Rating: Summary: 3 latest Pratcetts Review: I bought and read them all at once: Jingo, The Last Continent and The Fifth Elephant. As usually I enjoy everything by this author, but the Elephant (or Überwald to be more precise) in this case definitely outmached the other two. If you care about old legends and don't care much about politics - read it!
Rating: Summary: Another triumph, but not quite perfection Review: Well, things are starting to get a little weird on the Disc. Ankh-Morpork has started a communications revolution (wonder if Pterry read "The Victorian Internet" for the details on telegraph towers?), and Vetinari has started to manipulate other nations politically. Alas, quite a few parties don't want that to happen. This one's a strange amalgam of social commentary and Die Hard-type movie, with Vimes and Carrot in hot pursuit of various interested parties, being hurt quite badly, and NEVER GIVING UP. For long-time Discworld fans: Death makes a cameo appearance, and Gaspode returns. Nobbs seems to be almost human, and Colon goes completely mental. I'd say this is well worth the hardback purchase. Read and enjoy. My favorite gag: Dorfl the golem's protest sign when he's on strike. Don't worry; that'll make sense in context.
Rating: Summary: Pratchett gets better and better as he goes along! Review: I repeat the previous reader's comments about how sad it is the way you Americans suffer. I cannot imagine Discworld books without Josh Kirby's covers and you have to wait forever for them to come out! But it is worth the wait. Although not as good in my view as some of the other guards books (I know many that disagree) this is still brilliant and I give it 5 stars because Men at Arms and Guards! Guards! Deserved 6 (there is a little too much Sam Vimes and Fred Colon for my liking). There is lots of Igor and lots of werewolves but little Patrician and the crime is good, I will say no more. I echo the fact you must read previous novels to appreciate them - make sure you read Carpe Jugulum the previous Dicworld, Small Gods and Pyramids. Pratchett is so big over here you would not believe and it is good to see that he is being discovered across the pond. The jokes seem to becoming thinner on the ground but it doesn't matter at all in my view as everything else gets better especially the characters and the plots. I do believe it is time for a new set of Discworld characters. Read this however and you will not be disappointed it ranks up their with the best- Long live the Discworld!
Rating: Summary: DISCWORLD SEEMS TO BE SLOWING DOWN Review: 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.
Rating: Summary: More Carrot! Review: Long live the Internet! I bought the book from Amazon.com.uk when it was released. The first thing I noticed was the great cover art - too bad the American releases aren't as fanciful. I really wish they'd keep the artwork. Anyway, this is one of Pratchett's better books that continues the Watch saga: Commander Vimes is appointed Ankh-Morpork's ambassador to Uberwald, Carrot goes on leave chasing after Angua, Sergeant Colon gets promoted and Nobby goes on strike! This is wonderful stuff for Pratchett fans, but first-timers would be better off following the growth of the Watch from the earlier books.
Rating: Summary: Affectionate Warning Review: I love Terry Pratchett novels and even more than that, I love having the chance to listen to them. This cassette edition is narrated by Tony Robinson, who played Baldrick in the Black Adder series; he does a lovely job and the novel is, of course, funny and original. However, I must warn you, it is abridged and that does detract from the delight of it. Anyone considering purchasing this might want to instead consider the audio versions of The Wee Free Men or The Night Watch, also available on this website for reasonable prices.
Rating: Summary: BCB and MMBU! Review: In "The Fifth Elephant", Terry Pratchett returns to his "Guards of Ankh-Morpork" storyline, last seen in "Feet of Clay", "Men at Arms" and "Guards, Guards". This time, Sam Vimes--Commander of the Watch and the Duke of Ankh-Morpork--is off to neighboring Uberwald to attend the coronation of the Low King. Uberwald, as fans will remember from "Carpe Jugulum", is inhabited by vampires and werewolves. Of course, nothing goes as planned. The Scone of Stone--the traditional "throne" of the Low King--has been stolen, the dwarves are divided over the choice of Low King, and the Watch is on strike.One of Pratchett's strengths is to make you laugh even as he makes you think. This has been evident in his last several books, especially "Small Gods", and I'm glad he's keeping up the good work. In this book, the questions are many: how do you deal with a werewolf who won't take stop trying to kill you? Should people from different worlds pursue a relationship? Mr. Pratchett even touches on traditional male-female roles (or the lack thereof among dwarves) and the power of faith. Humor is good, but humor that waxes lightly philosophical is even better.
Rating: Summary: "Surely my uncle is Bjorn Stronginthearm"! Review: Regular readers of Pratchett's droll accounts of life on Discworld will be unsurprised to discover that there is, in fact, no literal elephant in this book at all. There are, as we all know, four very large elephants supporting the flat circularity of the world, who themselves stand on the back of an even more immense turtle swimming through space. The extra pachyderm referred to in the title is metaphorical, being the supposed origin of the huge, economically important, fat deposits that lie beneath Uberwald, providing employment for the mining skills of that country's dwarfs (though dwarfs have trouble with metaphors) -- who share the land (very carefully) with aristocratic vampires and werewolves. Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, cognizant of his city's ever-growing need for high-quality lard and candles, sends as his ambassador to the coronation of the new Low King of Uberwald none other than His Grace Sir Samuel Vimes, Commander of the Watch. Sam, a copper's copper, naturally becomes involved in an attempted assassination of the not-yet-installed new king, which ties in with the murder of a rubber condom entrepreneur back in the city. Captain Carrot, Vimes's second-in-command, goes off in pursuit of his lady love (also a werewolf), leaving the Watch in the gloriously incompetent hands of Sgt. Colon and Corp. Nobbs. All of this gives Pratchett the perfect stage to air his opinions on the peerage, social conservatism, fascism, perceptions of race, the difference between officers and noncoms, and perhaps what it really means to be human. As the series goes one, Pratchett just gets better and better.
Rating: Summary: Not the best of the Diskworld books. Review: This novel sparks with humour from time to time, and fairly swims in satire as Pratchett takes a good natured poke at everyone he can. A wolf called Gavin, Fat mines, Disappearing sugar, a race of Igors gleefully trading body parts (someone will be back on his feet this time tomorrow) are all the usual from Pratchett.
The Scone of Stone is a direct poke at the Scots and the Stone of Scone which was only recently returned by the English. The three gloomy sisters in the Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya all suggests that our Terry was leafing through his Tchekov when he wrote this book. And Lady Margalotta, the Vampire on the wagon (one night at a time?) make for good reading.
But while this book sparks and sputters from time to time, it never really takes off. Neither the story nor the humour. It is not up to the standard of early novels, or the novels that introduced characters such as Mort, Death, Guards Guards etc. It will go down well with the discworld fanatics, but if you are a newcomer to diskworld don't start here!
Rating: Summary: One of the very best Review: This is one of my absolute favourite Discworld novels. The Fifth elephant is the one that is supposed to have crashed onto the Discworld in ancient times, and all the mineral and fat deposits on the Discworld come from its body. Commander Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is reluctantly despatched to Uberwold to attend the coronation of the Low King of the Dwarves. Lord Vetinari, the ruler of ankh-Morpork, want the goodwill of the dwarves so he can buy fat from the Uberwold mines. Then the mystic Scone of Stone, on which all the Low Kings are crowned, goes missing, and Vimes needs to find it before the coronation.
Meanwhile Sergeant Angua the female werewolf is also on her way back to Uberwold to sort out some family troubles. Cpatain Carrott sets off in purusit. Soon Angua is caught up in a curious love triangle with the human Carrott and the wolf Gavin. Back in Ankh-Morpork Sergeant Colon has been put in charge of the watch, and it has gone to his head, watchemn are resigning and Nobby has started a Watchmens Union.
As well as the regular characters, there are some marvellous new ones in this book. My favourite is Lady Margalotta von Uberwold, an aristocratic vampire who is an old flame of Lord Vetinari, who has gone on the wagon 'vun bite voud alvays be vun too many' as she tells Vimes. Then there is the Low King, who matches Vimes in cynicism. And when Vimes has to go on the run from Angua's vengeful family, he takes refuge at the house of three gloomy sisters who sit looking out over their orchard and dreaming of life in the city (the youngest sister suggests cutting down the orchard to build a skating rink). When Vimes asks them for clothing, they give him 'the gloomy and purposeless trousers of Uncle Vanya).
Pratchett can even get away with using very old humour. The one about the wife trying to tell her husband she's pregnant and him not listening, how often has that been done? But when it's Lady Sybill and Vimes it still seems funny. And it's nice to see Lady Sybill having a more promient role in the story.
This is one of the funniest and best of the series.
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