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.
Pratchett is always at his best when the comedy is combined with a real sense of jeopardy that even favorite characters might be hurt if there was a good joke in it. As always, the most unlikely things crop up as the subjects of gags--Chekhov, grand opera, the Caine Mutiny--and as always there are remorselessly funny gags about the inevitability of story:
They say that the fifth elephant came screaming and trumpeting through the atmosphere of the young world all those years ago and landed hard enough to split continents and raise mountains.No one actually saw it land, which raised the interesting philosophical question: when millions of tons of angry elephant come spinning through the sky, and there is no one to hear it, does it--philosophically speaking--make a noise?
As for the dwarfs, whose legend it is, and who mine a lot deeper than other people, they say that there is a grain of truth in it.
All this, the usual guest appearances, and Gaspode the Wonder Dog. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk
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It's also true that while you can take Duke Vimes out of Ankh Morpork, you can't take the cop out of Sam Vimes, even by making him the ambassador to Uberwald. It's a little hard to relate the Sam Vimes of "Guards, Guards!" to the man here. Sam Vimes seems infected with Clint Eastwood, but the cynicism is still there.
More than any recent Terry Pratchett story, this one is a novel, with the comic bits fewer and the plot intensity ratcheted up to a new level. The Game isn't even slightly funny, and dwarves are much more complicated than the axe-swinging, quaffing half wits (sorry) we've seen in other books. There are amusing moments, but for the first time I think Terry has a plot carrying the story instead of gags strung together by a plot. If you compare it with the thin shards of a plot in "Color of Magic" and "Light Fantastic," you can see how far he has come.
I think some of the negative reviews - except for the accurate comments on the lamentably incompetent proofreading - are a result of his shift in focus.
This is a very good book. Not the funniest. Not the cleverest. But it's the closest thing there is likely to be to a "mainstream" Discworld () novel. I enjoyed it very much.
And when Sam Vimes heads to the plaza to confront Angua's brother, armed only with the leavings from the raided clacks tower, puffing on his cigar; well, you can practically see the dirty serape swirling in the wind.
Fetch.
I haven't read a lot of Pratchett, two books and a couple of short stories, but I wasn't overly impressed. Sure he's good (I particularly enjoyed his 'Troll Bridge' story) but I've always preferred Douglas Adams or Tom Holt. This book changes everything.
With 'The Fifth Elephant', Pratchett creates a comic masterpiece. He flawlessly weaves humor, both subtle and laugh-out-loud funny, into the framework of an engaging story.
City Watch overlord Sam Vimes travels into a dark and mysterious country to attend the coronation of a new Low King. He discovers that the dwarf's hallowed Stone of Scone has been stolen by unknown nefarious persons. Vimes strives, amidst interference from disingenuous vampires, bloodthirsty werewolves and loyal Igors, to find the sacred Stone.
If that's not enough, Pratchett throws in Fred Colon, Vimes temporary replacement on the Watch, panicking in his new authority. There's the traveling clerk with distinctly un-clerklike skills and the tangled love story between straight-arrow watchman Carrot and werewolf Angua.
After reading through reviews for recent Pratchett books I received the impression that they were steadily declining in quality. If so, this one is a major comeback. An excellent, excellent book. A recent magazine reviewer for F&SF calls this the best Discworld book in a long time. I'll go a step further and call this the best book I've read in months. Pratchett now holds a solid place on my must-read list.
Don't miss this one.
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