Pyramids (1989)

I read this book for one of the LT reading challenges after buying it a few years back. It started as a lunchtime reading book but quickly fell into the "read it all at once" category. And I'm glad it did; the flow went much more smoothly and the humor became much more fun in its subtlety.

It's light, humorous, and contains a hapless young man who goes away for schooling (like, serious schooling) as an assassin. He learns about things like plumbing which are unknown in his long, narrow kingdom of Djelibeybi (say it out loud and you'll get the pun). When his father dies and he inherits the throne, all his schooling needs to get chucked out the window in favor of his new duties, or does it?

Fortunately for Teppic, he is just hapless enough that the serious priest who has taken care of the family rituals for far too long don't take him seriously enough. And his father finds that he really, really doesn't want to be buried under tons of rock. After all, when one's kingdom is a long, narrow spit of land with limited farmland, the locations for a new pyramid are limited. Conflicts ensue, new characters are introduced, camels are found witty, and war is averted. And time changes, and it is a fun, easy romp in the world of Discs. ( )

While I was disappointed in my reread of [b: Wyrd Sisters|233664|Wyrd Sisters The Play|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388363090s/233664.jpg|17589683] [b: Pyramids|64217|Pyramids (Discworld, #7)|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439098306s/64217.jpg|968512] pleasantly surprised me. I remembered not entirely enjoying the book the first time I read it, but this time it had me laughing out loud on several occasions. It had been long enough that I'd forgotten the bulk of the plot and characters, so everything came as a fresh and pleasant surprise. I think reading about Egypt over the years helped my enjoyment of this book a fair bit - as did reading [b: American Gods|30165203|American Gods (American Gods, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1492065360s/30165203.jpg|1970226]. We all get our ideas somewhere.

Teppic is due to be the latest King of a small, somewhat pointless Kingdom, long in debt to everyone due to their obsessive building of pyramids. He's drawn back home after passing his Assassin's Guild exam due to the death of his father, and after being convinced by the high priest that his father deserves the largest pyramid of all time, things begin to go wonky. Just why are they building pyramids? Are the gods real? Isn't there something funny about camels?

This book succeeded where [b: Wyrd Sisters|233664|Wyrd Sisters The Play|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388363090s/233664.jpg|17589683] failed for me by dint of having a more original plot. The humor didn't all latch upon literary references or tropes, but rather more upon history itself and the ridiculousness of certain customs. The humor veered slightly away from the strictly puerile, the characters felt original, and anyone who's ever been around a camel would understand how right about them Sir Terry truly was.

Very fun read. ( )

Not my very favorite Pratchett, but still so. Much. Fun. ( )

Teppic is a student in the Assassin’s Guild who comes from the Old Kingdom, very similar to Ancient Egypt in our world. When his father dies and he returns to his homeland, he wants to bring modernity to the land. He finds himself thwarted by the High Priest Dios, who is very adamant on keeping to the old traditions. One such tradition is building pyramids for dead kings. Funny thing about pyramids though: they sort of store up time, which is why the Old Kingdom always seems stuck in the past. In a very real sense it is in the past. Dios and Teppic have the largest pyramid ever built for the dead king and, well, it causes some problems with the space-time continuum. It’s up to Teppic, a handmaiden named Ptraci, and the dead king (who finds himself resurrected, sort of) to sort out the mess before the Old Kingdom gets destroyed by its own gods.
Pratchett’s writing is full of humor and commentary on tradition vs. progress. He utilizes footnotes like no other author I know and is sure to make the reader laugh. This is the 7th book in Pratchett’s Discworld series. Don’t let that discourage you from reading it though. You don’t need to have read any of the previous books to read this one (though, of course, I recommend the whole series, as it’s one of my favorites). ( )

The Discworld meets Ancient Egypt. And Geometry. Sort of.

This is the first book in the chronological order of the series that I've given five stars to, and it just doesn't seem to get old no matter how many times I reread it (don't rely on my goodreads count -- that only dates from when I started to keep track). ( )