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Mort | Rating | |
| A | |||
| Terry Pratchett | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Discworld | The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort, Sourcery, Wyrd Sisters, Pyramids, Guards! Guards!, Eric, Moving Pictures, Reaper Man, Witches Abroad, Small Gods, Soul Music, Feet of Clay, Interesting Times, The Firth Elephant, Going Postal | ||
Mort's father despaired of finding a place for his son. The young lad has no talent for farming and no skill at anything else. But Mort does manage to become an apprentice, just not of a mason or carpenter or anything one might normally expect, but of Death. That's Death, the guy with the scyth and is all skin and bones, minus the skin part. And Mort has a lot to learn in his new trade. How to walk through walls. How to skip between time. HOW TO TALK LIKE THIS. And, perhaps most importantly, that saving a person from the death meant for them can have serious repercussions on the whole of reality.
The thing about humorous fiction is that it can make or break a novel. In Mort, it definitely makes it. The story is sprinkled liberally with genuinely funny asides and little comments, and the dialogue can veer without warning towards the absurd.
But humor that works isn't the only good thing, here. Mort is a wonderful character to follow. So is Death, which might surprise a few people. He is so full of quirks and foibles, some all to human, that Pratchett's Death has become a classic character in fantasy fiction. Many people consider him Discworld's best, and I can see why.
I also very much enjoyed the plot. While the notion of showing there are consequences for bucking fate has been used elsewhere, here it is... different. At the very least, exactly what those consequences are is rather unique, and combined with the story of a boy learning how to be Death it makes for a great read.
If you like fantasy, if you like humor, and especially if you like both, this is simply a book you have to check out. Soon.
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