Pyramids
I have very little memory of reading Pyramids the first time around. I assumed this meant it was just meh. Now that I've re-read it, I'm chalking up that reaction to all the other stuff that was going on in my life at the time. When I opened Pyramids, an old plane ticket fell out. Checking the date, I realized it was from the first time I flew to DC to visit Kevin. Amongst all the uncertainty in my life at that point (job, relationship, life in general), it's no wonder this book didn't make a huge impression on me.
I'm glad I revisited it, because I ended up liking it a lot this time through. I still think it gets somewhat overshadowed by some of the later books in the series (it's neither as good as Guards! Guards! nor as bad as Eric, the next two books), but it stands on it's own pretty well. Especially for a book that actually stands alone. With the exception of Death, I don't think any of the characters in this book ever make an appearance again. And Death is in all of them.
Pyramids is a great look at organized religion and the way it can be twisted around by the people in power so that they stay in power. It's less about faith than the corruption of priests. And the shortcomings of sticking to tradition simply because of tradition. Change is inevitable and when you resist it as strongly as the central kingdom in this book the world just passes you right on by.
There are also, as mentioned, a ton of math puns. There's a camel who is the greatest mathematician in the world. One of the great truisms in the book is that humans tend to be hampered in math at the higher levels by the fact that we have ten fingers. It's hard to break out and understand different systems (I had trouble with 4D geometry and relativity for a similar reason). There's also a lot of play with space-time, creating some really fun time paradoxes that are handled beautifully.
Overall this book was way better than I remembered. Pratchett is hitting his stride, and I'm a little surprised to see him hitting it so early in the series. Of course, it's only in a series with 40+ books that book 7 is still considered early.
I'm glad I revisited it, because I ended up liking it a lot this time through. I still think it gets somewhat overshadowed by some of the later books in the series (it's neither as good as Guards! Guards! nor as bad as Eric, the next two books), but it stands on it's own pretty well. Especially for a book that actually stands alone. With the exception of Death, I don't think any of the characters in this book ever make an appearance again. And Death is in all of them.
Pyramids is a great look at organized religion and the way it can be twisted around by the people in power so that they stay in power. It's less about faith than the corruption of priests. And the shortcomings of sticking to tradition simply because of tradition. Change is inevitable and when you resist it as strongly as the central kingdom in this book the world just passes you right on by.
There are also, as mentioned, a ton of math puns. There's a camel who is the greatest mathematician in the world. One of the great truisms in the book is that humans tend to be hampered in math at the higher levels by the fact that we have ten fingers. It's hard to break out and understand different systems (I had trouble with 4D geometry and relativity for a similar reason). There's also a lot of play with space-time, creating some really fun time paradoxes that are handled beautifully.
Overall this book was way better than I remembered. Pratchett is hitting his stride, and I'm a little surprised to see him hitting it so early in the series. Of course, it's only in a series with 40+ books that book 7 is still considered early.
Comments
Post a Comment