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Pyramids

(Discworld Novel 7)

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Pyramids

By: Terry Pratchett
Narrated by: Alfred Enoch, Bill Nighy, Peter Serafinowicz
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Over 1 million Discworld audiobooks sold – discover the extraordinary universe of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld like never before

The audiobook of Pyramids is narrated by Alfred Enoch, known for playing Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter film series, and Wes Gibbins in How To Get Away With Murder. BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually; Pirates of the Caribbean; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) reads the footnotes, and Peter Serafinowicz (Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace; Shaun of the Dead) stars as the voice of Death. Featuring a new theme tune composed by James Hannigan.

'"LOOK AFTER THE DEAD," SAID THE PRIESTS, "AND THE DEAD WOULD LOOK AFTER YOU."'

Young Prince Teppic is sent far away from his desert homeland to the city of Ankh-Morpork for the best education money can buy. Which just so happens to be at the Assassins' Guild.

But when Teppic's father dies suddenly, fate takes him away from assassination to something far more unsavoury: politics. Teppic returns home to the small, penniless kingdom of Djelibeybi to take his place as ruler.

It isn't easy, being a teenage pharaoh. As tradition dictates, the new king must build a monumental pyramid to honour his dead father. But this one might just bankrupt the kingdom, and warp the very fabric of time and space itself...

The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Pyramids is a standalone.

The first book in the Discworld series - The Colour of Magic - was published in 1983. Some elements of the Discworld universe may reflect this.

'Pratchett remains a consistently clever, charming and funny voice' - Independent

©1989 Terry and Lyn Pratchett (P)2023 Penguin Audio

 Action & Adventure Epic Fantasy Fiction Humorous Literature & Fiction Royalty Satire Comedy Epic Fantasy Middle East Assassin Pharaoh

Critic Reviews

'Like Dickens, much of Pratchett's appeal lies in his humanism, both in a sentimental regard for his characters' good fortune, and in that his writing is generous-spirited and inclusive'
'As funny as Wodehouse and as witty as Waugh'
'Imagine a collision between Jonathan Swift at his most scatologically-minded and J.R.R. Tolkien on speed'
'The best kind of parody - funny and smart and still a good story'
All stars
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The narrator does a brilliant job. It sounds wierd when he starts because he’s in character throughout the book and does a great job bringing the characters to life. The only criticism being the footnotes and the shimmering audio is at a lower volume level and tends to break the pace at the most in opportune moments.

Excellent book

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This is my favourite Discworld book and it is brilliantly read by Dean from Harry Potter (lol), he does amazing voice work and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audiobook.
However, I can only give it four stars overall because the editor is some kind of idiot and didn't listen back to what they'd done because every time a new chapter starts or it returns to the narrator, the first second of the first word is cut off and it's extremely annoying as it breaks your reverie every time, and that's saying something considering the vast amount of chapters and interruptions from a clearly bored Bill Nighy (who's recording quality is sub-par and far too quiet), could have done with the option to opt-out of the footnotes.
I love that they are churning these books out as fast as I can listen, but I'm sure most listeners would appreciate it if the editors took an extra 2 minutes to make sure that the quality of recording and volume matches, and that they haven't cut off the narrator. You know, the bare minimum for an audiobook.
tl:dr - brilliant performance and story, embarrassingly bad editing, like, whoever okayed this to be published as it is should be shot and then fired.

What is wrong with the editor of these recordings?

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Let me start by saying that Alfred Enoch has a perfectly pleasant voice and I'm sure is a fine actor. He is able to bring a decent variety of voices to the recording and speaks quite clearly. However, he does have a strange tendency to insert extra pauses into what feels like almost every sentence. I'm confident that he's doing this deliberately, as a dramatic interpretation or whatever.

This may not bother you, but as someone who was following along with the text while reading, this bothered me a fair bit. Of course there's room for interpretation in a performance, but for the most part I believe that if Pratchett (or any author) intends for you to pause, they will communicate that via punctuation (commas, full-stops, dashes, ellipses, etc.). Adding in extra pauses (frequently enough that I care to comment on it) is not reading the text as written. Please read it as written.

Similarly, there's a few cases where Enoch seems to change the tone of a sentence for no apparent reason. Adding an upwards inflection to the end of a sentence for example, making it sound like a question or uncertain statement when that's not really how it's written in the book. Please read it as written.

Overall though, I still think it was relatively well performed and I've certainly heard far worse readings. I was able to sit through the entire book without being *too* bothered by it, and as I say, it may not bother you in the slightest so don't immediately cast this one aside on account of my review alone. I'd encourage you to listen to the preview audio (as with any book on Audible) and make a decision from there.

As for the story, I don't think it's one of my favourite Discworld books so far but that's probably mostly a matter of preference. I did enjoy it, and if you are enjoying Discworld for the first time you will probably enjoy this one as well.

Please read it as written...

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Loved it! Story is a little slow but as always this is made up for by Sir Terry's humor and descriptive master pieces

Another classic from Sir Terry Pratchett

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I have read all of the Disc World books 📚 and decided revisit The Pyramids as an audiobook.
I loved the performance of Terry Pratchett's the Pyramids by Alfred Enoch, Bill Nighy and Peter Serafinowicz. Terry Pratchett is one of my all time favourite authors, having written some of the best literature in a magical world. And well before the anyone in the world ever heard of the boy who lived.....
Pratchett was so original in his satire, and absolutely knew how to weave historical fact into fiction that helps makes sense of our world.
Totally recommend this one. And I'm off to find another Pratchett to listen to.

Amazing performance of Terry Pratchett's The Pyramids

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