Other editions of book Pyramids

Twelve-year-old Teppic, god-to-be, had been delighted when he was first sent to odoriferous, magic-filled Ankh-Morpork for seven years of his education. Training as an assassin had been great fun - at least the preliminaries were... the course prior to the point when he was actually expected to kill someone. As it happened, just before his blades could be truly blooded, his father, pharaoh of the tiny kingdom of Djelibeybi, went to his untimely mummyhood. Summoned home to become the new ruler, poor Teppic found himself with all sorts of worries - not the least of which boasted more pyramids per triangular foot than any other, pyramid power was getting way out of control. Plus he was expected to make the sun rise every day without benefit of on-the-job training. The Assassin's Guild hadn't at all prepared Teppic for dealing with staff problems - in particular, a certain voluptuous young handmaiden who seemed interested in peeling things other than grapes. Nor had his teachers tutored him in the proper techniques for maintaining order in a kingdom where every god his overly imaginative subjects had ever worshipped was about to start walking around. But worst of all there was High Priest Dios, inherited from the previous pharaoh. The ultimate traditionalist, dedicated to making sure nothing ever changed in Djelibeybi, Dios was appalled by Teppic's outlandish ideas - a result of that foreign education - and his very unprahaoh-like streak of independence. He quickly decided to speed the boy along the same path his father had so recently taken. But first, of course, he would get Teppic to build a new pyramid for the dear departed ruler. What neither Dios nor Teppic could foresee however, was that this newest and biggest of pyramids might have plans of its own.--- from book's dustjacket

It's not easy being a teenage pharaoh. You're not allowed to carry money, inhibited young women peel your grapes for you, everyone thinks you're responsible for making the sun rise and the corn grow, and on top of everything else the Great Pyramid has just exploded because of paracosmic instability. And all you really wanted was the chance to do something for young people and inner cities.

It's bad enough being new on the job, but Teppic hasn't a clue as to what a pharaoh is supposed to do. After all, he's been trained at Ankh-Morpork's famed assassins' school, across the sea from the Kingdom of the Sun.First, there's the monumental task of building a suitable resting place for Dad -- a pyramid to end all pyramids. Then there are the myriad administrative duties, such as dealing with mad priests, sacred crocodiles, and marching mummies. And to top it all off, the adolescent pharaoh discovers deceit, betrayal -- not to mention aheadstrong handmaiden -- at the heart of his realm.