Short description
Sam Vimes is a man on the run. Yesterday he was a duke, a chief of police and the ambassador to the mysterious, fat-rich country of Uberwald. Now, he has nothing but his native wit and the gloomy trousers of Uncle Vanya (don't ask). It's snowing. And if he can't make it through the forest to civilization there's going to be a terrible war.
Long description
Sam Vimes is a man on the run. Yesterday he was a duke, a chief of police and the ambassador to the mysterious, fat-rich country of Uberwald. Now, he has nothing but his native wit and the gloomy trousers of Uncle Vanya (don't ask). It's snowing. It's freezing. And if he can't make it through the forest to civilization there's going to be a terrible war. But there are monsters on his trail. They're bright. They're fast. They're werewolves - and they're catching up. The Fifth Elephant is Terry Pratchett's latest installment in the Discworld cycle, this time starring dwarfs, diplomacy, intrigue and big lumps of fat.
Review
When is Pratchett going to run out of steam? When wonderful comic ideas are stretched beyond their natural life, the effect is inevitably disastrous, but such is the fecundity of Pratchett's imagination that his now massively extended Discworld sequence seems to generate new concepts and hilarious conceits of its own, with Pratchett the mere chronicler. This latest instalment in a cycle whose following has increased from book to book features a favourite Pratchettian character, Sam Vines - this time a man on the run. Yesterday he was a duke and simultaneous chief of police and ambassador to the mysterious country of Uberwald, but now he's freezing his nether parts off struggling through a forest to prevent a terrible war. And if that's not enough, there are werewolves on his trail. This time around, the mad panoply of dwarves, diplomacy and a shewed reflection of the more unlikely aspects of our own society yields a freshness that had perhaps been slipping in the last couple of books. This is vintage Pratchett, and aficionados will lap it up. (Kirkus UK)