I am not even going to attempt to explain my absence. It was inexcusable, but I just couldn’t drag myself to the front of the computer. But I have been reading, instead…and really good books. Anything to keep away from application work!
For one, I read Terry Prachett again, and was disappointed, yet again. As you might remember, I said he was a little erratic – turns out, he only shows isolated flashes of brilliance. The more I read, the more I am let down. I read this book called Pyramids, got through nearly three-quarters of it, seeing as it kept holding out the promise of better reading ahead. Just a thought to the content which was so intriguing…
First, it continues on Prachett’s fictional creation, Discworld. This is a great way to explore what our world could be, if things were just a little different. For instance, theives and assassins are coherently unionized, working in perfect harmony. Something like Godfather, but with a sense of humour as well as honour.
In this book, a frustrated Prince of an undeveloped, insular, desert kingdom, goes out into the urban metropolis, joining the elite assassins. His dad dies, on the eve of graduation…the book follows the newly-crowned assassin-King. When no one in the bureacracy listens, the new King initiates his own system of rescuing condemned prisoners, using the skills of an assassin. Full marks for plot.
But then he ruins it, with math and physics and accounts. The King appoints pyramid builders to build the largest pyramid in history, but the building requires “quantum” calculations to meet deadlines. This backfires, ending with the kingdom itself disappearing into a “crack” in a rock.
Why??? How does this contribute to the plot??? Existential questions of being a microscopic part of a macroscopic world demand a full, separate book. They have nothing to do with mutiny-in-Yes-Minister. The cherry on the cake is, the conversations of the pyramid builders are the funniest, most innovative part of the book.
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