3.5 / 5As always, I will avoid going into describing the synopsis of the book, you can read that up there ^. Though, as is usual the case with Pratchett's books, the blurb won't really help you much. Instead, I will go straight into my review.Quick summary?: If you generally like Terry Pratchett's style and books you will enjoy this one!! If you're not familiar with his work or you don't really like it that much, then this is maybe not the best starting point to get into his books.Characters:Characters always play a huge role on Pratchett's books, since almost half of the humor is based on them, their characteristics and their deeds or words. In Pyramids we have completely new characters introduced that have not appeared before in any other book. As such, it takes some time to warm to them. They are not extremely funny though, not as old favorites (each reader has their own, I myself prefer the night-watch more than anybody else!)Plot:I'm afraid this book suffers a bit from a rather weak plot, even compared to Pratchett standards. There's not really a hook in the story, something that the reader really really wants to find out by the end. It's more like "ok let's see what happens next" kind of thing. There are some parts that are more interesting than others, I personally really enjoyed the parts at Ephebe as it was a funny take on the ancient Greeks but other than that there's not a real plot in there. Whatever it is mostly acts as a background for situational comedy. Pacing:Pacing was also not very smooth. To be honest, there are no slow parts as both the action (as in "funny and/or crazy things happening") and the humor flows along steadily. What is a bit problematic is the general interest that ebbs and rises depending on the point of view and general happenings. In this case, I think pacing is evidently quite depended on the plot and that's why when one suffers the other does too.Conclusion:In conclusion, I think this is a rather interesting and typical "independent" Pratchett book. Pratchett introduces new characters and settings/countries (humorously based on ancient Egypt and ancient Greece). There are a lot of clever jokes about religion, belief and tradition which work mostly very well. There is also a lot of humor based on the classical ancient sciences and especially geometry and mathematics. All in all, maybe not the best Pratchett book but one that is certainly worth reading! Recommended!3,5 stars out of 5 !!
When I think about the Discworld series I instinctively want to give them all 5 stars, they (via Sir Pratchett) provide such a huge amount of entertainment, fire such delights of imagination and offer much food for thought on any number of subjects both Big and small and yet as I run through the audio books in an attempts to stem the flowing tide of flabby bits about my middle I find myself unable to truthfully say that every entry is worthy of that ultimate rating. Pyramids is one such title, it is a fabulously funny book, loaded with memorable moments, classic Pratchett characters and his trademark dismantling of every day absurdities in our own reality via his fantastical world, in this instance religion, and yet it doesn't quite cause me to explode with enthusiasm for it as Mort or Wyrd Sisters did previously and I expect Guards! Guards! to do next."What's lacking?" I hear you scream and the answer is that I honestly couldn't tell you, if I knew that I'd probably be a poor struggling book editor/publisher instead of a comfortable house husband with a lifetime of renovations with a cold beer in my hand to look forward to. The teenage years of Teppic is our first real look at the inner workings of that most illustrious of Ankh-Morpork guilds, the Assassins and Pratchett pretty much nails it first time, creating a believable and fascinating world within the city within the world and if anything there isn't ENOUGH attention paid to it. The Kingdom of Djelibeybi (potentially a silly joke but one that seems to work and make me smile every time, especially in audio book!) with its ancient customs and giant pyramids is a minefield of clever puns, and religious satire and the overall plot is one that is both completely obvious from the outset and yet the path to enlightenment is littered with detours through crocodile infested rivers and camel laden deserts so that you can easily forget that you know how things will end.Considering the humble beginnings of this series Pratchett has very quickly spread his wings and in doing so the scope of the Disc has opened up enormously in just a few short novels. It's really quite remarkable the changes in style and content and already by book seven there's nobody else quite like him or likely ever will be again.
What do You think about Pyramids (2015)?
http://knigozavar.com/piramidi/„Пирамиди“ описва приключението на младия престолонаследник Тепик и най-вече божествените му неволи, свързани с изчезването на личното му царството (заедно с прилежащите му време и пространство) и наличието на една очарователно побъркваща прислужничка. Богове и фараони оживяват, жреците разцъфват в лудостта си, една камила смята като обезумяла темпорално-пространствени връзки само поради липсата на по-интересно занимание и междувременно нито някой знае какво се случва, нито как да го оправи.http://knigozavar.com/piramidi/
—Аделина 'Змей' Генова
Enjoyable both for the insight into the Assassin's Guild that the logical-sequence reader has not yet come across, and for the honest and interesting discussion of religion that it encourages. As well as, obviously, for its comic genius and for Pratchett's glorious fun-loving writing.I didn't enjoy this as much as the last one I read, Wyrd Sisters, but I think that's just because I was more interested in the themes he chose to tackle in that one than in this. Only slightly less, mind you. I also liked the Wyrd Sisters more than Teppic and Ptraci, neither of whom were quite as well developed, in my opinion. However, the deft and gleeful handling of the hefty and difficult subject of religion, as always, shows Pratchett to be the master that we all know he is, summing up centuries of internal and external conflict in a few paragraphs, before getting down to a good solid (but pleasant) mockery of them.Pratchett's comic timing is always spot-on and his pacing is fantastic, so that at times you forget you're reading and are completely dissolved into the story - the denouemont here, with the volatile pyramids and the literal race against time, was so well written that you could almost hear the dramatic movie music leading up to that peak. It was exciting. I remember reading the interview with Neil Gaiman at the end of Good Omens, in which he said that Pratchett was one of the very few people he'd ever met who enjoyed the act of writing, the sitting down and writing of a book, and this always comes to mind when I'm reading a new Discworld. It's blatantly obvious that he was having the time of his life writing this book.One of the best parts of this one was the greatest mathematician in the world, the humble camel You Bastard and all his other mathematical camel friends with similar names that you can imagine being shouted by irate camel-owners. His descriptions are always so surprisingly accurate that they catch you off guard, unused as most of us are to authors using language in new ways or creating new turns of phrase - the way a camel appears to look at a person with his nostrils was one of my favourites this time round.So, to sum up: religion -- mockery; camels -- secret geniuses; pyramids -- mysterious; Discworld -- more depth; humour -- genuine.
—Leah
Philosophically, this is the richest Discworld novel so far. (I'm reading them in order of publication.) It mounts a delightful critique of tradition and religion. It's not just another tiresome empiricist refutation-by-lack-of-imagination, or even another tiresome denunciation of priestcraft -- although it contains elements of both. It's actually an idealist critique, in the end. Here's a scene from pp. 202-3: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.For seven thousand years the people of Djelibeybi had believed in their gods.Now their gods existed. They had, as it were, the complete Set.And the people of the Old Kingdom were learning that, for example, Vut the Dog-Headed God of the Evening looks a lot better painted on a pot than he does when all seventy feet of him, growling and stinking, is lurching down the street outside.Now, the weakness of Pratchett's approach is that it concedes that religions do have the key efficacy they claim for themselves. Thus, it leaves open the possibility that a religion exists that does not involve a Vut the Dog-Headed God of the Evening.
—Jonathan
