Pyramids (Discworld. the Gods Collection)

by Terry Pratchett

Paper Book, 2014

Status

Available

Call number

PR6066.R34

Publication

Hachette (2014)

Description

It's bad enough being new on the job, but Teppic hasn't a clue as to what a pharaoh is supposed to do. After all, he's been trained at Ankh-Morpork's famed assassins' school, across the sea from the Kingdom of the Sun.First, there's the monumental task of building a suitable resting place for Dad -- a pyramid to end all pyramids. Then there are the myriad administrative duties, such as dealing with mad priests, sacred crocodiles, and marching mummies. And to top it all off, the adolescent pharaoh discovers deceit, betrayal -- not to mention aheadstrong handmaiden -- at the heart of his realm.

User reviews

LibraryThing member lauriebrown54
In ‘Pyramids’, master storyteller and satirist takes on the funeral industry, philosophy, and more. Teppic, heir to the throne of Djelibeybi (which bears more than a passing resemblance to ancient Egypt), has just passed his final exam to become a member of the assassin’s guild in
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Ankh-Morpork when his father dies in a bit of madness. He returns home to take on his responsibility, for which he is totally unprepared. Even though he is king and considered a god, he finds he has no say in anything at all; because of the high priest, his is merely a ceremonial position. The story is no mere court intrigue, though; the Djelibeybian custom of building a bigger, more impressive pyramid for each kingly generation’s resting spot creates havoc when the new pyramid proves to be so large that it creates a warp in space and time. Teppic, with the aid of a handmaid and Discworld’s greatest mathematician (a camel named You Bastard) must put things to rights before Djelibeybi is destroyed by gods who have suddenly manifested on the physical realm and before war breaks out between the countries on either side of where Djelibeybi used to be.

While certainly amusing (the assassin’s final exam is particularly good), this isn’t one of Pratchett’s stronger stories. It’s disjointed and a lot of things happen that don’t advance the story- the gods becoming physical and apparently witless being one of the worst. The characters aren’t as vivid as in most Pratchett stories. Teppic and Ptraci are likable but not compelling. The best characters are the dead king and Dios, the power mad high priest who turns out to be motivated by good. But still, a not so great story by Terry Pratchett is better than a lot of some authors best stories, so it’s certainly worth the read.
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LibraryThing member Aldrea_Alien
Having had a big interest in ancient egyptian mythology and religion, I found this to be a wonderful laugh at it all.
I was disappointed to find that Teppic doesn't show up in any other novels as he really is a hoot to read about and You Bastard was an unexpected character I just had to love,
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despite his math-thinking ways.

I'll never look at camels the same again.
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LibraryThing member SunnySD
Assassins, ancient priests, giant crocodiles and math... a combination like no other - worth reading for You Bastard, and the tortoises, if nothing else.
LibraryThing member Dabble58
Terry Pratchett is/was astonishing. I’ve loved all his Discworld novels since I first heard about them- at least the ones I’ve read.
Foolishly I’ve missed a few. This must change. I’ve just read the inimitable “Pyramids”, a romp through the Assassin’s guild, to a suspiciously
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Egypt-like country, to math contemplating camels to warping of time and space. Every page made me laugh or be astonished. Every page made me miss my father, who for some unexplained reason in the 1970’s got interested in Pyramid Power and constructed pyramids to see if they would keep cheese fresh. He would have laughed heartily through this book, delighted in Pratchett’s clever footnotes and turns of phrase, quoted bits of it at the dinner table, if only he’d had the chance.
This one of the Discworld novels is so much fun. One to start with if you are uncertain if you’d like them (silly person), as it stands alone (though links).
Enjoy.
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LibraryThing member symcbean
I've enjoyed all the Discworlds books I've read, this does not disappoint. Great light reading.
LibraryThing member bastet
Hilarity. Pratchett is one of the most brilliant humorists around, and this time he has great fun with the ancients.
LibraryThing member melannen
One of the better of the early discworld novels, this is the stand-alond story of Teppic of Djelibeybi and what happened when he ascended to the throne. Like most of the early books, it depends much more on parodying of specific tropes (in this case, school stories, and pop culture's Ancient Egypt)
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than it does Life in General, but it's a fun, light fantasy story with engaging characters and interesting concepts. I particularly enjoyed the way that our hero and heroine, Teppic and Ptraci, settled their relationship in the end.
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LibraryThing member jnicholson
When Teppic's father dies the night he graduates from the Assassins Guild, he returns to the old kingdom to make some big changes. Unfortunately, the old kingdom is determined to stay old. This is one of Terry's best works, with entirely new characters and some interesting background on Ephebe and
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Tsort.
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LibraryThing member eddy79
Standard Discworld fayre, this a standalone tale (i.e. not connected to the Witches, Death, the Watch, etc) and is a nice change of pace for the series, a chance to see other parts of the world. though some of the later description isn't particularly clear to this reader (I may have been really
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tired!), it is still a good read
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LibraryThing member comfypants
The seventh Discworld book. It has entirely new characters (except for a brief cameo by Death, of course), none of whom I found particularly great. And judging by a glance a Wikipedia, none of them return later, so I might suggest skipping this one. But I won't suggest that, because it's reasonably
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funny. It's not hilarious - I find Pratchett's best humor is when it comes from funny characters rather than from jokes or parody - but it's reasonably funny. I'm a little disappointed that so far most of the Discworld series all basically have a variation on the same plot. The form the variation takes in this one is fairly clever, though.
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LibraryThing member rakerman
Some amusing physics stuff, as I recall.
LibraryThing member love2laf
Discworld is always enjoyable, and the 7th in the series always makes me laugh. Pyraid builders, embalmers, quantum math, camels as mathematicians,and the assassin's guild. Plenty of puns, and best of all a dinner of philosphers.
LibraryThing member verenka
One of the early Discworld novels. It's a standalone novel, set, as the name suggests in the Discworld version of Egypt. I liked the book's beginning, especially the part about the Assassins Guild very much. Towards the end my concentration wandered a bit and I didn't care for a Happy End all that
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much.
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LibraryThing member shavienda
This is the first discworld I didn't completely enjoy from start to finish. It started to lose me near the end of the novel, and I found myself wishing that it would just END already. I think it's time for a break from discworld novels.
LibraryThing member shavienda
This is the first discworld I didn't completely enjoy from start to finish. It started to lose me near the end of the novel, and I found myself wishing that it would just END already. I think it's time for a break from discworld novels.
LibraryThing member polarbear123
Wyrd Sisters was good stuff but not Pratchett's best. 'Pyramids' sees Pratchett back to his best. The humour is great and the storyline is gripping from start to finish. There is so much in this novel to get your teeth into. Keeping me coming back for more no doubt.
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
I think this is the only book in which the main characters don't reappear anywhwere in the series. Not a bad plot and some decent humour, but not up to the standards of the later Discworld books.
LibraryThing member mjmorrison1971
It has quite a few good bits in it including You Bastard the camel, but not I felt, Terry Pratchett at his best. I did finish the book but I am not sure I cared what happened to the main characters, though I hope that a mathematical camel makes an appearance somewhere else in the series.
LibraryThing member helver
Teppic is a marginal assassin who is also the King of a skinny kingdom that time has apparently forgotten. Well, not so much forgotten and more like "over which time's influence has been impeded." Teppic's kingdom is the Discworld equivalent of Egypt - which means that it's got all the basic stuff
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(pyramids, river, pharaohs, priests, silly walks, dancing girls) but too an extreme that makes it not like Egypt.

It turns out that in Discworld, Jim Croce would not have trapped time in a bottle, but in a pyramid. The shape of the pyramid and the cosmic ratios included in the construction of a proper pyramid end up bottling up time. Through the history of Teppic's kingdom, the pyramids built to provide a final resting place of the kings have ended up bottling just enough time to create a null-time zone inside the pyramids. So aside from the mummies being terribly bored, everything is fine until Teppic (under advise from his Grand Vizier) spec the construction of the largest pyramid ever built, which ends up doing all kinds of nasty things like shifting the kingdom into a right-angle dimension, loosing an entire mythos of gods and creating a time loop.

And being the King, it's up to Teppic to banish the gods, return the normal flow of time, free the mummies, save the girl, make the sun rise, avert a war, ride a camel and try not to die. It's good to be the king.
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LibraryThing member ngeunit1
This is the 7th Discworld novel and the first in the small "Ancient Civilizations" storyline (kinda a one-off compared to the rest). The book tells the story of the Discworld's Egyptian like civilization, that continue to exist in "modern" times. The interesting comparison between the rest of the
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world and how they live is shown very clearly through the eyes of our protagonist Teppic. He trains in the major city of Ankh-Morpork to become an assassin by trade only to return back to his home town of Djelibeybi, where he must take over as ruler after his father dies.

It is quickly shown that the pyramids in the area have mystical powers utilized for their creation, but when these get out of hand, some strange events begin to occur. It becomes Teppic's job to try and fix the city of Djelibeybi back to "normal."

This is a very fun Discworld novel and is a bit more offbeat than the rest. It stays fun and interesting and a bit of different perspective. There are some really fun puns and wordplay, alongside the normal great Pratchett humor and satire throughout.
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LibraryThing member SimoneA
I really liked this satire on religion/ancient Egypt. I wouldn't mind seeing some of these characters back in the series.
LibraryThing member Caitak
Really enjoyed this one - probably more than last time because I wasn't trying to read it on a rocky ferry! ;-)

Liked the way that it all came together in the end and the fact it was mostly set outside Ankh-Morpork.

As usual, the names were great - Ptraci and Autocue. ^_^

The ending was clever - kind
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of taken everything back to the beginning so Dios is stuck in a loop.
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LibraryThing member Semioticghosts
enjoyed this, especially all the mathsy in-jokes!
LibraryThing member Alan_Dawson
This is the seventh book in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I did enjoy the book, but found it a harder read over the earlier books. Teppic was a good character and so were the King and Dios, but i still found it hard going in places, as it leapt into wild action then dropped to a simple
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stroll. Maybe this was the effect Terry required from the book, but all said and done, i still enjoyed the book and characters. :)
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LibraryThing member fiverivers
Must say I'm enjoying the journey through Terry Pratchett's witty, weird mind. An almost entirely new cast of characters in this installment of Discworld, very human, ordinary folk who are thrown into extraordinary situations. The result is a funny, madcap spoof of ancient Egypt, legendary
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assassins, new age occult beliefs and pseudo-sciences, and, well, pyramid power. I swear I heard Baldric (Tony Robertson of Black Adder fame)in there from time to time.

Despite the madcap, unpredictable quality of Pratchett's books, there is a sharply intelligent mind there and if you're not paying attention whole strings of references zoom by, never to be caught.
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Awards

British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 1989)
Prix Ozone (1997)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1989-06

Physical description

7.95 inches

ISBN

1473200148 / 9781473200142
Page: 0.7331 seconds