Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

First let me say - sorry for the lack of reviews lately!

I hope to be bringing these to you on a regular basis again now :)

I've read the majority of Terry Pratchetts books, and as I do my read through by publication date, I'm enjoying coming across the ones that I've never read! "Pyramids" is one of those, and as my local library didn't have it, I had to do an Interlibrary Loan request for it!

"Pyramids" is the story of Teppic, a young man on the verge both of becoming an Assassin and a King. Both are rather respectable occupations, and in fact Teppic had been sent to Ankh-Morpork to train as Assassin precisely because it was a noble calling and one that promised to give him the best education.

In Ankh-Morpork crime is managed by the guilds for the most part. They've taken what used to be rather haphazard acts of thievery and murder, and elevated them to an art. This actually allows for a more orderly society than they had before, and I find the system rather fascinating. I rather enjoyed the first portion of the book where we learn about Teppic's early days at the school, and his eventual Assassins test.

Teppic does not get to stay merely an assassin though, the blood of Kings runs through his veins, and when his father dies, it's time for him to go home and rule the kingdom.

Djelibeybi is a small desert country. It's narrow and long, and its biggest distinctions are the pyramids that dot the landscape (and bankrupt the kingdom) and that its presence keeps its two neighbors from warring with each other. Teppic finds himself being manipulated by the high priest into creating the biggest pyramid ever in honor of his dead father. Although, if he could hear his dead father like we can, he'd realize that the last thing he wanted was a pyramid.

The only problem with this pyramid is that it's simply dangerous to build a pyramid that big. Oh not for the reasons you might expect, massive pieces of rock and dying slaves and all that, but because the pyramids actually channel time. So when this mighty pyramid is built, and not finished correctly, everything in the kingdom goes haywire. The kingdom itself disappears, the mummy's walk, and Teppic the Assassin King has to figure out how to fix it all.

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

Up in the Ramptop Mountains of Discworld three witches have come together to form a coven. Granny Weatherwax, as the most highly regarded witch in all of the Ramptops, is the unofficial leader. She doesn't approve much of these newfangled ideas youngsters have now a days, but of course, she doesn't approve of much period. Nanny Ogg skipped over the tradition of a witch living a lonely life in a remote cottage, and instead is the matriarch of a large clan that seems to have spread to every corner of Lancre. Magrat is the youngest of the three, and the one with the most newfangled ideas. She sees a place for great ceremony and ornamentation whereas the others just want to get things done. Despite their differences, however, each witch has power.

These "Wyrd Sisters" might have continued living their witchy days in relative peace (as peaceful as life gets when people are always hounding you for this cure or that) if it wasn't for some political intrigue they managed to get themselves caught up in. A duke has killed the King of Lancre, and some of the loyal guards whisk away the royal babe to prevent him from meeting the same fate. When the last loyal soldier is dead (and those not loyal have been frightened out of their wits), the witches find themselves in possession of a baby boy.

Now as a general rule witches do not meddle in the great affairs of the world, but even Granny Weatherwax can't deny the need to protect this baby boy. So, in their own bumbling way, the witches find a way to safeguard him and his crown. They leave him the last place anyone would look, with a troop of traveling players, and hide the crown in amongst all the prop crowns.

This might have been enough, but the very land of Lancre eventually begins to cry out against the evil Duke, and the witches find themselves sorely tempted to meddle just a little bit more...

Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

If you've read any of Pratchett's early books than your probably familiar with Rincewind. Rincewind is a wizard, a nice fellow, but totally hopeless at his chosen profession! Somehow he always manages to survive the craziness he encounters though, and says that he's very addicted to living, which is probably a good thing for him all things considered.

In "Sourcery" we encounter a very rare phenomenon in Discworld, a sourcerer. Sourcerers are rarely born in Discworld because for generations wizards have been taught that interacting with women will decrease their magical abilities. This isn't strictly true, although being distracted isn't necesarily a good thing when practicing magic, no this is merely a lie that was spread to keep wizards from having children. Why is this? Well, 8 is a magical number on discworld. The eight son of an eight son always ends up a wizard (although its not the only way to become one). Worse, the eight son of a wizard is a source of magic in and of himself, a sourcerer.

Now if your familiar with the wizards of Discworld you know that they tend to be relatively harmless. So how much trouble could a sourcerer be? The answer is LOTS of trouble! Sourcerers are not bound by the normal constraints that wizards usually face, and they infect everyone and everything around them with magic. Soon you have an almost all powerful sourcerer being supported by power mad wizards, and the world is being turned upside down.

Rincewind finds himself caught up in the middle of all this mess with a strange maiden named Conina. Does her name sound familiar? It should, she's the daughter of the famous Cohen the Barbarian. Conina always wanted to be a hairdresser, but her genetics mean that she can't stand to sit by when there's a fight, or danger, or anyone who needs rescuing. Which is a good thing for Rincewind since he is generally useless in any situation that calls for brawn (or, often, brains either). Will this unlikely duo be able to save Discworld from the horror being unleashed upon it? Will Conina's brawn and Rincewinds bumbling luck be enough? You'll have to read the book to find out!

Mort by Terry Pratchett

What would you do if Death offered you an apprenticeship? That's the question Mort faces late one night. He's spent the entire day at the market with his father, hoping to have someone pick him as an apprentice, but no one has. Boys that would appear less desirable have even been picked! Mort is desperate, knowing that its what his father wants, so when Death comes along, he reluctantly takes the job!

Working for Death is a strange job. You would think that as an apprentice Mort would start learning the ropes (even if that sounds a little scary) but the first job Death has him do is mucking out the stables! That's not all that's strange about life in Death's abode. The whole land is just a wee bit off. Death did his best to create a landscape that would reflect what he sees on earth, but Death isn't very creative, and the main color scheme tends to be black.

He tried hard though to create a good land to live in. You see, Death has a daughter, and since she lives with him, he wanted her to have more than the dreary house to explore. Ysabelle and Mort don't get along very well at first, but by the end of the book they learn to work together.

Eventually Mort does begin to "learn the business," and Death even begins to send him out collecting on his own! That's when Mort gets into trouble. You see, it's not up to death to choose who lives or dies, it's simply his job to collect the souls, and when Mort decides to interfere and prevent a Princesses death, well all of history begins to change!

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Can a man be a witch? Can a woman be a wizard? Where are the boundary lines drawn? What defines what? What is simply tradition and what is a hard in stone rule? Most would tell you that only women can be witches, only men can be wizards, and that these are hard and fast rules. Until a dying wizard accidentally passes his powers (and staff) onto the baby that he thinks is the eight son of an eight son. Only the baby is a girl.

"Equal Rites" is about that baby girl, Esk, and her attempt to fumble her way through her magical legacy. Fortunately she's not entirely on her own, Granny Weatherwax, a local witch, takes on the task of watching over Esk and trying to direct her magic. She trains Esk up as a witch, a lot of it is just headology anyway, but the magic has other ideas.

Eventually it becomes obvious that the magic Esk inherited is not simply content to let her be a witch. No one knows what to do with a woman wizard, but everyone figures that the only one's who will be able to figure it out are the wizards of the Unseen University.

Getting to the University is going to be quite the journey though, and once Esk gets there she faces a bunch of men who are VERY set in there ways.

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

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The Light Fantastic: A Discworld Novel

"The Light Fantastic" is the second of the Discworld novels and it continues the story of Rincewind, the magician, and Two Flower, the first ever tourist. When we last saw them they were falling off the edge of the world, a situation that most wouldn't survive, but not these two! The spell inside Rincewind's head is apparently too valuable to be lost, and they are saved magically.

The disc itself is in danger this time. There is a large red star in the sky, and it's growing larger day by day. The magicians have figured out that the only way to protect the disc world involves the spell that's in Rincewind's mind, and now they are searching for him. Unfortunately so are others, and Rincewind and Two Flower are on the run!

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

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The Color of Magic

Did you know that magic has a color? That's right! It's called "octarine" and the wizard Rincewind has always thought it looked kind of orangish-purple.

"The Colour of Magic" is the first book that Terry Pratchett wrote in his now famous Disc-world. It's not the best of his books, but if you want to start at the beginning, this is where you should go! It's broken up into four semi-independent segments; The colour of magic, the sending of eight, the lure of the wyrm, and close to the edge.

In each of the segments we follow the story of Two Flower and Rincewind as they travel around Discworld. In the first segment, the colour of magic, we meet the tourist Two Flower, the bumbling magician Rincewind, and begin to learn about how life on Discworld functions. In the second segment, the sending of eight, we learn a little bit more about the gods of Discworld, as well as the heroes. In the lure of the wyrm we see just how crazy magic can make things, and we have some fun battles with dragons! In close to the edge we learn about what life is like on the edge of discworld, and our two companions find themselves in perhaps the most dangerous fix of them all!