Flipping Through Pages #28 - Pyramids (A Book Review)

Who’s your mummy?

Tradition, Space Time and Inhumaning Methods clash as a young prince/assassin returns to his kingdom post his father’s death. In one of the ‘more’ proper heroic storytelling sagas in Discworld, this serves up its intriguing list of positives – and some negatives as well.

The core theme of this slice of Discworld is the concept of choice in the roles people essay. Teppic has been a son, an assassin and a king. And in each of them, especially the last, he rejects certain elements of the role he has been cast in. What is the power of a role that has no choice?

For Dios, the high priest of Djel, that is exactly what the role should be. Cast as the classic villain of the piece, his manipulation of Teppic post the death of the previous king actually proves to be his undoing – as one simple task with an ulterior motive becomes the catalyst for chaos to run amock on his carefully set up ecosystem.

For Dios is not a big fan of change. Especially when that involves manipulation of space time by pyramids to such an extent that his country blinks out of existence. And into something else.

Pratchett’s use of Egyptian stereotypes is fascinating, especially in how he brings geometry into play (to be honest, I hate geometry but then this was a comedy thankfully and not a classroom) – but where he falters is by creating a unambiguous hero/villain scenario that his previous works have tried to caricature. 

It sounds harsh that if this was by anyone other than Pratchett, it would still have been a solid read. But when you know how capable he is of twisting common tropes, adhering to them feels like a waste of his skilful canvasing.

There is a repeat of what appears to have become a discworld trope (if that does exist) – the father of the key character dies and remains relevant to the storyline in some manner or the other. Death must be getting pretty annoyed with Pratchett by now. Too many exceptions.

And yes, by the end everything is tied up a little too neatly. The author even finds a meaningful role for Ptraci, the handmaiden turned accomplice, by casting her as the new Queen after all is said and done. But for most of the book, her role seems to be wafer thing beyond casting Teppic in a heroic Robin Hood like mould. 

In between, a camel does geometry to traverse worlds, the dead rise and help Teppic save the kingdom by inhumaning the giant pyramid and the Gods go back to sleep. Also, for some reason, Teppic is able to use his godlike powers and then he can’t.

While a lot is by the numbers as things turn supernatural, the section with the sphinx is a wonderful display of how Pratchett loves to play around with expectations. The deconstruction of that classic riddle is a highlight of this book.

And that will always remind me that even in a book of generic heroes and villains, I can see true genius shine through.

So, I give it 7.5 out of 10

+Nice understanding of tropes

+Rich addition of supernatural

+The humour is excellent as always

-The character handling could have been better

-The resolution is a little too neat