Pyramids: A Discworld Novel: 7

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Improvised Lightning Rod: Pteppicymon the Twenty-Eighth, last Pharaoh of Djelibeybi, climbs the malfunctioning Great Pyramid whose power has awoken several thousand deceased monarchs and allowed the gods to walk the earth. Using an Assassin throwing knife as a desperate lightning conductor, he earths the cosmic forces that have run rampant and allowed all this chaos to happen. He inhumes the full Set, as it were. He shrugged. It might be, for all he knew. “The point is, though, that everyone can do it. They’re very proud of it. Everyone has—” he hesitated again, certain now that things were amiss—“the vet. Except for women, of course. And children. And criminals. And slaves. And stupid people. And people of foreign extractions. And people disapproved of for, er, various reasons. And lost of other people. But everyone apart from them. It’s a very enlightened civilization.” Carpet-Rolled Corpse: Ptraci tries to emulate an ancient queen who'd used this method to smuggle herself into her lover's chambers. When she's unrolled she finds there's nothing romantic about lint, dizziness, or being dumped out on the floor. What stands out here is the amount of clever puns and twists on well-known stories from our world. The puns are not only used to explain phenomena on the Discworld but are even used as names of characters (like IIb which spells as "to be" and is the name of the eldest son of Ptaclusp, who is of course destined to become his father's successor - his younger brother is called IIa).

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, First Edition - AbeBooks Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, First Edition - AbeBooks

O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After being unflattened IIa shows no interest in the cost of the new bridges, which initially worries Ptaclusp. However, it turns out that he's just preoccupied with the royal finances. Teppic (short for Pteppicymon XXVIII), who left the kingdom to train at the Assassin's Guild of Ankh-Morpork as a boy, thus regarding himself more as Morporkian than Djelibeybian I think I may have enjoyed this one a bit more the second time around, but not enough to change my rating. :) Indeed, I had a lot more fun with all the quantum irregularities surrounding the Pyramids out in the boonies of Discworld. Executive Summary: Another good, but not great entry in the Discworld series. This one seems to read pretty much stand alone, though I think it would be best to have some knowledge of the series prior to this book. This is a blisteringly funny satire on religion, faith and loyalty taking place in the blisteringly hot desert of Discworld in the Old Kingdom of Djelibeybi (which is of course analogous to Egypt in our world).Running Gag: The statue of Hat, the Vulture-Headed God of Unexpected Guests. Ptaclusp got it as part of a job lot, but now he can't find anyone who wants it. The only person who seems to like it is Hat himself. Subverted when Teppic's father meets Death, and is confused because he does not look like a giant scarab. Apparently, Death used to look like whatever people expected the personification of death to look like, until it became too tiresome and he decided to settle for the " skeleton with a scythe" look. Pyramids uses a fairly straight forward structure. It's linear and focuses, mainly, on Teppic our main character. The paragraphs are nice and short in the main. It also includes the nice little footnotes that Pratchett uses in most of his works. All in all, a very easy book to read. Young Prince Teppic is sent far away from his desert homeland to the city of Ankh-Morpork for the best education money can buy. Which just so happens to be at the Assassins’ Guild.

Pyramids (Discworld. the Gods Collection) by Terry Pratchett Pyramids (Discworld. the Gods Collection) by Terry Pratchett

Riddle of the Sphinx: Spoofed. Teppic encounters a Sphinx who asks him this riddle. He's unable to answer, but protests that the metaphor is overly simplistic, forcing it to give a more accurate version covering all possibilities. Teppic answers this and walks off before the Sphinx remembers that it had already told him the answer. Obfuscating Stupidity: Every camel, everywhere on the Disc. Having long ago figured out that showing off your intelligence in any significant way leads to being asked to do things (admittedly, either being a lab rat or used to sink boats, like dolphins), they're quite content to be contentious and disagreeable if it means all they have to do is walk around and eat stuff while they ponder theoretical physics. Unfortunately, most British readers like this Troper read that as Her-She-Ba' (Queen of Sheba, Bathsheba, etc). It can also go over the heads of Americans, since the joke is based on a British tendency to pronounce an "r" sound on words ending in a vowel, hence, "Hershebar". Nepharious Pharaoh: Dios the High Priest — effectively the ruler of the kingdom, manipulating a succession of essentially benign but hopelessly confused Pharaohs for seven thousand years. Pratchett offers a subversion of this idea, suggesting that the pharaoh is essentially a powerless figurehead and real power resides elsewhere in an Ancient Egypt-like country.

Synopsis

Pyramids speaks to something of a bypass in Pratchett’s Discworld arrangement. The chief move makes put in the to this point new place that is known for Djelibeybi, situated in northern Klatch over the Circle Sea from Anhk-Morpork. This is a one of a kind domain of the Discworld, two miles wide and 150 miles in length. It is regularly alluded to as the Old Kingdom for a justifiable reason-it is very old, more than 7000 years of age truth be told. It is a betray arrive whose pharaohs are fixated on pyramid-building; other than bankrupting the nation, this fixation has additionally had the unanticipated outcome of keeping the nation immovably settled in previously. According to Ptraci, one of the sex postions of Alfonz's tattoos is from the 130 Days of Pseudopolis. This is a reference to Marquis de Sade's infamous novel, The 120 Days of Sodom. All Stories Are Real Somewhere: The narrator notes that this must be the case in an infinite universe. Snake Oil Salesman: Khuft, the founder of Djelibeybi ( sort of), turns out to have been a camel salesman who was forced to flee into the desert to avoid angry customers. Misplaced Sorrow: One of the surviving student assassins mourns the one who didn't make it, noting, "He still owed me money".

Pyramids - Sir Terry Pratchett

Young Prince Teppic is sent far away from his desert homeland to the city of Ankh-Morpork for the best education money can buy. Which just so happens to be at the Assassins' Guild. When I think about the Discworld series I instinctively want to give them all 5 stars, they (via Sir Pratchett) provide such a huge amount of entertainment, fire such delights of imagination and offer much food for thought on any number of subjects both Big and small and yet as I run through the audio books in an attempts to stem the flowing tide of flabby bits about my middle I find myself unable to truthfully say that every entry is worthy of that ultimate rating. Pyramids is one such title, it is a fabulously funny book, loaded with memorable moments, classic Pratchett characters and his trademark dismantling of every day absurdities in our own reality via his fantastical world, in this instance religion, and yet it doesn't quite cause me to explode with enthusiasm for it as Mort or Wyrd Sisters did previously and I expect Guards! Guards! to do next. Painting the Medium: One mummy who's been dead for a thousand years, King Ashk-ur-men-tep, talks exclusively in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe, and therefore says things like, "What you feel nowe is myld dislike." Grapes of Luxury: Defied. Teppic doesn't really approve of the practice, and even asks that the servants not peel the grapes because most of the vitamins are found in the skins. Character Tics: IIb has a habit of biting his wrist when he's nervous. After he burns his hand from touching his dimension-warped brother, he switches to biting his stylus instead.

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For those of you hoping to encounter one of your favorite Discworld characters, choose another book... unless you're happy with a minor guest appearance from Death. Pyramids is Sir Terry Pratchett’s 7th Discworld book and the Pratchett Smile-O-Meter is dancing happily as this is another fun ride with cool Uncle Terry. So this was close to a 5 star ⭐️ book, but topped out at 4.49 recurring, thus meaning due to the law of fractals and quantum, it rounds down to 4, well that’s all according to ”You Bastard” you understand 😂 As it always is with Pratchett, the "stuff" doesn't really matter. I can't point to a single part of this book and tell you why it's my favourite in the series, because I've forgotten all of the funny parts that made me laugh, because jokes are fleeting and of the moment. And yet it's those jokes that make me love this book above his others.