Pratchett Reread – 7. Pyramids

On 21/01/2026 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

This was my first Pratchett so I must have liked it well enough to keep reading but now, having read so many others, it is quite near the bottom of the list. It is partly I think, that it is a one off and so lacks the familiarity of a lot of the other books but also, the story and characters didn’t particularly grab me.

The story starts in Ankh Morpork with Teppic, an Klatchian prince, completing his assassins’ guild examinations. (Incidently, looking at the books as a whole, the reader now has a lot of information about how society works on the Discworld. In Wyrd Sisters, we learn about the Fools Guild and the Thief’s Guild and in this one about the Assassin’s Guild, along with some information about how the guild system worked. Pratchett’s world building is steady and subtle so it doesn’t intrude into the plot but once you start to think about it, you realise that you have a lot of information.)

After he successfully passes his exams, he learns that his father, the current king / god of Djelibeybi has died and so he has to take his place. Teppic is not pleased by this, going back to the tiny kingdom which now seems woefully old fashioned to him. Even more annoying, he has no actual power, as the high priest, Dios, interprets all of Teppic’s words so that they fit with the traditions of Djelibeybi. This follows the last two novels’ ideas about power quite nicely as we are introduced to Dios, a man so unable to let go of power that he chooses immortality in order to make sure the kingdom carries on the way he wants it to.

The story revolves around the building of pyramids and the mythical properties that pyramids are supposed to have. There is nothing wrong with Pratchett’s satirising of these mysteries and the way that time is disturbed is both clever and amusing but I didn’t feel compelled by the story. Perhaps it was because I didn’t really feel drawn to any of the characters so there was little sense of jeopardy. I wasn’t really concerned about how things turned out.

This being Pratchett, there are some nice touches. Teppic’s father Pteppicymon XXVII, is disgusted to realise that while he is immortal, he will be trapped in his pyramid and so while he has eternal life, it is definitely limited. He realises exactly how pointless the rituals he believes in actually are. Ptraci, the late king’s handmaiden, manages to escape being killed and interred with the king and Teppic falls immediately and hopelessly in love with her but he has no idea how to deal with this. Ptraci and Teppic make their escape on the back of a camel called You Bastard, who happens to be the world’s greatest mathematician as well as having all the stereotypically bad tempered characteristics of a camel. There is some clever playing around with time as Teppic orders the biggest pyramid ever made which also causes the Gods to materialise making it much harder to believe in them.

All in all, though, I felt that it doesn’t add up to much and for me, it is not one of the better stories. It feels a bit flimsy with not quite as much depth to the writing as you would hope for.

Pratchett Reread 6 – Wyrd Sisters

On 17/01/2026 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

I was looking forward to rereading this one. Macbeth is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays and I love all the nods to it in this novel. In my opinion, the witches series are some of the best discworld books and Granny Weatherwax is one of my favourite characters so I knew I was onto a winner. I was not disappointed.

This follows on nicely from Sourcery because although the set of characters are completely different, it continues with the theme of power and who is best to wield it. This time, the whole land wakes up at the thought of a king who does not respect it and only wants the power for the sake of having it. The witches hear it and know that something unusual is happening but they are not sure what it is. They know, however, that they are going to have to do something about it.

Apart from Granny Weatherwax, this is the first time we properly meet the witches. Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick are useful foils to Granny’s strictness. Magrat is Granny’s polar opposite and they often clash, leading to both of them trying to rescue Nanny purely to stop the other one from rescuing her first. Nanny is unusual for a witch, having a huge family of children, grandchildren and a range of daughters in law who do her bidding. She is also hard drinking and lewd, opposite to Granny in a completely different way to Magrat. This means that their covens are more arguments than meetings and there is very little they agree on.

Then we have the gloriously awkward romance between Magrat and Verence the fool. Magrat is soppy and loves all the occult trimmings that come with being a witch. Verence is beaten down by the role of fool and tinkles when he walks. It seems like a match made in heaven but, of course, the path of true love does not run smoothly. In the end, both parties are too embarrassed to refer to their relationship so progress is extremely slow.

As well as Shakespeare, there are many references to fairy tales in Wyrd Sisters and so it seemed apt to me when Granny moves the narrative forward fifteen years by flying round and round the kingdom so that the foundling Tom John is old enough to come and claim the throne. I have seen some complaints online that this is lazy writing or a bit of a cheat. I can see why people may say that but it is not something that ever occurred to me. It always made perfect sense.

Overall, this is very funny, very clever and stands up as one of the best witches books.

Pratchett Reread 5. Sourcery

On 06/01/2026 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

I wasn’t sure how much I was going to enjoy this one. My memory was that it was okay but not the best. As such, it’s not one that I have reread very often. however, I was pleasantly surprised. It was much better than I remember. And like Mort, it is so much more than a story about a boy who is the seventh son of a seventh son who becomes a sourcerer.

This is a tale about power – who should wield it and how it should be wielded. Quite an unwieldy subject but Pratchett makes it so you barely notice. There is no heavy handed moralising here. Just a comic tale of what might happen if the power of magic should fall into the wrong hands.

We have Rincewind, reluctant hero whose first thought is to runaway (along with the rats and the gargoyles from Unseen University). As ever, his attempts to get away from the action only pull him in further. His adventures bring him into contact with Conina, the daughter of Cohen the Barbarian, Nijel, a desperately unlikely hero and Creosote, the richest man in the world. There is also a much bigger role for the Librarian who hides all the magical books from Coin, the sourcerer. The Librarian is also responsible for looking after the Patrician – who has been turned into a lizard.

There is plenty of comic business. Nijel is the worst hero ever although he does try very hard. Conina just wants to be a hairdresser although she has a barbarian’s instincts. And of course, Rincewind, despite being the worst wizard, is full of knowledge about what he thinks wizardry should represent and how magic should be used. He is not taken in by Coin, when most of the other wizards see only the possibility for gaining power.

The novel ends with Rincewind saving the day but in the dungeon dimensions. So while the world is saved, Rincewind is missing in action The rest of the world returns to normal with little thought for the reluctant hero. It was mostly a satisfying read and much better than I remember.

Pratchett Reread – 4. Mort

On 18/10/2025 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

For me, this is the first five star read of the series. It made me laugh from start to finish. The characters were fully realised, the plot was more than just a series of jokes strung together and I couldn’t put it down.

It starts with Mort, an awkward teenager who doesn’t fit in in his small village. His father has heard that there is a hiring fair and takes Mort along. Unfortunately no one wants him until – at midnight, of course – Death turns up to take Mort as his apprentice. Mort’s father is happy just to see his son placed somewhere and so Mort’s new life begins.

This takes us to Death’s kingdom and we meet Ysabell, Death’s adopted daughter and Albert, his grumpy manservant, both of which are full of comic potential. Ysabell has been a teenager for a long time (as you do not age in Death’s kingdom) and as you can imagine this has had quite an effect on her mood. Albert seems like just the salt of the earth servant you might expect Death to have but it transpires that he was a secret he’d rather Mort didn’t know.

Death begins to show Mort the ropes, taking him to the more important deaths of the Discworld. Mort begins to learn about fairness – ‘There is no justice’ Death tells Mort, ‘Just me.’ This is a valuable lesson and one which Mort seems reluctant to learn. When he begins to do the duties, things quickly go wrong because Mort is reluctant to kill Princess Keli at her allotted time. This leads to many problems for Keli and for Mort.

Keli discovers that the world carries on as if she has died – history is stronger than individuals. Mort decides that he will try to fix things himself, seemingly oblivious to the fact that history will sort itself out and Death decides that he will go on a holiday know that he has an apprentice. Death decides that there are aspects of human life he would like to investigate – getting drunk, gambling and dancing eventually finding some sort of satisfaction working in a greasy spoon. Mort becomes more like Death while Death becomes more human.

There are interesting philosophical questions raised about life, death and history. There is action. And there are characters that are convincing that you care about. This definitely feels like the real beginning of the Discworld saga.

Pratchett Reread – No. 3 Equal Rites

On 15/09/2025 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

Well, this was surprising. I enjoyed this much more than I expected. I’m really not sure what I disliked about it so much last time round. It may have been the division between witch (female) magic and wizard (male) magic which was seemingly reinforced by Granny Weatherwax. I was a little disappointed in Granny, I think, as I knew her from later novels before I read this one. She doesn’t seem quite her later self. The division felt entrenched in the first half of the novel although by the end it is less so.

I still thought that this time round but perhaps because I was expecting it I didn’t find it quite as jarring. Certainly, this is still underdeveloped in places. The Librarian is still quite a small character compared to his later appearances. Granny seems even more set in her ways although to be fair, she does end up giving in and taking Esk to Unseen University once she realises that she needs to learn wizard magic.

That aside, it trots along nicely as a story. Esk is a strong female character – headstrong and determined to do what she wants – something that means that Granny has to rescue her regularly. Granny is not quite fully formed but a lot of the things that are good about her are already there. She is one of my favourite Discworld characters but she is definitely better in the comic trio of Nanny Ogg and Magrat.

So overall, this was a fairly solid read – not my favourite but definitely moving in the right direction.

Pratchett Reread – 2. The Light Fantastic

On 28/08/2025 By kepagewriterIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

Well, I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected and certainly a lot more than The Colour of Magic. It felt like things had fallen into place a little more. Rincewind and Twoflower felt a bit more well rounded and their relationship was more nuanced than in The Colour of Magic. The plot also trotted along at a good pace and the addition of the red star heading for the discworld made it quite exciting.

Other characters seemed a bit more like themselves as well. There is a scene where Twoflower tries to teach the four horsemen of the apocalypse to play Bridge and Death is utterly confused and fascinated which seems like the start of his attitude to humans in the rest of the series.

I’d forgotten that this was our first meeting with Cohen The Barbarian. At the beginning he is without his diamond teeth which forms a nice comic disparity between Cohen the tough guy and Cohen the old man. Twoflower, of course, is in awe of him. Others often underestimate Cohen although they soon come to regret that. In the course of The Light Fantastic, having travelled through time and space on the back of the luggage, he bursts through the teeth of a just awakened troll. Taking these diamonds and Twoflower’s idea of dentures, he fashions his diamond teeth.

We also meet the Librarian although he is not quite the character that he becomes in the later novels. In fact, he is just a note in the background music of the Unseen University, a passing piece of comedy. But then the other wizards are similarly underdrawn. In the later novels, the wizards are more static, Ridcully is arch-chancellor for a long time. I’d forgotten that he wasn’t always arch-chancellor. There is more comedic value in familiarity, I think, so I’m glad that Pratchett made the decision to keep things more static.

There is more social commentary than in The Colour of Magic. There are the sects of people who spring up with the advances of the star who want to rid the world of magic and are not afraid to use violence to do it. There is Ymper Trymon, a wizard who places organisation above all else. He is a great villain who is convinced that the world should follow a certain order and would like to fit people neatly into that order. He meets a suitably gruesome end which was very satisfying.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this but it was still not as good as some of the later novels.

Top Ten Tuesday – Books with a high page count

On 19/08/2025 By kepagewriterIn Updates and informationLeave a comment

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This weeks top ten is books with a high page count. I’m sometimes wary of reading long books because I hate not finishing a book so usually make myself carry on reading even if I’m hating it but here are 10 with 500+ pages

Middlemarch – George Elliot – 912 pages – This was a lot better than I expected. Elliot’s prose was enjoyable and the story was fairly interesting. I’m not sure it really needed to be so long though.
A Widow for One Year – John Irving – 576 pages – My second Irving and while not as good as The World According to Garp it was suitably weird and interesting.
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides – 529 pages – Very enjoyable tale of three generations of the same Greek-American family.
Tigana – Guy Gavriel Kay – 676 pages – A second attempt at this one. An excellent fantasy novel. I’m glad I persevered this time.
11/22/63 – Stephen King – 849 pages – A interesting time travel tale, much better than the TV show with James Franco.
Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel – 653 pages. I read this last year and it was a bit of a slog. It started well and ended well but I felt a bit bogged down in the middle. Still unsure if I am going to read on.
Moby Dick – Herman Melville – 720 pages – This was a bit of a slog. There are some good moments of adventure but also lots and lots of information about whales.
Labyrinth – Kate Mosse – 515 pages. I really enjoyed this holy grail fantasy. It’s much cleverer than the Da Vinci Code although it’s just as absurd. I probably will read on but I haven’t yet.
Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon – 776 pages – I did not enjoy or understand this one but I slogged my way through it. Not sure it was worth it.
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy – 1392 pages – This was a bit up and down. Some of it was really enjoyable but I found the war elements less interesting than the personal relationships of the various characters.

Top Ten Tuesday – Genre freebie – Horror

On 05/08/2025 By kepagewriterIn Updates and informationLeave a comment

How it works:

I assign each Tuesday a topic and then post my top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join me and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

This week’s Top Ten is a genre freebie. I have decided to choose horror as it is a genre I have read for a long time and one I still enjoy.

Let the Right One In – John Ajvide Lindqvist – I read this after watching the film and enjoyed this much more. It’s darker and more disturbing’
Thinner – Richard Bachman – For some reason this book has stuck with me. I read it a long time ago but it still gives me the creeps to think about it. The way he just keeps getting thinner still makes me shudder.
The Rats – James Herbert – Another book that I read in sixth form but that had a long lasting effect on me. I’m not normally freaked out by animal stories but Herbet hits the right note of horror all the way through.
The Stand – Stephen King – It’s hard to pick a Stephen King book – I easily could have picked 10 by him for this list – but this is one of the first post-apocalyptic stories I read which sent me down a new reading avenue for a while afterwards.
Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin – This is a masterclass in suspense and even though I had seen the film, the book was still incredibly tense.
I am Legend – Richard Matheson – I recently re-read this and I had forgotten how good it is. A vampire tale with a difference. Difficult to say much without spoilers but needless to say the film of this is one of the worst adaptations of a horror film that I have seen.
The Road – Cormac McCarthy – More post-apocalyptic horror from McCarthy. I had read a couple of his westerns before this which blew me away. Shame he didn’t write more in this vein.
Dracula – Bram Stoker – A classic and another story that the films don’t really do justice to.
Some of Your Blood – Theodore Sturgeon – This is a disturbing tale which starts with the psychological evaluation of a soldier and doesn’t reveal what he has done until the very end. Very dark.
The Invisible Man – H. G. Wells – I think this is my favourite of Wells’ books. Again, this is different from the film with a dark description of one man’s descent into madness/

Discworld re-read – The Colour of Money.

On 28/07/2025 By kepagewriterIn Updates and informationLeave a comment

I decided that I would start to re-read the discworld books in order. It was a decision made because I wanted to read something that I knew I would like. I’ve been struggling a little so far this year with deciding what to read and then picking things that I don’t really get on with. I’m not intending to read only Pratchett but maybe every other book will be a Pratchett. I haven’t ever read the whole series in the right order. My first one was Pyramids which I bought in the early 90s. I enjoyed it but I was a bit slow to start reading any others (perhaps because it is a stand alone story). For a while, I picked them up in haphazard fashion, buying new releases while trying to catch up with previous ones although from about 2000 onwards, I was reading them in the right order.

So I started last month with The Colour of Magic. It is strange reading it now, a bit like watching the first episode of a comedy show that you really like but which didn’t quite gel at the beginning. The characters were all there, the setting was the same but things definitely felt a little undeveloped. Death was a different character, colder and less likeable. Of course, as yet, he hasn’t been Bill Door or the Hogfather so his character development is all in the future.

Rincewind and Twoflower make a good pairing though. Twoflower is an excellent comic invention with his naivety only matched by his ability to get into dangerous situations. Combined with Rincewind’s abilty at running away, this makes for some classic Pratchett comedy. Even so, I felt like there was something lacking. I’m not even sure what it was but I definitely didn’t enjoy this as much this time round. I already know that the next two books (The Light Fantastic and Equal Rites) are not ones that I love so it will be interesting to see what I make of them this time round.

Top Ten Tuesday- Top Ten Titles to do with Spring

On 08/04/2025 By kepagewriterIn Updates and informationLeave a comment

How it works:

I’ve changed this weeks Top Ten a little as it related to book covers that are spring like. I’m not very good at remembering what book covers look like so I’ve gone for titles that relate to spring and nature.

Hag-Seed – Margaret Atwood (2016) – One of my favourites of Atwood’s recent novels. A rewriting of The Tempest set in a prison, where Felix plans retribution for losing his job.
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep – Joanna Cannon (2016) – This coming of age story started well and I enjoyed the narrative voice but unfortunately it became unconvincing.
Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes (1966) – A thought experiment about the effects of intelligence on the way other people treat you. An excellent read.
The Swan Thieves – Elizabeth Kostova (2010) – I enjoyed reading this – I gave it 4 stars – but I admit I can’t remember much about it. It’s about art and Impressionism but it clearly didn’t make a huge impression on me.
The Lost Language of Cranes – David Leavitt (1986) – When his son comes out, a father begins to question his own sexuality. An excellent family tale.
Black Swan Green – David Mitchell (2006) – My favourite Mitchell – probably because it is the most straightforward. A coming of age tale.
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens (2018) – Unlike almost everyone else, I didn’t get on with this book. I found it unconvincing and didn’t get on with the characters.
Rabbit Run – John Updike (1960) This was a depressing read and although it was well written I didn’t enjoy it and I haven’t been able to make myself read anymore of the series.
Cloudstreet – Tim Winton (1991) – An excellent family drama set from the 40s-60s in Australia.
The Midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham (1957) – When all the women in one village become pregnant at the same time, the children are bound to be a bit unusual. As ever, Wyndham is most concerned with how people react to the children and their telepathy. Much recommended.

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