See, in The Fifth Elephant, the hard-boiled Vimes gets sent off on a diplomatic mission to Uberwald– basically, Discworld’s version of Transylvania, complete with werewolves, vampires, and Igors. In an ironic little twist that I’m sure Pratchett would approve of, The Fifth Elephant is a better fantasy adventure pastiche (or really, just a better fantasy adventure) than earlier books like The Colour of Magic.
There’s even a little satiric riff on Chekhov (the playwright, not the Trek character) worked in just ’cause Pratchett thought it’d be funny. Basically, a Watch novel is one part detective story, one part fantasy, and one part English farce, with a few other gags sprinkled in to taste. On top of that, it’s one of the ‘Watch’ series, centered around Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh Morpork City Watch. In comparison, The Fifth Elephant is Pratchett in his prime.
The last few Discworld books I’ve read were good, sure … but they were also from early in Pratchett’s career. Which is fine! However, as the books went on, Discworld congealed into its current form. The first couple of Discworld novels (like, say, Pyramids) are mostly silly fantasy pastiches. And luckier for me specifically, I haven’t read all of his books just yet. Lucky for the world at whole, Pratchett was a very prolific writer. Writing’s a skill like any other– the more practice you have, the better you get. See, my problem was, I started reading the Discworld novels from the beginning … which was a mistake. I only started reading Pratchett about ten years ago, and even then I got somewhat of a slow start. But to just goob out and go “you guys this book is so good,” borders on blind fanboyishness.Įven still. It’s hard to review a Terry Pratchett novel.Īfter all, it’s a lot easier (or at least more entertaining) to dig into the flaws of a book. Not a review so much as a recommendation: Terry Pratchett’s The Fifth Elephant
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