Pyramids: A Discworld Novel: 7

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Creature of Habit: Dios has a routine that he has been practicing for at least seven thousand years. As a result of the rather convoluted belief system of the Djelibeybians, all of them are dead in the practical ways, but unable to pass on. The connection to cucumbers reoccurs in the embalming sequence on page 61 with the pickle references. It is a fact as immutable as the Third Law of Sod that there is no such thing as a good Grand Vizier.

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett | Goodreads Pyramids by Terry Pratchett | Goodreads

Pteppic tries to rebel against the Deadly Graduation phase by shooting his crossbow at the wall, but ends up hitting the target anyway thanks to a ricochet. Sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland so cutting them would have made him incapable of kingship in this world or the next. Quite a lot of elements in this novel are Gormenghast references, particularly Teppic's parents and how Dios's endlessly-repeated daily activities have worn depressions in stone, he's retraced his daily path so perfectly so many times. Meanwhile, the massive pyramid being built for Teppic's father (or, rather, in reaction to Dios's rejection of the old pharaoh's wish not to be buried in a pyramid) warps space-time so much that it "rotates" Djelibeybi out of alignment with the space/time of the rest of the Disc by ninety degrees. about ‘If he invites you up for toast in his study, don't go,’ resonates with the incident where Tom is roasted in front of the fire by Flashy and his cronies.The fact that the gods are right there threatens to scuttle the idea, even before Dios himself shows he's not so easily disposed of. Meanwhile, pandemonium takes hold in Djelibeybi, as the kingdom's multifarious gods (many of whom occupy the same roles, such as Supreme God or God of the Sun) descend upon the populace, and all of Djelibeybi's dead rulers come back to life. War Elephants: According to Pteppic, they're useless, since all they do is trample on their own troops when they inevitably panic. Dios's ultimate fate is this as well; he's forced to relive the same 6,000 year life over and over, for eternity. Eventually, Teppic re-enters the Kingdom and attempts to destroy the Great Pyramid, with the help of all of his newly resurrected ancestors.

Pyramids Quotes by Terry Pratchett - Goodreads

Dreadful Musician: Teppicymon XXVII likes to hear Ptraci sing, because the world always seems so much brighter after she stops. Usually they aren't animate, but the Power of Belief combined with the effects of the pyramid causes them to come back to life, and they're not happy about being trapped in pyramids for thousands of years. Many of the elements of a driving test are present in the passages which follow: The short list of questions, the sign on a small card (often held upside down), the clipboard. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. Friendly Enemy: Though the elite and citizenry of Ephebe and Tsort may hate each other dearly, their soldiers (or at least their commanders) don't appear to hold a particular grudge.Apparently, Death used to look like whatever people expected the personification of death to look like, until it became too tiresome and he decided to settle for the " skeleton with a scythe" look. There's a lot going on in Pyramids (****) - it was the longest Discworld book to this point, though still not cracking 400 pages - and sometimes it feels a bit crammed with ideas that it doesn't have time to fully explore, which is why some overspill into later novels (Small Gods addresses some of the same themes more elegantly). And Fridge Brilliance for those that realised that when he imagines the hieroglyphs for 'feather mattress' it's a hippo's bottom, a reference to a long-running series of bed adverts in the UK starring a hippo and duckling. Clearly the Bible, Pratchett and Atwood are pointing out is that handmaidens are surrogates – the central point of Atwood's novel.