Pyramids (Discworld)
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| Terry Pratchett The Discworld series 7th novel – 1st individual story  | |
| Outline | |
| Characters: | Teppic Dios |
| Locations: | Djelibeybi Assassins Guild Ankh-Morpork |
| Motifs: | School stories Ancient Egypt and Egyptian mythology Quantum physics |
| Publication details | |
| Year of release: | 1989 |
| Original publisher: | Corgi |
| Hardback ISBN: | ISBN 0575044632 |
| Paperback ISBN: | ISBN 0552134619 |
| Other details | |
| Awards: | British Fantasy Award (Best Novel) 1999 |
| Notes: | The first story without any major recurring Discworld characters |
Plot synopsis
The main character of Pyramids is Teppic, prince of the tiny kingdom of Djelibeybi (a pun on Jelly baby, a confection common in the United Kingdom). Young Teppic has been in training at the Assassins Guild in Ankh-Morpork for several years. The day after passing his final exam he realizes his father has died and he must return home. Being the first Djelibeybian king raised outside the kingdom leads to some interesting problems, particularly when a giant pyramid constructed in honor of Teppic's father twists the dimensions and brings to existence all of the kingdom's gods.
Djelibeybi is the Discworld counterpart to Ancient Egypt.
It is revealed that in the Discworld universe, large solid pyramid-shaped structures have a tendency to warp the flow of time (requiring the construction crew to deal with a variety of temporal paradoxes). Correctly built, a Discworld pyramid sustains an interior chamber where time passes very slowly, within which a dying pharaoh might live for a long period of time with respect to the outside world. However, the knowledge that pyramids can be constructed with this capability has been lost. The tradition of building them has remained, but as monuments and tombs only, not as functional chambers for travel into the future.
Furthering the series
Characters introduced
- You Bastard – a camel and the Discworld's greatest mathematician
Book connections
Pyramids is almost totally disconnected from the rest of the series. It has only three characters who ever appear again - Xeno and Ibid - they only appear in Small Gods the only novel more distanced from the series than this one, and Dr. Cruces, who appears in Men at Arms. Pyramids also takes place in a completely new country which has yet to be visited again. However, Carpe Jugulum does reference the design on the staff of Dios, the High Priest, as one of the many designs the Count inoculates his children to.Translations
- Пирамиди (Bulgarian)
- Pyramidy (Czech)
- Pyramides (Dutch)
- Püramiidid (Estonian)
- Pyramidit (Finnish)
- Pyramides (French)
- Pyramiden (German)
- Piramisok (Hungarian)
- Maledette Piramidi (Italian)
- Pyramidene (Norwegian)
- Piramidy (Polish)
- Pirâmides (Portuguese - Brazil)
- Пирамиды (Russian)
- Piramide (Serbian)
- Pirómides (Spanish)
- Pyramidfeber (Swedish)
External links
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