'Look after the dead', said the priests, 'and the dead will look after you.' Wise words in all probability, but a tall order when, like Teppic, you have just become the pharaoh of a small and penniless country rather earlier than expected, and your treasury is unlikely to stretch to the building of a monumental pyramid to honour your dead father. He'd had the best education money could buy of course, but unfortunately the syllabus at the "Assassin's Guild" in Ankh-Morpork did not cover running a kingdom and basic financial acumen... "'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'" Guardian "'As funny as Wodehouse and as witty as Waugh'" Independent "'Imagine a collision between Jonathan Swift at his most scatologically-minded and J.R.R. Tolkien on speed'" Daily Telegraph "'The best kind of parody - funny and smart and still a good story'" Mail on Sunday