Challenge

The Books

The Fifth Elephant Terry Pratchett Number: 01 Start: 01 January 2004 Finish: 04 January 2004

Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk Amazon.ca Barnes & Noble

As with many Terry Pratchett books, I found this one a bit hard to get started into, and then off it went like a whirlwind. The plots are always so convoluted and outright clever that it takes me a little while to begin to unravel them, and this author usually stays a step ahead of me (I can't guess whodunnit as well as I can with movies).

There were some very nice character developments; Cheery the Dwarf, Sybil and Vimes especially. I'm very fond of Detritus and his dead-pan humour. Particularly delighted to find out the news about Sybil (I look forward to reading about it in other books, even if I don't know which ones they are yet). And, of course, the standard mix of clever humour and sharp observations, and a bit more about what makes dwarves tick.

Michael Moorcock has written a lot of books, most of which seem to take part in different aspects of the same world - he has built up an entire mythology and several series around the concept of the "eternal champion" - a hapless being who, in lots of different forms, goes through his personal tragedies in the "planes" - worlds within worlds within worlds.

Corum, the Prince in the Scarlet Robe, is my favourite. In face, the second in the series, "Queen of the Swords", was the first adult fantasy book I ever bought, with stickers saved up in the book-buying scheme at school. (You bought a sticker and it went in a little scorecard and when you got enough you could buy a book.) I was probably twelve years old.

An elf-like being, Corum's people, the Vadhagh, are brutally hunted down and slain by "upstart man". He himself is caught and maimed, losing an eye and a hand. In his quest for revenge he finds a wife (Rhalina) and a sorcerer who gives him a hand and eye that once belonged to a god...with unpredictable results. Corum, once a gentle fellow, becomes dark and brooding.

He seeks out the Prince of the Swords, but if I told you why it would be the end of the plot.

For such a short novel (176 pages in my edition), there is a lot of darkness and cruelty, a lot of really quite sick stuff. This would make a good horror movie. It's also "high fantasy", which means that the maidens faint, but are also oddly strong; the characters are really only sketched out, and it actually feels a bit like reading a mythology rather than a novel. I like this style, with its simple but rich wording, but it's a long way from more popular modern authors like Feist and Eddings.

Top

---

Annwn Home : Books and Book Crossing
Read 50 Challenge

This page created 27 Dec 2003
Last update 07 Jan 2004
© 2003-2007 White Raven

The Wild Wyrd World

Annwn, the Wild Wyrd Web Site
Affordable Astrology Reports
Raven's Roads: Travels, Motorcycles and Writing
Markeroni, the Gentle Art of Landmark-Snarfing