The Fifth Elephant

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Harper
ISBN: 9780061051579
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
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, and what happened to the fifth elephant is only one of the many perplexing mysteries solved in this new novel by today's most celebrated fantasy humorist. Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent Discworld novels have been number one bestsellers in England for more than a decade, securing him a position in the pantheon of satire and parody alongside Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen. Pratchett's fame, like his imagination, is now going global--if such a term can be used in connection with an author whose creation is so uncompromisingly (though no longer quite so unfashionably) flat. Which brings us back to the missing mythical pachyderm. The Fifth Elephant begins, like so many of Pratchett's satirical inventions, with an invitation. This one is both royal and engraved, requiring that Commander Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork constabulary attend as both detective and diplomat. The one role he relishes; the other, well, requires ruby tights. Where cops (even those clad in tights) go, crime of course, follows--and 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. Vimes's "elephant" adventure is as profound as it is hilarious, sending up every aspect of modern life from royalty (a British specialty) to bureaucrats (inescapable anywhere), from cops (especially those unusually dressed) to criminals (who, like fools, have their own guild), from fantasy literature to satire itself. The world is busy discovering Terry Pratchett. Shouldn't you be doing your part?

Thud!

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780063374256
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
"Start with Douglas Adams's comic science fiction (A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and J.R.R. Tolkien's alternative worlds, mix in James Ellroy's gritty realism and Jonathan Swift's unflinching satire and, if you're lucky, you'll get something like Terry Pratchett's Thud!" --Wall Street Journal City Watch Commander Sam Vimes must solve the murder of a prominent dwarf or watch as Discworld is plunged into a bloody civil war in Terry Pratchett's delightful Discworld satire, a brilliant tale of prejudice, ancient feuds, and tender fatherhood. Long, long ago, in a gods-forsaken hellhole called Koom Valley, trolls and dwarfs met in bloody combat. Centuries later, each side still views the other with simmering animosity that has been heightened of late because of one Grag Hamcrusher. The influential dwarf has been fomenting unrest among a section of Ankh-Morpork's citizenry--a volatile situation made far worse when the petite provocateur is discovered bashed to death . . . with a troll club lying conveniently nearby. If he doesn't solve the murder of just one dwarf, Commander Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch is going to see it fought again, right outside his office. But more than one corpse is waiting for Vimes in the eerie, summoning darkness of a labyrinthine mine network being secretly excavated beneath Ankh-Morpork's streets. With war-drums beating ever louder, Vimes must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin, and brave any darkness to find the solution. And the darkness is following him, pulling him deep into the muck and mire of superstition, hatred, and fear--and perhaps all the way to Koom Valley itself. Until six o'clock every day, when without fail, the Commander goes home to read Where's My Cow?, with accompanying farmyard noises, to his little boy. Because there are some things you must do. The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Thud! is the 7th book in the City Watch collection and the 34th Discworld book. The City Watch collection in order: Guards! Guards! Men at Arms Feet of Clay Jingo The Fifth Elephant Night Watch Thud! Snuff

A Black and Endless Sky

Author: Matthew Lyons
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1684427118
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Book Description
One of Tor Nightfire's "Horror Books We're Excited About in 2022"! "Lyons burnishes his reputation as a rising horror star . . . [and] keeps the pages flying with fast-paced chills." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) From the author of The Night Will Find Us comes a white-knuckled horror-thriller set across the American Southwest. Road trips can be hell. Siblings Jonah and Nell Talbot used to be inseparable, but ever since Jonah suddenly blew town twelve years ago, they couldn’t be more distant. Now, in the wake of Jonah’s divorce, they embark on a cross-country road trip back to their hometown of Albuquerque, hoping to mend their broken relationship along the way. But when a strange accident befalls Nell at an abandoned industrial site somewhere in the Nevada desert, she begins experiencing ghastly visions and exhibiting terrifying, otherworldly symptoms. As their journey through the desolate American Southwest reveals the grotesque change happening within his sister, one thing becomes clear to Jonah: It’s not only Nell in there anymore. Pursued by a mysterious stranger who knows far more about Nell’s worsening condition than they let on, the siblings race to find a way to help Nell and escape the desert before they’re met with a violent, bloody end. But there are far worse things lurking in the desert ahead... some of them just beneath the skin.

Snuff

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Charnwood Pub
ISBN: 9781444811599
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 498

Book Description
Lady Sybil, wife of Sam Vimes, convinces him to travel to the countryside for a vacation. Out of his element, Sam soon finds various crimes to investigate. But he is out of his element and must rely on his instincts to bring the culprits to justice.

Thud!

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061795550
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
“Start with Douglas Adams’s comic science fiction (A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and J.R.R. Tolkien’s alternative worlds, mix in James Ellroy’s gritty realism and Jonathan Swift’s unflinching satire and, if you’re lucky, you’ll get something like Terry Pratchett’s Thud!” —Wall Street Journal City Watch Commander Sam Vimes must solve the murder of a prominent dwarf or watch as Discworld is plunged into a bloody civil war in Terry Pratchett’s delightful Discworld satire, a brilliant tale of prejudice, ancient feuds, and tender fatherhood. Long, long ago, in a gods-forsaken hellhole called Koom Valley, trolls and dwarfs met in bloody combat. Centuries later, each side still views the other with simmering animosity that has been heightened of late because of one Grag Hamcrusher. The influential dwarf has been fomenting unrest among a section of Ankh-Morpork’s citizenry—a volatile situation made far worse when the petite provocateur is discovered bashed to death . . . with a troll club lying conveniently nearby. If he doesn’t solve the murder of just one dwarf, Commander Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch is going to see it fought again, right outside his office. But more than one corpse is waiting for Vimes in the eerie, summoning darkness of a labyrinthine mine network being secretly excavated beneath Ankh-Morpork’s streets. With war-drums beating ever louder, Vimes must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin, and brave any darkness to find the solution. And the darkness is following him, pulling him deep into the muck and mire of superstition, hatred, and fear—and perhaps all the way to Koom Valley itself. Until six o’clock every day, when without fail, the Commander goes home to read Where’s My Cow?, with accompanying farmyard noises, to his little boy. Because there are some things you must do. The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Thud! is the 7th book in the City Watch collection and the 34th Discworld book. The City Watch collection in order: Guards! Guards! Men at Arms Feet of Clay Jingo The Fifth Elephant Night Watch Thud! Snuff

Jingo

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 055214598X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 420

Book Description
DISCWORLD GOES TO WAR, WITH ARMIES OF SARDINES, WARRIORS, FISHERMEN, SQUID AND AT LEAST ONE VERY CAMP FOLLOWER. As two armies march, Commander Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch faces unpleasant foes who are out to get him...and that's just the people on his side. The enemy might be even worse. Jingo, the 21st in Terry Pratchett's phenomenally successful Discworld series, makes the World Cup look like a friendly five-a-side.

The City Watch Trilogy

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780575067981
Category : Discworld (Imaginary place)
Languages : en
Pages : 759

Book Description
Be a MAN in the City Watch! The City Watch needs MEN! (or dwarves or trolls or gargoyles or ...)The City Watch is a bumper volume in which those noble defenders of Ankh-Morpork, the greatest city of the Discworld*, come face to face with some of the most heinous crimes in history. GUARDS! GUARDS! Sees some night-time prowler turning (mostly) honest citizens into something resembling small charcoal biscuits. In MEN AT ARMS, there's a murder to be solves so that the world-weary Captain Vimes can be married at noon and retire happily ever after.And in the Discworld Howdunnit FEET OF CLAY, someone is murdering harmless old men and poisoning the Patrician ...and the golems are committing suicide ...*Which is flat and rides through space on the back of four elephants who stand on the shell of an enormous turtle, as everyone knows.

Raising Steam

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385538294
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The international bestselling author of the hilarious Discworld series—a writer who’s been compared to Mark Twain and Kurt Vonnegut—introduces the first steam engine into his complex, zany fantasy world. “Everything that makes Pratchett one of the world’s most delightful writers.” —Cory Doctorow, author of Boing Boing Mister Simnel has produced a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all the elements—earth, air, fire, and water—and it’s soon drawing astonished crowds. To the consternation of Ankh-Morpork’s formidable Patrician, Lord Vetinari, no one is in charge of this new invention. Who better to take the lead than the man he has already appointed master of the Post Office, the Mint and the Royal Bank? Moist von Lipwig is not a man who enjoys hard work—unless it is dependent on words, which are not very heavy and don’t always need greasing. He does enjoy being alive, however, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse. Moist will have to grapple with gallons of grease, goblins, a controller with a history of throwing employees down the stairs, and some very angry dwarfs if he’s going to stop it all from going off the rails.

Great Elephant Escape, The

Author: Una Belle Townsend
Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.
ISBN: 9781455615827
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
When two baby elephants escaped from the circus in 1975, it took eighteen days to find them. The authorities searched all over, but they were always one step behind this sneaky pair of fugitives. This colorful picture book follows these giant hide-and-seekers throughout Oklahoma as they evade capture for as long as they can.

Thief of Time

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0552154261
Category : Clocks and watches
Languages : en
Pages : 434

Book Description
Time isn't a toy to be played with. It's bigger than all of us. It exists outside the artificial and arbitrary divisions into which humankind has presumptuously shoehorned it. It needs to elastic. To understand truly, you have to see time as the most important resource we have. You mess with it at your peril.