Pratchett doesn't broadcast his strangeness when he appears. And Colon has gone completely around the bend. The plot resembles a Bruce Willis movie, as Carrot and Vimes are constantly chasing, being chased, or being wounded. There's a lot of dark meanness in the evil characters (they are Undead, after all), and I can't tell what pterry is trying to say. The best part is the Igors, a sort of multipart organism of interchangeable servants, all with that extraordinary lisp. The book is a good read, as any Discworld novel is. It just isn't as consistently funny as you will expect.
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