To the review proper... The young man Teppic, from the kingdom of Djelibeybi (which is rather like ancient Egypt), is a trainee assassin. He would be their star pupil, as he is excellent at everything involved... but he just hasn't got the heart to actually kill anyone, as his graduation test (described at the beginning of the book) shows. But fate has something else in mind for him... however much he may try to resist it.

Discworld is a world much like our own, only it's completely different. Inhabited by many life-forms, the Disc throbs with life, love, and murder. There's never a dull moment, and the end result is (almost definitely - I've not seen a strong opposition contender to the throne yet) the best comedy fantasy series ever written. The quality of the individual books does vary somewhat - one or two are merely okay, most are very good to brilliant, and some are sheer genius.

Pyramids falls into the brilliant category - it fails genius only because the characters herein aren't among the most engaging of the Discworld population. It's not that there's anything particularly wrong with them - Teppic is fine, and his friends / tutors at the Assassin's Guild are fine, his family are okay... But none of them are truly memorable. The plot moves nicely, with strange happenings bringing Teppic ever nearer fulfilling his destiny of taking over the rulership of Djelibeybi - something he really doesn't want to do, for several reasons. But can you fight destiny, especially when it keeps doing strange things to you?

Discworld is a disc. And it's a world. It's inhabited by many strange creatures (the sort you'd find in serious fantasy, and some others besides), and the situations / places on the Disc are often effectively caricatures of what goes on in own planet.

Pyramids features, perhaps not surprisingly, Pyramids, embalmers going crazy, camels (lots of camels - including You Bastard (all the camels are named after what people call them!), the Disc's greatest mathematician!), an ill-fated love affair, and many laughs. (Okay, so I lied - the camel was a memorable character!) With some of the action that takes place in Djelibeybi , I feel that having at least some knowledge of ancient Egypt makes it more enjoyable, as you can understand what's being parodied. (You will still enjoy it otherwise, but may miss out on some of the humour). Okay I'm going to wrap up the review now, as I'm in danger of using too far too many parentheses...

This is a great book, not quite up to the wonderfulness of Mort and Moving Pictures, but a great book all the same. A familiarity with Discworld is not really required for this one, although it may help slightly. You should enjoy it whether it's the first Discworld novel you've ever read, or the tenth.



Recommended:
Yes