The Fifth Elephant

Terry Pratchett

This book is about fat mines, werewolves, and a petrified scone. It also happens to contain an enlightened discussion on gender identity and racial tensions. Also, it's really fucking funny.

This is Terry Pratchett to the core. If you've read any Pratchett, you don't need me to explain him to you. If you haven't, read some goddamn Pratchett. As a side note, I wouldn't recommend starting with this book. Instead, go with Going Postal, or The Wee Free Men.

There's really not much else I can say about this. In the words of Neil Gaiman, "any Terry Pratchett book is a small miracle". Get some of that in your life.

I would recommend this book to fantasy readers. People who aren't at least a little experienced in fantasy could very easily be put off by the fantastical elements and miss the core experience. And that would be a tragedy.

The Just City

Jo Walton

Sooooo, this book is about time traveling greek gods who pick up philosophers across time and send them back to atlantis so they can start Plato's Republic for real.

It's a weird book.

That said, it's handled fairly well. Socrates is really well written for the most part, although I have some issues with his final debate. Regardless.

It reads like a weird YA romance cum philosophical dialogue cum dystopic fantasy novel. That's not to say it's bad. It certainly isn't.  It's a good book for what it is. It just happens to be exceedingly odd.

I picked this up mostly because it was in the new section of the library, and because I'd read and enjoyed Jo Walton's exceedingly detailed reread/speculation collection on Patrick Rothfuss. 

That said, it was intriguing. I enjoyed reading it.  I have no idea who to recommend it to. If a philosophy major came up to me and said "What's a good fantasy book that might interest me?", I'd point them this way. But you really do have to be interested in philosophy to enjoy this book.

I will probably pick up another Jo Walton book if I see it and need something to read, based on my experience with this book. That's the best portrayal of my feelings on it that I can give.