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Terry Pratchett: Pyramids (2001, Tandem Library)

English language

Published March 6, 2001 by Tandem Library.

ISBN:
978-0-613-57264-4
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5 stars (1 review)

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.

12 editions

reviewed Pyramids by Terry Pratchett (Discworld -- 7)

All the king's camels

5 stars

This book is quite a strange one. It almost apologises for the power for the sake of greatness, talks a lot about the runaway effects and—most importantly—it is the first time Pratchett has played around with the "international" Discworld in earnest. I like that actually this book is very centrist, for he lack of a better word. I also liked the bit from @Didactylos review "narrative oscillates between absurd and deeply disturbing".

There are a couple of deep quotes that makes me appreciate this re-read and suggest that there's probably going to be one more re-read in my life. One about Artela, the late wife (or main concubine?) of the Pharaoh failing to remember not to swim in the river:

He missed Artela. There’d been a terrible row about taking a wife from outside the Kingdom, and some of her foreign ways had puzzled and fascinated even him. Maybe it …