The problem arose when the previous king decided that he wanted his son to have a good education, and normally that would simply mean being taught by the priest, specifically Dios. Instead the king sent his son, the protagonist of the piece, to the Assassin's Guild in Ankh-Morpork. As it turns out, the Assassin's Guild actually provides probably the best well rounded education on Discworld, and the comments about the assassins are actually quite good as well. An assassin does not murder for any other reason than money, and it is not that life is cheap, on the contrary, it is actually very expensive, especially if you get an assassin to kill somebody. Fun with Foreign Languages: Djelibeybi (of course) uses hieroglyphs, which Teppic pronounces out loud as "eagle, squiggle" and so on. Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth I find this one of the funniest early works, showing that Pratchett trained his muscles enough and is coming closer and closer to ingenuity and unique telling talent. From now on, each book is a total must read, except of the later ones which turn dark and are sometimes so different that it may be difficult to find traces of Pratchetts´early, lighthearted, exceptionally funny, writing in them. And I don´t mean a bit sad or something, I mean depressingly and frustratingly showing the darkest sides of humankind in pictures ineradicable out of the readers´ mind.

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

Villainous BSoD: Dios has one once his set in stone routine is irrevocably ruined, and is left with no idea what he's supposed to do next. Improbable Aiming Skills: The narration describes camels as the world's greatest mathematicians, whose innate grasp of complex trigonometry is used solely to spit at people with uncanny accuracy. You Bastard spends most of his time in Ephebe hitting seagulls out of the air with olive stones. Necesitaba un libro que no perteneciese a ninguna saga ni fuese demasiado difícil de leer. Después de mucho pensarlo, me acordé de la “Piromides” de Terry Prachett. Sí, es cierto Prachett es un autor que puede leerse de tres maneras: siguiendo un orden cronológico, comenzando por el primer libro “El color de la magia- La luz Fantastica-ritos iguales…etc”; una segunda que es por la que opto yo por sagas “Brujas, magos, guardias, muerte…; y finalmente una tercera que es leer los libros en el orden que quieras porque no hay riesgo de spoiler.Drunken Song: Teppic and his friends get drunk after passing the exam, and end up singing "A Wizard's Staff Has a Knob on the End". Rambling Old Man Monologue: While in Tsort, Pteppic attends a symposium with the so-called greatest storyteller on the Disc. Sadly, he's clearly past his prime, and the story comes out like this, with the guy scarcely able to remember any of the details. Jerkass Has a Point: Dios is entirely correct when he tears a strip off Teppic for his ignorance when he innocently shook the hand of a stone-mason - there's a taboo on touching the royal person in Djelibeybi, meaning that the part that touched the monarch has to come off. When Teppic protests, horrified, that he's not going to sanction this, no matter how humane the process (complete with anaesthetic and a sharp blade), Dios points out that if it wasn't for the man's colleagues, he'd have removed it with a chisel. Teppic reluctantly concedes and instead ensures that the man has a job around the palace afterwards. In this story we travel to the kingdom of Djelibeybi (pronounced Jellybaby) which sits on the river Djel. It is very clear that this kingdom is based on Ancient Egypt, and it is nestled between the nations of Tsort and Ephebe (which is supposed to be Greece, right down to their drunken symposiums). The thing about Djelibeybi is that it is a kingdom where tradition rules, to the point that it is impossible for the king to actually break with tradition. However, the king is not actually the ruler but rather the priests, and in particular the priest Dios.

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett : r/Fantasy - Reddit Book Review: Pyramids by Terry Pratchett : r/Fantasy - Reddit

Amphibian at Large: Djelibeybi is so impoverished they couldn't even manage a plague of frogs, merely a plague of frog. It was, however, a particularly big frog, and it got into the air ducts and kept everyone awake for weeks.Dramatic Sit-Down: Dios the High Priest is so nonplussed to find that Ptraci isn't actually hiding where he was sure she was after doing a dramatic "Ah-HAH!" reveal that he sits down on a chair which happened to contain a model ship for the king's tomb. The ghost of the king notes that it's the first time he's ever seen Dios do anything comical. Later on he also has to sit down on the temple steps when the entire pantheon is coming to life. There are over 40 books in the Discworld series, of which four are written for children. The first of these, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, won the Carnegie Medal. The line is one of Pratchett's trademark puns because the Sergeant is speaking to the young soldier named Autocue. Autocue is a British term for a teleprompter (the name of the company that manufactured it). So the lines in this section reflect that connection. Autocue is told to ‘run like the wind. Although I don't expect you'll need telling’. Then he is told to ‘ tell’ the Ephebians. He replies, ‘ Tell them what?’ to which the sergeant responds, ‘Go and tell them what kept you.’ Pratchett, as he often does, overplays the pun to make sure the reader doesn't miss it.

Pyramids | Discworld Wiki | Fandom Pyramids | Discworld Wiki | Fandom

The relationship between Dios and Teppic is a shout-out to the British comedy of government, Yes, Minister, with Dios playing the Sir Humphrey Appleby role of senior civil servant effortlessly running rings round an enthusiastic but clueless Minister. Dios even says "I am but a humble servant..."It was also rather funny seeing a "handmaid" who'd never "serviced" a king and an "assassin" who'd never killed anyone fumble around their conversations with one another. Prince Teppic is the heir to the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi*. His father, a non-traditional man with odd ideas, decides to send him to get the best education possible outside of the Old Kingdom, by sending him to join the Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild. Seven years later, Teppic is summoned home by sad news and sets about building the greatest pyramid ever seen on the Disc. This proves to be a Very Bad Idea. 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.

Terry Pratchett - Pyramids Audiobook Terry Pratchett - Pyramids Audiobook

The Anticipator: Teppic considers inhuming Mericet, his Assassin's school examinator (managing to kill the examinator gets you an automatic pass, because it's nearly impossible), but decides against it. Mericet was in fact hiding as a gargoyle, tells Teppic where to go next (involving an obstacle course worthy of Assassin's Creed), and somehow shows up there before Teppic. Misplaced Sorrow: One of the surviving student assassins mourns the one who didn't make it, noting, "He still owed me money".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).