Holy cow this book is good.
Set in the kingdom of Lancre on Terry Pratchett's Discworld, "Lords and Ladies" is the story of an encounter with elves that you will not easily forget.
These are elves as they were written about in old stories, before poets tamed them: glamorous in appearance, enticing, and absolutely sans pitie. Forget the beneficience of Elrond in plotting the destruction of the One Ring, the eager but bumbling helpfulness of Dobby, or the mercurial elves of Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" horror series. These elves are glamorous and cold, and utterly indifferent to the plight of others, much as a cat is indifferent to the plight of the mouse it chases. They are as indifferent as the waning moon.
As Pratchett writes: "Elves were very good at keeping things alive. Sometimes for weeks at a time, if they wanted."
In "Lords and Ladies," the elves are returning to the kingdom of Lancet after an absence of several hundred years, an absence foisted upon them by the order of witches, whose numbers in the kingdom have now dwindled to a mere three, while most people have forgotten the old stories of the terror of the elves and the wild hunt, and have been beguiled by the glamour of the elves and the promise of all their dreams come true. (Though I like what Granny Weatherwax says: "What you promise is worth nothing, and what you take in payment for it is everything.")
This is the third novel by Pratchett that I've read. The first was "Good Omens," written with Neil Gaiman; and the second was "Small Gods," another of his Discworld novels. I can honestly say that "Lords and Ladies" was so good that there will soon be more Pratchett novels in my repertoire.
Set in the kingdom of Lancre on Terry Pratchett's Discworld, "Lords and Ladies" is the story of an encounter with elves that you will not easily forget.
These are elves as they were written about in old stories, before poets tamed them: glamorous in appearance, enticing, and absolutely sans pitie. Forget the beneficience of Elrond in plotting the destruction of the One Ring, the eager but bumbling helpfulness of Dobby, or the mercurial elves of Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" horror series. These elves are glamorous and cold, and utterly indifferent to the plight of others, much as a cat is indifferent to the plight of the mouse it chases. They are as indifferent as the waning moon.
As Pratchett writes: "Elves were very good at keeping things alive. Sometimes for weeks at a time, if they wanted."
In "Lords and Ladies," the elves are returning to the kingdom of Lancet after an absence of several hundred years, an absence foisted upon them by the order of witches, whose numbers in the kingdom have now dwindled to a mere three, while most people have forgotten the old stories of the terror of the elves and the wild hunt, and have been beguiled by the glamour of the elves and the promise of all their dreams come true. (Though I like what Granny Weatherwax says: "What you promise is worth nothing, and what you take in payment for it is everything.")
This is the third novel by Pratchett that I've read. The first was "Good Omens," written with Neil Gaiman; and the second was "Small Gods," another of his Discworld novels. I can honestly say that "Lords and Ladies" was so good that there will soon be more Pratchett novels in my repertoire.
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