Pyramids by Terry PratchettMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The seventh installment of Discworld finds Terry Pratchett giving the reader a glimpse into the Kingdom of Djelibeybi and it's Assassin Guild-trained new king, Teppic. The story revolves various themes such as tradition vs. innovation, belief vs. reality, three-dimensional thinking vs. four-dimensional thinking, and what's the deal with pyramids all with a humorous twist.
The two main characters are Teppic, first a prince training to be an assassin only to become king right after finishing his Guild-training, and his father King Teppicymon XXVII, first the god-king of the Old Kingdom then a ghost watching as his body is prepared for his eternal afterlife. The two face their new situations wanting to change things only to find the Chief Priest Dios standing in the way, only for young Teppic to outdo the Priest by ordering the biggest Pyramid ever for his father to catastrophic results when he along with everyone else learns what pyramids actually do.
Besides the father and son duo who dominate the majority of the point-of-view scenes, other secondary characters have several moments to themselves including the aforementioned Dios. However only Dil the chief embalmer really stood out compared to those who technically might be more "important." Unfortunately what was suppose to be the big joke that was foreshadowed throughout the first half of the book turned out to be a dud when it turned out a camel was the greatest mathematician on the Disc.
Overall the general story arc(s) and the humorous, yet catastrophic, events are a fun read even with less than enjoyable secondary characters and the dud "big joke. Pyramids might be a "one-off" in the Discworld series, but it's a fun book.
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