Lords and Ladies (Discworld Series) » (Reprint)

A beloved British author who genre-jumps from humorous fantasy to science fiction to young adult books, Terry Pratchett is perhaps best known for his series of novels set in the fantastical setting of Discworld.

The fairies are back, but this time they don’t just want your teeth . . . Granny Weatherwax and her tiny coven are up against real elves. There’s a full supporting cast of dwarfs, wizards, trolls, Morris dancers and one orangutan. It’s Midsummer Night — no time for dreaming. And lots of hey-nonny-nonny and blood all over the place.

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This particularly excellent example of Pratchett's Discworld tales tackles the subject of elves. These elves present the image of being cute only to deceive humans. In fact, they are about as agreeable as Hitler's SS. So when a bunch of them decides to crash an entire human kingdom and all its activities, problems arise. The solution is Granny Weatherwax and the witches she leads, who are not exactly nice people, either, exhibiting, as they do, positive glee in slaughtering elves. When applied to as large a body count as this novel affords, Pratchett's light tone is a little unsettling, but otherwise the book is a superior example of Pratchett's inimitable, seemingly endlessly fertile wit. Discworld's loyal readers are beginning to constitute as doughty a band as Xanth's, and all fantasy collections should provide for them accordingly.