The Fifth Elephant

The Fifth Elephant continues the strong run of City Watch novels that came once Terry Pratchett perfected the concept. It's not as good as the novels on either side of it-- but given Jingo and Night Watch are my two favorites, that's nothing to sneer at. Like those two novels, Fifth Elephant takes Commander Vimes to his limits, as he's forced to play diplomat in the foreign land of Uberwald, but (of course) discovers a murderous conspiracy. He ends up on the run from a werewolf in the forest, forced to do anything he can to survive. The action scenes here are gripping and tense, as you know much this all means to Vimes as a person. Meanwhile, werewolf Sergeant Angua travels to Uberwald herself as part of a wolfpack, and her boyfriend show more Carrot follows here, and meanwhile meanwhile, "nature's sergeant" Colon goes mad with power when he becomes an officer.

Thematically, it's all quite tight: what is the difference between savagery and civilization? What separates the killing that Vimes and Angua must do from the killing that the werewolves of Uberwald carry out? Vimes marches right up to the line, but manages to not cross it by setting up circumstances that let him fairly kill someone. Like Jingo before it, it's at its best when it uses the genre of the police procedural to examine these issues of power and violence that suffuse the heroic fantasy-- and our own society. Vimes really is the best of us, and The Fifth Elephant shows why. Plus the stuff about Colon's going mad with power is hilarious. show less

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-fifth-elephant-by-terry-pratchett/

I have very happy memories of first reading this while bouncing around the hills and valleys of North Macedonia in 2001 during the conflict there, which actually made it rather appropriate reading; I wrote then:

"it is the story of a multiethnic diplomatic mission to a neighbouring, less developed country from the urban metropolis of Ankh-Morpork. As I met up with my Bulgarian, Romanian and American colleagues in Sofia, then proceeded to Skopje to rendezvous with our Greek, Turkish, Serb, Kosovar and Albanian comrades, before touring [North] Macedonia to find out what the hell was going on there, Pratchett’s satire took on a very hard edge for me. My Albanian show more colleague devoured the book on the day we travelled to Ohrid, though he confessed to some very understandable confusion about exactly who was a dwarf and who was not. Pratchett manages to give a gravely humorous treatment to some very serious themes."

I’m glad to say that I found it just as entertaining coming back to it a quarter-century later. Some of the puns are groan-worthy; some of the satire lands a bit better than other bits; but the core values of empathy and humanism (very much extending to the inhuman characters) are consistent, and there are some deep ideas about symbolism, community and identity. (Though there’s also a less successful sub-plot about the Watch falling to pieces in Ankh-Morpork while Vimes, Carrot and Angua are away in Uberwald.) Sure, these books are a formula; but it’s a good formula that can cope with varying the ingredients. show less

Very good! Top form Pratchett.

The Clacks are very cool, Uberwald is a great setting, and the werewolves and dwarves both had a lot of interesting stuff going on (and Lady Margoletta floating around too, of course). There were some really well-written scenes, like The Game, and Gaspode & Carrot’s journey. Still dislike Colon a lot but you’re supposed to this time, and I appreciate Nobby more now that he’s a union man.

Btw, I like Angua and Carrot’s relationship quite a bit, but I feel like I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop— and Angua seems to be waiting for it too. Either Carrot needs to fail at something, or Angua needs to accept she’s worthy of perfect love from him, I think. Not to overanalyze the relationship show more of two fictional characters. show less

Whenever Sybil has popped up in a book since Guards! Guards!, I've so wanted her to take on an active role and substantial presence: such a disappointment in Jingo. So I was delighted by the Lady Sybil action throughout The Fifth Elephant, and also the scenes involving Cheery Littlebottom (the subversively feminine dwarf who kind of started out as a joke about dwarf culture but turned into a full and compelling character through the magic of Pratchett). And the "nice little doggie" Gaspode is here, smelling terrible as always. I enjoyed this one a lot.

So this is diplomacy. It’s like lying, only to a better class of people.

More than most of the Guards series (or Discworld in general), [b:The Fifth Elephant|63720|The Fifth Elephant (Discworld, #24; City Watch, #5)|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327961702s/63720.jpg|819126] is driven by a strong plot rather than leaning on characters and jokes. It's actually a nice change from many of the other books, although I do like both styles.

This time around, The Patrician is sending Vimes and his wife off as ambassadors to Uberwald--land of Dwarves, werewolves, and vampires. In an overall reading, this would be just after [b:Carpe Jugulum|34541|Carpe Jugulum (Discworld #23; Witches #6)|Terry show more Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388895900s/34541.jpg|1494234], but since I'm reading series by series, it's been a while. Uberwald is still interesting though. And a nice contrast to the Ankh-Morpork of the last few books.

Mostly, it's a book about Vimes--who continues to be a wonderful combination of grumpy and overly straight forward; just the sort of 'ambassador' that makes the more traditional ambassadors nervous. We also get some interesting scenes with Angua going back to her werewolf family roots (in Uberwald) and Carrot dealing with the fallout of that.

There are a few interesting ideas in the book, mostly related to the nature of long lived things / traditions:

“You did something because it had always been done, and the explanation was, ‘But we’ve always done it this way.’ A million dead people can’t have been wrong, can they?”

And a more Discworld way of looking at the Ship of Theseus.

“This, milord, is my family's axe. We have owned it for almost nine hundred years, see. Of course, sometimes it needed a new blade. And sometimes it has required a new handle, new designs on the metalwork, a little refreshing of the ornamentation . . . but is this not the nine hundred-year-old axe of my family? And because it has changed gently over time, it is still a pretty good axe, y'know. Pretty good.”

It's definitely a different sort of book than the early Discworld books--much more serious and darker--and we're drawing to the end of the subseries (3 left: [b:Night Watch|47989|Night Watch (Discworld, #29; City Watch, #6)|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320518310s/47989.jpg|1712283], [b:Thud!|62530|Thud! (Discworld, #34; City Watch #7)|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320495268s/62530.jpg|819104], and [b:Snuff|8785374|Snuff (Discworld, #39; City Watch #8)|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1302694636s/8785374.jpg|13659124]). I'm curious where it will go next. show less

Part of why I like reading books that make up the series is how characters mature, and I'm pretty sure Sir Terry loved writing Sam Vimes. The dichotomy of being an embassador versus being commander of the watch was well played. Also some interesting side commentary on how the world changes, whether we want it to or not, how some cling to the old ways, and how these were at odds. My biggest criticism was that Carrot and Angua seemed to come across as rather impotent in this one, and for some reason that really bothered me.

The COMPETENCE OF THIS ONE. Everyone doing their best is just delightful... finally Sybil is at the height of her powers instead of just like quietly pining after her husband. Vimes being so bad at diplomacy that he's good at it actually. Angua doing her own damn thing and Carrot not being perfect. Just every part was kiss kiss kiss kiss. We love to see it. My one complaint is more Vetinari but we know how I am and where I'm at. Great job everyone, we love to see it. Also help, I'm running out of Watch books.