Another wild romp through Discworld! Corporal Carrot, a young dwarf, is newly in charge of the recruits guarding Ankh-Morpork. Edward, the 37th Lord d'Eath, has just discovered that Ankh-Morpork, kingless for generations, has a sovereign ruler, who must be convinced that he is, in fact, the King. The fate of Ankh-Morpork rides on a young man's courage, an ancient sword's magic and a three-legged poodle's bladder.

Carpe Jugulum is the 23rd Discworld novel, and with it this durable series continues its juggernaut procession onwards. Pratchett is an author who inspires such devotions that his fans will fall on the novel with cries of joy. Non-fans, perhaps, will want to know what all the fuss is about; and that's something difficult to put into a few words. The best thing to do for those completely new to Pratchett is to sample him for themselves, and this novel is as good a place to start as any. But fans have a more precise question. They know that Discworld novels come in one of two varieties: the quite good, and the brilliant. So, for instance, where Hogfather and Maskerade were quite good, Feet of Clay and Jingo were brilliant. While true fans wouldn't want to do without the former, they absolutely live for the latter. And with Carpe Jugulum Pratchett has hit jackpot again. This novel is one of the brilliant ones. [+]

When Masklin and his tribe from the Outside first ventured into the world of Arnold Bros (est 1905) they heroically saved the nomes under the floorboards from certain death. But Masklin also made a discovery that was to change his life-Thing, the little black box he carried as a talisman, could speak and was ,in fact, awfully clever. So Masklin has no reason to doubt that Thing is telling the Truth when it speaks of a Ship which will take the nomes Home to their place in the Stars, and begins to seek a way of returning the nome race to its rightful place in the Universe. And if that means stealing Concorde, then so be it. Pratchett does it again in this sublimely silly follow up to Truckers and Diggers, forcing the reader to gag on each giggle as this divine, ridiculously mad fantasy trilogy hurtles to its conclusion. -Susan Harrison.

Terry Pratchett has a seemingly endless capacity for generating inventively comic novels about the Discworld and its inhabitants but there is in the hearts of most of his admirers a particular place for those novels which feature the hard-bitten captain of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch Samuel Vimes. Sent as ambassador to the Northern principality of Uberwald where they mine gold, and iron and fat, but never silver, he is caught up in an uneasy truce between dwarfs, werewolves and vampires, in the theft of the Scone of Stone (a particularly important piece of dwarf bread) and in the old werewolf custom of giving humans a short start in the hunt and then cheating. Pratchett is always at his best when the comedy is mixed with a real sense of jeopardy that even favourite 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. [+]

In Feet of Clay, Terry Pratchett continues the fantasy adventures on Discworld-where anything goes. Anything but murder, that is. Commander Vimes of the Watch must investigate a puzzling series of deaths, with help from various trolls and dwarfs. Pratchett's humour and excellent writing skills draw the reader effortlessly into his zany world. Feet of Clay is 19th in the series. -Blaise Selby.

The nomes are tiny little people who, up until now, lived happily beneath the floorboards of Arnold Bros (est 1905) department store. But their tiny, comfortable little world is shattered when they discover that the store is to be demolished and they have to find away of getting to The Outside-a mystical place they never really believed in until a small tribe of Outsiders, led by the intrepid Masklin, infiltrated Arnold Bros (est 1905). The only escape route is via one of the huge trucks that Humans use to deliver goods-but first the nomes all have to be educated by the Sationari, and to do that the bickering between departments simply has to stop. The plot, the characters, and the sheer delicious irony of Pratchett's writing help to make this off- beat and absolutely hilarious fantasy adventure story into an absolute classic that has to be read to be believed. -Susan Harrison.