The Fifth Elephant
Locus Award nominee 2000.
A Discworld novel of dwarfs, diplomacy, intrigue and big lumps of fat.
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. Sam Vimes is out of time, out of luck and already out of breath...
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE (1948–2015) was an English author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his Discworld series of about 40 volumes. Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971, and since his first Discworld novel (The Colour of Magic) was published in 1983, he wrote two books a year on average. His 2011 Discworld novel Snuff was at the time of its release the third-fastest-selling hardback adult-audience novel since records began in the UK, selling 55,000 copies in the first three days.
Discworld
The Discworld series is a continuous history of a world not totally unlike our own, except that it is a flat disc carried on the backs of four elephants astride a giant turtle floating through space, and that it is peopled by, among others, wizards, dwarves, soldiers, thieves, beggars, vampires and witches. Within the history of Discworld, there are many individual stories which can be enjoyed in any order. But reading them in the sequence in which they were written can increase your enjoyment through the accumulation of all the fine detail that contributes to the teeming imaginative complexity of this brilliantly conceived world.
Discworld consists of thirty-four primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Related series Discworld Mapps
Related series The Science of Discworld
Related series Discworld (for young readers)
Related series Discworld Reference
Related series Discworld (picture books)