This is a reference to the lines Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan. ‘It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played.’ Pratchett uses this reference in Sourceryas well. In Discworld, Little Pieces for Tiny Fingers is a book of dulcimer music for beginners. Goblins Picnic is one of the songs in this book. Pratchett has taken the name from Roundworld beginner books for teaching music to children such as J. Sutcliffe Smith's Pieces with Words and Introductory Exercises for Tiny Fingers or Gladys V. Gilbert's Seven Little Pieces.

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett - Penguin Books Australia Pyramids by Terry Pratchett - Penguin Books Australia

Pyramids uses a fairly straight forward structure. It's linear and focuses, mainly, on Teppic our main character. The paragraphs are nice and short in the main. It also includes the nice little footnotes that Pratchett uses in most of his works. All in all, a very easy book to read. Happiness in Slavery: The people of Djelibeybi are so used to doing whatever Dios has commanded that Teppic has some difficulty trying to get Ptraci to freedom when he wants to rescue her from being executed. An old man he tries to rescue screams for the guards rather than be set free. This also delves into some time and quantum elements that are hilariously Pratchett and we meet a very unexpected greatest mathematician in the Discworld. Counterfeit Cash: Played with. IIa discovers that the temporal nodes can duplicate money as well as people, the only problem being that the money eventually disappears. This doesn't stop him paying the workers with it- after all, he gives them the money, and what happens to it afterwards isn't his responsibility, is it? Senior Year Struggles: The last year at the Assassins' School (Upper Sixth, analogous to real-world senior year) in Ankh-Morpork is literally a matter of life and death, as the Final Exam involves a very real threat of flunking out - terminally — if they fail the exam.This is where Pratchett thrives, in his writing. If you laid out any two or three sentences and asked me to identify it's owner, it would be easy to spot Pratchett’s work. It's simply beautiful. Here's a few of my favourites: O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After being unflattened IIa shows no interest in the cost of the new bridges, which initially worries Ptaclusp. However, it turns out that he's just preoccupied with the royal finances. In a Usenet posting, Terry Pratchett realized that this sailed right over the heads of most American readers, as Jelly Babies are not generally sold there. One of the alternative jokes he suggested, Hersheba, later became an actual country in Discworld. Friendly Enemy: Though the elite and citizenry of Ephebe and Tsort may hate each other dearly, their soldiers (or at least their commanders) don't appear to hold a particular grudge.

Pyramids (Discworld. the Gods Collection) by Terry Pratchett Pyramids (Discworld. the Gods Collection) by Terry Pratchett

He shrugged. It might be, for all he knew. “The point is, though, that everyone can do it. They’re very proud of it. Everyone has—” he hesitated again, certain now that things were amiss—“the vet. Except for women, of course. And children. And criminals. And slaves. And stupid people. And people of foreign extractions. And people disapproved of for, er, various reasons. And lost of other people. But everyone apart from them. It’s a very enlightened civilization.” I find this one of the funniest early works, showing that Pratchett trained his muscles enough and is coming closer and closer to ingenuity and unique telling talent. From now on, each book is a total must read, except of the later ones which turn dark and are sometimes so different that it may be difficult to find traces of Pratchetts´early, lighthearted, exceptionally funny, writing in them. And I don´t mean a bit sad or something, I mean depressingly and frustratingly showing the darkest sides of humankind in pictures ineradicable out of the readers´ mind. Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth Conservatives vs progressives was, even in this version of ancient Egypt, a hot topic, and Pratchett ridicules the arguments of antiquated minds by exaggerating their prime goals and authorities in general.Springtime for Hitler: The final exam to become a fully fledged Assassin is to find, stalk and kill ( inhume) a target, overcoming obstacles placed by the instructor. Teppic makes it to the target, but cannot bring himself to kill, so he looks the instructor in the eye and deliberately misses with his crossbow. Through a complicated ricochet, it ends up striking the target anyway. The instructor passes him, but scolds him for showing off. It turned out to be a dummy anyway. Strange-Syntax Speaker: Dios will do anything to avoid usage of past or future tenses, something Teppic notices early.

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, First Edition - AbeBooks Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, First Edition - AbeBooks

Murphy's Bullet: Pteppic decides to fail his Assassin's Guild final exam in style and deliberately aims his crossbow away from the target. The bolt ricochets off several objects before burying itself in the target. The examiner comments that he is not a fan of these new, flashy techniques but passes him as the end result was achieved. There is also a reference in Small Gods to a religious philosopher named Koomi, but it says that he is from Smale. It is unknown if he has any connection with Koomi the priest in Pyramids. The phrase ‘stranger in a strange land’ originates from the Bible, Exodus 2:22. ‘And she bare [Moses] a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.’ In Exodus, the ‘strange land’ was Egypt, so Pratchett puts a twist on the phrase here as Djelibeybi is a familiar land to Teppic as he grew up there, but he is a stranger to it having lived in Ankh-Morpork while at school. Robert Heinlein used the phrase as the title of his 60s cult science fiction book.Never Smile at a Crocodile: Ptraci fears being thrown to the crocodiles for escaping from the late King's tomb. Later, any priest who says something the now-manifested gods might take offence at is thrown to the river's crocodiles by the other priests. Pteppic's mother was also killed by a crocodile, although not as a form of execution; she "took a midnight swim in what turned out to be a crocodile." When the Djel gods manifest and start tearing up the place, a crocodile-headed river god tries to bite off the snake-head of a rival river god. Unfortunately, most British readers like this Troper read that as Her-She-Ba' (Queen of Sheba, Bathsheba, etc). It can also go over the heads of Americans, since the joke is based on a British tendency to pronounce an "r" sound on words ending in a vowel, hence, "Hershebar". I want to have an always listening, sympathetic, professional paid opportunist too! Someone who can bear my monologues without impolite expressions of own opinions or in general saying anything unasked and unauthorized instead of just acclaiming as it should be. Sadist Teacher: Mericet has this reputation among the would-be Assassins (potentially literally - this is a school for assassins, after all), although he does give Teppic a Pass after a really gruelling test.