CBR Bingo: Favourite (Pyramids is a new-to-me book in a favourite series, Discworld)
CBR Bingo: ‘G’ (Guards! Guards!)
Pyramids and Guards! Guards! are the latest in a series of reviews I’m doing of Terry Pratchett’s forty-books-plus Discworld series. They are the seventh and eighth books, respectively, and while Pyramids is a relative standalone (to my recollection, the only reoccurring character in this one was Death, and only briefly), Guards! Guards! is the first in a sub-series focussing on the characters of Ankh-Morpork’s Night Watch guardsmen. I haven’t read Pyramids before, but Guards! Guards! is a re-read and one of my favourites of the early Discworld novels.
Pyramids is set in a sort-of pseudo ancient Egypt, where Teppic is called home after the death of his father, the king. He was sent away at an early age to begin assassin training, and so, upon returning home, realizes that he doesn’t actually have that much in common with the people living in his kingdom. It’s been a little while since I read this one, so, while part of this is just due to time, it also wasn’t that memorable. There were some fun parts to it—I liked the first section of the book, which detailed Teppic’s assassin training with his friends, and there were some good bits with a camel who is a mathematical genius, but otherwise, it was pretty average. I remember liking it enough while I was reading it, but it was fairly nondescript in terms of Discworld and doesn’t really stand out.
That’s in contrast to Guards! Guards!, which is probably my favourite book of the first ten-or-so books in the series. I’ve mentioned in my earlier reviews that there’s some jumps in quality as Pratchett settles into things (the biggest in my opinion being between The Light Fantastic and Equal Rites), but I think Guards! Guards! is the point at which, for me, the series goes from good to great. The characters introduced in this one are hilarious and memorable (Sam Vimes, Carrot, and Sybil Ramkin being some of my favourites), there’s a decent plotline involving a dragon, and lots of subtle musings about human nature (let’s be honest, there’s definitely real people stupid enough to make a dragon their king).
Next up are Eric and Moving Pictures (which I’ve actually already read, I’m just behind on my reviews right now and am trying to get caught up)!