Pyramids (by Terry Pratchett)

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I’m slowly reading my way through Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, hoping to get further than I did last time I attempted to do so. I’ve just finished ‘Pyramids’, seventh in the series, and one I still mostly remembered from last time, when I re-read it just three years ago.

Teppic is the main character. He’s the crown prince of a country called Djelibeybi (it has to be said aloud, or at least read phonetically….) but we meet him when he’s just finishing his training as an assassin in Ankh Morpork. He’s about to take his final exam, one which will either qualify him fully… or kill him. And as he progresses along a dangerous route, he almost plunges to disaster more than once. At which point, his life flashes back and a few pertinent details are explained.

Djelibeybi is roughly the Discworld equivalent of Egypt, with the emphasis on pyramids. They stretch for miles, and contain the mummies of Teppic’s ancestors. And just as Teppic is celebrating the passing of his final exam, he learns that his father has died. So he must return and become king. Not really a problem as he has just discovered that although he is excellent at most parts of the assassin training, he can’t actually bring himself to the point of killing someone.

Back in Djelibeybi, the high priest Dios - who clearly has a mysterious life that we don’t fully learn about until near the end - tells the king what to do, and is basically in charge of everything. And he insists that the pyramid to be built for Teppic’s father must be bigger and better than any other pyramid so far. This is an interesting challenge to the master pyramid builders, although there’s a deadline that worries them, and they know they won’t get paid….

Pratchett was a master of classical allusions, and satire, and he succeeded brilliantly in both in this book. It helps that the next country - one which Teppic escapes to for a while - is Ephebe, the Discworld version of Ancient Greece, full of philosophers with names like Copolymer and Xeno, and the wonderful Ibid who knows something about almost everything… it would be entirely possible to read the book without being aware of the significance of any of these, but it’s very amusing and all the more enjoyable to appreciate them. Although I’m sure I missed as many as I caught.

But the main story is about the building of the great pyramid, and the problems it causes; there are forays into meta-physcics, discussions of dimensions, experiments into going backwards in time, and a great deal more. I didn’t follow all the thought processes; Pratchett’s mind was brilliant, and he frequently lost me. But it’s all tinged with humour; I particularly liked the world’s greatest mathematician, whose identity is not revealed until over half-way through the book.

There’s a bit of a pointed look at religion, something Pratchett apparently regarded as a necessarily fantasy. There’s some drama when the gods of people’s imaginations appear and start wreaking havoc, while ignoring their priests. There are hints of sexuality - and at what ‘handmaidens’ might be expected to do - with nothing explicit. And there’s a good storyline behind everything, as Teppic decides what his future holds.

It’s not for everyone; indeed it’s not my normal kind of reading at all. But I love the slanted look at society, ancient and modern, and the logical consistency (on the whole) of the very illogical Discworld. Having said that, it’s not the kind of book I can’t put down, so it took me much longer than I would have expected to finish reading it (in an admittedly very busy week).

Definitely recommended, if you like this kind of thing. ‘Pyramids’ stands alone and could make an excellent introduction to the Discworld series.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews