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The Fifth Elephant is the fifth book in the Watch subseries of Discworld.  As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, my enjoyment of the Watch books has grown as the series has progressed.  With this book however, I wasn’t as entertained by it as I had been by the last couple.  I’m not sure if it was the book or if it was me, since I was traveling on business this week and I was surprisingly tired even though it wasn’t a particularly strenuous trip.  There were also a lot of distractions during the bulk of the time I spent reading it.

As with the last couple of Watch books, this is one of the more plot-driven Discworld books.  Vimes is sent on a “diplomatic” mission to Uberwald to attend a coronation but he ends up with a mystery to solve.  The plot was somewhat interesting, but not riveting.  The humor was there, but it didn’t often have me laughing out loud.  While the other characters all had their parts to play, Vimes had the largest role and maybe that’s part of the reason I didn’t enjoy it as much.  I usually think the other characters in this subseries are more entertaining.

So, all in all, I found this book to be pretty average.  I enjoyed it, but it probably isn’t one of the books I’ll look back on with any particular fondness.