Pyramids: A Discworld Novel: 7

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As it always is with Pratchett, the "stuff" doesn't really matter. I can't point to a single part of this book and tell you why it's my favourite in the series, because I've forgotten all of the funny parts that made me laugh, because jokes are fleeting and of the moment. And yet it's those jokes that make me love this book above his others. It has been suggested that Pratchett took his inspiration for this line from Ursula Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea, but this is a very ancient concept in magic and primitive religions. People bearing the same name as the deceased often change their names for fear of the dead person's ghost. James George Frazer's The Golden Bough covers this concept in detail. Mort, Corgi pb P247: "[the elephant] sniffed the distant dark continent of Klatch on the night breeze and, tail raised, followed the ancient call of home." In Dec. of 2007, Pratchett disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. On 18 Feb, 2009, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. 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 first part (my favorite) mainly covers Pteppic's assassin training. We learn a lot about the customs of the Assassins' Guild, about the type of people who'd enlist for training, not to mention the extremely difficult graduation exam. So an excellent treat for anyone wishing for Discworld world-building. Young Prince Teppic is sent far away from his desert homeland to the city of Ankh-Morpork for the best education money can buy. Which just so happens to be at the Assassins’ Guild.Nether Hells, where Orm is normally found (because he has too few worshipers to live at Dunmanifestin?) Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle says that for a quantum particle (e. g. an electron), it is impossible to know with complete accuracy both where it is and how fast it is going. The act of observing it interferes with the event you want to measure (one might say that at the quantum level the observation is the event) in such a way that it is physically impossible to determine both velocity and position of the particle in question. In the cool of the river valley dawn the high priest Dios opened his eyes. He didn't sleep these days. He couldn't remember when he last slept. Sleep was too close to the other thing and, anyway, he didn't seem to need it. Just lying down was enough-at least, just lying down here. The fatigue poisons dwindled away, like everything else. For a while.

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.The country of Djelibeybi, the meaning of which ‘translates’ as ‘Child of the [River] Djel’ (Djel i Beybi) is an obvious play on the British gummy candy ‘Jelly Baby’ and this translation plays on Herodotus's famous claim that Egypt was the ‘gift of the Nile.’ Its name may also be a pun on Djellaba which is a loose woollen cloak worn by Arabs. Djelibeybi is the Discworld's equivalent of Ancient Egypt. It is the main setting of the novel. The country is about two miles wide along the length of the Djel, serving as a buffer zone between Tsort and Ephebe. Ephebe is the Discworld equivalent of Ancient Greece and Tsort is mainly based on Persia with some aspects of Troy mixed in. It isn’t easy, being a teenage pharaoh. As tradition dictates, the new king must build a monumental pyramid to honour his dead father. But this one might just bankrupt the kingdom, and warp the very fabric of time and space itself… Unfortunately he doesn't bank on his "conservative" Head Priest Dios, who lives his life by ritual and regularity and has no time for religion despite believing that Net was the Supreme God, oh as was Hast, Fon, Set, Bin, Sot, Dhek and Ptooie, as well as a host of others. The trouble was the kingdom was a slave to ritual and to a multitude of Gods for every occasion, with many duplicates. So this book, is outrageously funny and just such a brilliant observation on human character, from Teppic the new King, through Chidder the assassin to Ptraci the handmaiden, Endos, the listener, Ptaclusp the builder, Dios the head priest and Teppicymon the dead King. But then it is Sir Terry's oh so accurate portrayal of humans that makes his books so poignant and amusing. In 2008, Harper Children's published Terry's standalone non-Discworld YA novel, Nation. Terry published Snuff in October 2011.

Ptaclusp I, Ptaclusp IIa and Ptaclusp IIb, the pyramid-building dynasty tasked with the construction of the Great Pyramid The energy streaming up from their paracosmic peaks may, in chapters to come, illuminate many mysteries: why tortoises hate philosophy, why too much religion is bad for goats, and what it is that handmaidens actually do. What stands out here is the amount of clever puns and twists on well-known stories from our world. The puns are not only used to explain phenomena on the Discworld but are even used as names of characters (like IIb which spells as "to be" and is the name of the eldest son of Ptaclusp, who is of course destined to become his father's successor - his younger brother is called IIa). Belief is a force. It's a weak force, by comparison with gravity; when it comes to moving mountains, gravity wins every time. But it still exists, and now that the Old Kingdom was enclosed upon itself, floating free of the rest of the universe, drifting away from the general consensus that is dignified by the name of reality, the power of belief was making itself felt.Being trained by the Assassins' Guild in Ankh-Morpork did not fit Teppic for the task assigned to him by fate. He inherited the throne of the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi rather earlier than he expected (his father wasn't too happy about it either), but that was only the beginning of his problems ... This is a pun on the German word ‘doppelgänger,’ (meaning literally ‘double goer’) which has entered the English language and is used to describe an apparition or alternate being that is one's double. In English it usually has sinister overtones. So I'm guessing that Thrrp, The Charioteer of the Sun has also been through since I finished the book, but never mind, I'm sure I shall be forgiven if I build a pyramid in my garden. Pratchett uses the language of oil well drilling throughout the novel to describe the pyramids and their construction. The well cap is like a capstone, it covers the top of the drill pipe and controls the flow of the oil from below, equalizing pressures, etc. The capstone on the pyramid in Discworld does the same thing – controlling the energy flow from the pyramid. Oil wells were known by their signature flame or flare illuminating the night sky just as Djelibeybi's pyramids flare off and light up the desert. Finally, at the end Teppic caps the giant pyramid and seals it returning Delibeybi to ‘normal’ just like capping an oil well permanently seals it after a blow out. It´s never bad for craftsmen to organize in guilds or unions and if the specialization is something not as mainstream as wood and metalwork, but, let´s say, different forms of working with living material, it gives the whole idea potential for satirizing the strange bureaucracy of the political apparatus. If robbers, assassins, smugglers, prostitutes,… all have their accepted, democratic councils and can influence legislation and jurisdiction, the manifold interests and manipulations that are forming the processes in real life can be shown in a new light.

It will certainly show what our ancestors would be thinking if they were alive today. People have often speculated about this. Would they approve of modem society, they ask, would they marvel at present-day achievements? And of course this misses a fundamental point. What our ancestors would really be thinking, if they were alive today, is: "Why is it so dark in here?" Este libro en cuestión pertenece a la saga de las “antiguas civilizaciones” sin embargo no tiene un enlace directo con otras de las sagas ni con el siguiente libro por lo que me dispuse a ello. La premisa no era mala, típico libro de Prachett, me dije a mi misma: conociéndote seguro que te ríes por alguna tontería.There's a lot of great ribbing for conspiracy theorists who go on and on about the dimensions of the real pyramids and the mystical importance, even going so far as to make these monuments (at least here) into time-recyclers. It's very funny and Death isn't pleased. Fortunately for Death, however, what he doesn't know won't kill him. Book I is The Book of Going Forth, which is a reference to the loose collection of Egyptian texts and spells for aiding passage into the afterlife, generally known as the Book of the Dead and originally know as the ‘ Book of Coming Forth by Day or Book of Emerging Forth into the Light'. (see the annotation for p. 9 of The Light Fantastic). For those of you hoping to encounter one of your favorite Discworld characters, choose another book... unless you're happy with a minor guest appearance from Death. In layman’s terms,’ the doctor sniffed, ‘he’s as dead as a doornail.’ ‘What are the complications?’ The doctor looked shifty. ‘He’s still breathing,’ he said. <><><>‘Well, what can you do about it?’ said Arthur. ‘Nothing. He’s dead. All the medical tests prove it. So, er … bury him, keep him nice and cool, and tell him to come and see me next week. In daylight, for preference.’