Pyramids

“It’s like a whole great pyramid. But upside down, you understand? All that history, all those ancestors, all the people, all funnelling down to me. Right at the bottom.”

I didn’t realize until poking around at other reviews that this was the first standalone Discworld novel - not in the sense that the other books aren’t standalone, I’ve read enough of them now that I can see how people fell into this series sideways, but it’s interesting to read a Discworld plot that doesn’t reference back to other characters and other adventures. That hasn’t happened since I started this series.

That said, I’ll admit that I might’ve enjoyed it more if I hadn’t spent about the first half of the book half expecting the narrative to turn into a “the ancient cultures of the world are backwards and stupid - modern day Western civilization is where it’s really at” kind of plotline. I let out a sigh of relief when it became clear that, no, the book wasn’t here to use Egypt as the stand-in for that kind of commentary. Instead, this book is about tradition, the good and bad sides of it, how adhering to it too strongly can strip it of its original meaning, and that change is not the same as wiping the memory of where you came from. I was very happy to have my gut “oh no” reaction proven wrong.

From there, it’s a fun adventure book. I loved the sci-fi-esque twist with the titular pyramids, I loved You Bastard’s mathematical equations, and I loved how what was previously a throwaway joke about the Assassin’s guild in previous books became the basis for Teppic to bring his homeland into the present while still honoring his past. Even knowing now that this is a standalone adventure, I do hope for some small background updates in future volumes - I’d like to know how the bridge business plays out.