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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Feet of Clay

Author: Anthony Storr
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780006384236
Category : Authoritarianism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
An eye-opening investigation of charismatic "gurus" from Jesus to Freud to David Koresh, by the author of "Solitude: A Return to the Self". In "Feet of Clay", eminent psychologist Anthony Storr uncovers the personality traits that link these men and explores the incredible power they have wielded over their fanatical followers. 11 photos.

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.

Going Postal

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061807192
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 422

Book Description
“[Pratchett’s] books are almost always better than they have to be, and Going Postal is no exception, full of nimble wordplay, devious plotting and outrageous situations, but always grounded in an astute understanding of human nature.” — San Francisco Chronicle The 33rd installment in acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, a splendid send-up of government, the postal system, and everything that lies in between. Suddenly, condemned arch-swindler Moist von Lipwig found himself with a noose around his neck and dropping through a trapdoor into . . . a government job? By all rights, Moist should be meeting his maker rather than being offered a position as Postmaster by Lord Vetinari, supreme ruler of Ankh-Morpork. Getting the moribund Postal Service up and running again, however, may prove an impossible task, what with literally mountains of decades-old undelivered mail clogging every nook and cranny of the broken-down post office. Worse still, Moist could swear the mail is talking to him. Worst of all, it means taking on the gargantuan, greedy Grand Trunk clacks communication monopoly and its bloodthirsty piratical headman. But if the bold and undoable are what's called for, Moist's the man for the job—to move the mail, continue breathing, get the girl, and specially deliver that invaluable commodity that every being, human or otherwise requires: hope. The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Going Postal is the first book in the Moist von Lipwig series.

The Last Continent

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1407035126
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
'Anything you do in the past changes the future. The tiniest little actions have huge consequences. You might tread on an ant now and it might entirely prevent someone from being born in the future.' Rincewind, inept wizard and reluctant hero, has found himself magically stranded on the Discworld's last continent. It's hot. It's dry. There was this thing once called The Wet, which no one believes in any more. Practically everything that's not poisonous is venomous. But it's the best bloody place in the world, all right? And in a few days, it will die. The only thing standing between the last continent and wind-blown doom is Rincewind, and he can't even spell wizard. Still . . . no worries, eh? 'A minor masterpiece. I laughed so much I fell from my armchair' Time Out 'A master storyteller' A. S. Byatt The Last Continent is the sixth book in the Wizards series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order.