The fifth elephant - BookRaptor

321 pages

English language

Published Nov. 6, 2000 by HarperCollins.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-105157-9

(2 reviews)

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. So where is it?...When duty calls. Commander Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork constabulary answers. Even when he doesn't want to. He's been "invited" to attend a royal function as both detective and diplomat. The one role he relishes; the other requires, well, ruby tights. Of course where cops (even those clad in tights) go, alas, crime follows. 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. It's up to the dauntless Vimes -- bothered as usual by a familiar cast of Discworld inhabitants (you know, trolls, dwarfs, werewolves, vampires and such) -- …

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. So where is it?...When duty calls. Commander Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork constabulary answers. Even when he doesn't want to. He's been "invited" to attend a royal function as both detective and diplomat. The one role he relishes; the other requires, well, ruby tights. Of course where cops (even those clad in tights) go, alas, crime follows. 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. It's up to the dauntless Vimes -- bothered as usual by a familiar cast of Discworld inhabitants (you know, trolls, dwarfs, werewolves, vampires and such) -- to solve the puzzle of the missing pachyderm. Which of course he does. After all, solving mysteries is his job.

15 editions

mictter reviewed The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett

Divertidísimo

5 stars

Empiezo el año con otro volumen de la serie del Mundodisco, sección Guardia Urbana, que es mi serie favorita, con el comandante Vimes y su pandilla policial en la gran ciudad llena de delincuentes, criminales y políticos astutos. Esta vez, en plan “Astérix en Alemania”, le mandan de embajador a Überwald, el país donde hombres lobos, enanos y vampiros andan siempre a hostias.

Como siempre, me lo he pasado en grande leyéndolo, sobre todo los diálogos y las descripciones de usos y costumbres. Vimes declarando “no tenía bastante dinero para ser alcohólico, así que me limitaba a ser un borrachuzo” es el tipo de cosas que me gustan de Pratchett. La parte narrativa, escenas de acción y que nuestros héroes estén una vez más en el ojo del huracán sigue siendo muy flojas, aunque lo paso por alto gracias a las continuas carcajadas de todo lo demás. Los personajes secundarios …

Empiezo el año con otro volumen de la serie del Mundodisco, sección Guardia Urbana, que es mi serie favorita, con el comandante Vimes y su pandilla policial en la gran ciudad llena de delincuentes, criminales y políticos astutos. Esta vez, en plan “Astérix en Alemania”, le mandan de embajador a Überwald, el país donde hombres lobos, enanos y vampiros andan siempre a hostias.

Como siempre, me lo he pasado en grande leyéndolo, sobre todo los diálogos y las descripciones de usos y costumbres. Vimes declarando “no tenía bastante dinero para ser alcohólico, así que me limitaba a ser un borrachuzo” es el tipo de cosas que me gustan de Pratchett. La parte narrativa, escenas de acción y que nuestros héroes estén una vez más en el ojo del huracán sigue siendo muy flojas, aunque lo paso por alto gracias a las continuas carcajadas de todo lo demás. Los personajes secundarios son geniales.

Bart Libert reviewed The fifth elephant by Terry Pratchett

Makes you think

5 stars

This is book is not full of laugh out loud moments or quick jokes, but rather takes the time to tell a really nice and compelling story with Sam Vimes in a heroic starring role. As always with Pratchett, the book is full of references to our own round world and makes you think about our own behaviour more than once

Subjects

Vimes, Samuel (Fictitious character) -- Fiction.
Discworld (Imaginary place) -- Fiction.