Click on image to enlarge.
|
Carpe Jugulum [Discworld #23] [Secure]
eBook by Terry Pratchett
| |
Regular |
|
 |
|
Club |
| You Pay: |
$11.99 |
|
|
|
$10.19 |
eBook Category: Fantasy
eBook Description: It is rare and splendid event when an author is elevated from the underground into the international literary establishment. In the case of England's best-known and best-loved modern satirist, that event has been long overdue. Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent Discworld novels satirize and celebrate every aspect of life, modern and ancient, sacred and profane. Consistent number-one bestsellers in England, they have garnered him a secure position in the pantheon of humor along with Mark Twain, Douglas Adams, Matt Groening, and Jonathan Swift. Even so distinguished an author as A. S. Byatt has sung his praises, calling Pratchett's intricate and delightful fictional Discworld "more complicated and satisfying than Oz." His latest satiric triumph, Carpe Jugulum, involves an exclusive royal snafu that leads to comic mayhem. In a fit of enlightenment democracy and ebullient goodwill, King Verence invites Uberwald's undead, the Magpyrs, into Lancre to celebrate the birth of his daughter. But once ensconced within the castle, these wine-drinking, garlic-eating, sun-loving modern vampires have no intention of leaving. Ever. Only an uneasy alliance between a nervous young priest and the argumentative local witches can save the country from being taken over by people with a cultivated bloodlust and bad taste in silk waistcoats. For them, there's only one way to fight. Go for the throat, or as the vampyres themselves say ... Carpe Jugulum
eBook Publisher: Harper Collins, Inc./HarperCollins e-books, Published: 2007
Fictionwise Release Date: September 2007
This eBook is part of the following series:
19 Reader Ratings:
Available eBook Formats [Secure - What's this?]: SECURE MOBIPOCKET FORMAT [271 KB], SECURE MICROSOFT READER FORMAT [351 KB] - Requires Microsoft Reader 2.1.1 for PCs, or Microsoft Reader 2.2.2 on Pocket PC 2002 handheld devices. Some older Pocket PCs can be upgraded. Learn More., SECURE EREADER (RECOMMENDED) FORMAT [266 KB], SECURE ADOBE PDF FORMAT [1.7 MB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [566 KB]
All formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
Microsoft Reader ISBN: 9780061496370
Adobe Reader ISBN: 9780061496363
Mobipocket Reader ISBN: 9780061496356
eReader ISBN: 9780061496387
GEOGRAPHIC RESTRICTIONS: Available to customers in: US What's this?
 
Chapter 1 Through the shredded black clouds a fire moved like a dying star, falling back to earth— —the earth, that is, of the Discworld— —but unlike any star had ever done before, it sometimes managed to steer its fall, sometimes rising, sometimes twisting, but inevitably heading down. Snow glowed briefly on the mountain slopes when it crackled overhead. Under it, the land itself started to fall away. The fire was reflected off walls of blue ice as the light dropped into the beginnings of a canyon and thundered now through its twists and turns. The light snapped off. Something still glided down the moonlit ribbon between the rocks. It shot out of the canyon at the top of a cliff, where meltwater from a glacier plunged down into a distant pool. Against all reason there was a valley here, or a network of valleys, clinging to the edge of the mountains before the long fall to the plains. A small lake gleamed in the warmer air. There were forests. There were tiny fields, like a patchwork quilt thrown across the rocks. The wind had died. The air was warmer. The shadow began to circle. Far below, unheeded and unheeding, something else was entering this little handful of valleys. It was hard to see exactly what it was; furze rippled, heather rustled, as if a very large army made of very small creatures was moving with one purpose. The shadow reached a flat rock that offered a magnificent view of the fields and wood below, and there the army came out from among the roots. It was made up of very small blue men, some wearing pointy blue caps but most of them with their red hair uncovered. They carried swords. None of them was more than six inches high. They lined up and looked down into the new place and then, weapons waving, raised a battle cry. It would have been more impressive if they'd all agreed on one before, but as it was it sounded as though every single small warrior had a battle cry of his very own and would fight anyone who tried to take it away from him. "Nac mac Feegle!" "Ach, stickit yer trakkans!" "Gie you sich a kickin'!" "Bigjobs!" "Dere c'n onlie be whin t'ousand!" "Nac mac Feegle wha hae!" "Wha hae yersel, ya boggin!" * * * The little cup of valleys, glowing in the last shreds of evening sunlight, was the kingdom of Lancre. From its highest points, people said, you could see all the way to the rim of the world. Copyright © 1998 by Terry Pratchett.
|
)
