Book Review: Pyramids by Terry Pratchett and The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan

Hey all! Snow was a little better than yesterday, but not much new to report. Another day of skiing/snowboarding, spa'ing and sauna'ing - you know, the usual... Today was our last day of our ski pass; tomorrow we'll be hitting Rotorua. Jess and Claire are booked in for massages at the hot springs, Dean will probably go swimming in the thermal pools and I'm going to go recover our passports (Jess left them on the Hobbiton bus) and then (hopefully) go Zorbing! Anyhow, because today has been a pretty slow news day, I give you a book review update.

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Given I've been doing a fair bit of travelling lately - a gig in Sydney and Canberra each weekend before flying over to New Zealand - I've had a bit more time to get stuck into the books I had started. I've just about tied up my new year's resolution to read a book each month; these two make it 11 so far this year.

Admittedly, I find Terry Pratchett novels to be easy reads - they're usually all around the same length and they flow along well, stuck together by clever witticisms - which usually means I can knock one over fairly quickly. On the other hand though, Robert Jordan's novels are the definition of epics; this one I've been working my way through was well over 30 hours in audiobook format.

Anyway, onto the quasi-review/plot synopsis.

Pyramids - Terry Pratchett

Image Credit: Amazon, available in a number of formats.

Young Prince Teppic of the Old Kingdom - a civilisation obsessed with pyramids, rituals and multitudes of animal-headed deities - is sent away to Anhk-Morpork to be trained by the Assassins Guild. On the death of his father, King Teppycimon XXVII, he is compelled to return to his kingdom - with some new ideas in his head on running the place, of course. This is not taken well by Dios, the king's first adviser and high priest. Contains camels with doctorate level mathematics prowess, assassins, Death, beliefs coming to life, the walking dead and axiom destruction testing.

The Shadow Rising - Robert Jordan

Image Credit: Amazon

Beginning after taking The Stone of Tear, Rand Al'Thor - the Dragon Reborn - must travel into The Waste to prove himself as He Who Comes With The Dawn to the People of the Dragon. Egwene, Nyaneve and Elaine continue to hunt the thirteen sisters of the black adja, and scratch the surface of The Dream World. Perrin and Loyal return to Emond's Field to find it overrun with Children of the Light and Trollocs, and unite the Two Rivers folk to fight back. Meanwhile, Min is caught up in an uprising in the White Tower of Tar Valon.