Pyramids: A Discworld Novel: 7

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O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After being unflattened IIa shows no interest in the cost of the new bridges, which initially worries Ptaclusp. However, it turns out that he's just preoccupied with the royal finances. This is a reference to the other Egyptian myth regarding the sun god Ra riding across the sky in Atet, his solar barge. Atet was also known as the Mandjet, the Boat of Millions of Years, and, during the night, as the Mesektet. Ra – variously conflated with other solar gods such as Amun and Hathor – travelled through the sky on the barge, providing light to the world. Each twelfth of his journey formed one of the twelve Egyptian hours of the day, each overseen by a protective deity. Ra then rode the Atet through the underworld with each hour of the night considered a gate overseen by twelve more protective deities. Passing through all of these while fending off various destructive monsters, Ra reappeared each day on the eastern horizon. Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Assassin's Guild school's final exam resembles the UK driving license test. Most of the Djel gods are equipped with seemingly-random animals' heads ... except for Bunu, the Goat-Headed God of Goats. Klingon Promotion: Inhuming a professor is rumored to get a student assassin instant promotion to full membership in the guild. But since attempting to inhume a professor and failing will get one stripped of many student privileges (starting with the right to breathe), nobody actually tries it.

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

There isn't a huge amount of character development, Teppic’s arc is good, but considering the type of book this is there is no need to have a hugely meaningful and introspective dive into the character. Pyramids had a lot of potential as a concept, and to his credit, sir Terry Pratchett really tried to cover as much of Egyptian history and customs as possible... and therein lies the problem. In a Usenet posting, Terry Pratchett realized that this sailed right over the heads of most American readers, as Jelly Babies are not generally sold there. One of the alternative jokes he suggested, Hersheba, later became an actual country in Discworld. Teppic (short for Pteppicymon XXVIII), who left the kingdom to train at the Assassin's Guild of Ankh-Morpork as a boy, thus regarding himself more as Morporkian than Djelibeybian Bait-and-Switch: Teppic's father tells an ancestor, recently freed from his pyramid, that he hates pyramids. The ancestor tells him that he does not, seeming to imply Teppic's father is obligated to be in favour of pyramids. He then clarifies that what he means is that what Teppic's father feels for pyramids is a mild dislike— if he hasn't been trapped in one of the damn things for a few thousand years, he can't know what it is to truly hate them!Never Smile at a Crocodile: Ptraci fears being thrown to the crocodiles for escaping from the late King's tomb. Later, any priest who says something the now-manifested gods might take offence at is thrown to the river's crocodiles by the other priests. Pteppic's mother was also killed by a crocodile, although not as a form of execution; she "took a midnight swim in what turned out to be a crocodile." When the Djel gods manifest and start tearing up the place, a crocodile-headed river god tries to bite off the snake-head of a rival river god. Try to Fit That on a Business Card: King Teppicymon XXVIII, Lord of the Heavens, Charioteer of the Wagon of the Sun, Steersman of the Barque of the Sun, Guardian of the Secret Knowledge, Lord of the Horizon, Keeper of the Way, the Flail of Mercy, the High-Born One, the Never-Dying King. On formal occasions, it's considered necessary to repeat the entire thing every time he's referred to. Paper People: IIa becomes flat and drifts continuously to the right as a result of the pyramid switching his dimensions.

Pyramids Quotes by Terry Pratchett - Goodreads

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. 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). Likewise, Ptraci is strongly implied to be a virginal concubine. Probably helped by the fact that the old pharaoh was her father.

Hoot Koomi wants to be scheming and oily, but Dios won't have any of it. Even when he finally gets the job at the end, he can't get any evil machinations past new ruler Ptraci. Pyramids is the seventh novel in the Discworld series. It was first published in 1989 by Victor Gollancz and won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel in that year. The cover illustration is by Josh Kirby. The novel is split into four ‘Books' and is really a collection of linked novellas; not a single novel with chapters or sections like Pratchett's later works Going Postal and Making Money or one long chapterless book like most of Pratchett's other works. Obliquely referenced, as Teppic learned to use a "puntbow" from the ibis poacher whom his father absent-mindedly appointed as a tutor. Punt guns actually existed, and were used for the same purpose of killing waterfowl en masse. The trouble with gods is that after enough people start believing in them, they begin to exist. And what begins to exist isn't what was originally intended.”

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett - AbeBooks Pyramids by Terry Pratchett - AbeBooks

Nepharious Pharaoh: Dios the High Priest — effectively the ruler of the kingdom, manipulating a succession of essentially benign but hopelessly confused Pharaohs for seven thousand years. Pratchett offers a subversion of this idea, suggesting that the pharaoh is essentially a powerless figurehead and real power resides elsewhere in an Ancient Egypt-like country. 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. Bilingual Bonus: If you're up to speed on your Canis Latinicus, the name of one of the warriors mentioned in Copolymer's Iliad parody, Lavaeolus, translates to "Rinser of Winds". (Lavaeolus later shows up in person in Eric, where he does indeed turn out to be Rincewind's ancestor.) Strange-Syntax Speaker: Dios will do anything to avoid usage of past or future tenses, something Teppic notices early. The scene where numerous sun gods are fighting over which one actually gets to raise the sun today is played out like a professional sports broadcast.

Carpe Jugulum does reference the design on the staff of Dios, the High Priest, as one of the many designs the Count inoculates his children to. This is where Pratchett thrives, in his writing. If you laid out any two or three sentences and asked me to identify it's owner, it would be easy to spot Pratchett’s work. It's simply beautiful. Here's a few of my favourites: An Arm and a Leg: Teppic shakes the hand of an unfortunate stonemason. Since he's considered to be a living god by his subjects, the man can no longer use his hand without defiling it, and has to have it amputated. The role of listeners has never been fully appreciated. However, it is well known that most people don’t listen. They use the time when someone else is speaking to think of what they’re going to say next. True Listeners have always been revered among oral cultures, and prized for their rarity value; bards and poets are ten a cow, but a good Listener is hard to find, or at least hard to find twice.” Conservatives vs progressives was, even in this version of ancient Egypt, a hot topic, and Pratchett ridicules the arguments of antiquated minds by exaggerating their prime goals and authorities in general.

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, First Edition - AbeBooks Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, First Edition - AbeBooks

Reasonable Authority Figure: Teppic tries to be one, but Dios keeps overriding him, and everyone else is too terrified to go against Dios' will. Grapes of Luxury: Defied. Teppic doesn't really approve of the practice, and even asks that the servants not peel the grapes because most of the vitamins are found in the skins.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 . . . Yes-Man: Endos the Listener is a variant, his job is to act as if the person who is talking is the most interesting person in the world. 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. The conversation of human beings seldom interested him, but it crossed his mind that the males and females always got along best when neither actually listened fully to what the other one was saying.”