Interesting Times — Terry Pratchett

"May you live in interesting times."
--Ancient Curse

When a carrier albatross arrives with an Urgent Request for a "Great Wizard," Rincewind finds himself summoned to the endangered Empire of Hong, Sung, Fang, Tang, and McSweeney, where a new Emperor is about to be chosen.

Accompanying Rincewind is Cohen the Barbarian, as well as an ant farm-powered computer named Hex, a fractal weather-making butterfly with mandelbrot wings, and a ferocious, if slow-moving army of six old men, the Silver Horde. Their mission is to either defend or destroy the Forbidden City of Hunghung. The problem is, the instructions are not entirely clear....