Book List 2010

[ebony14]

#12. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

The followup to Mort, this is the second book of the Discworld series to put Death in as the main character. It provides some interesting ideas about the concept of death and why the Discworld (and perhaps people in general to some extent) need a personification of such a concept. Death's removal from his position as the personification of death leads him to find something else to do, and it makes him aware of the fact that, without his office, he is as much a slave to the passage of time as any other being on the Disc. He is forced to find a way to deal with this mortality and the attachments and emotions that come from having a lifespan, rather than lifelessness.

Pratchett once again mixes humor with a few poignant truths about life and death, all the while stomping mercilessly all over the tropes of drama and fantasy. Death has an almost universal appeal, serving quite nicely as an everyman for the reader. Secondary characters that have to deal with the lack of Death (but not the lack of death) provide interesting perceptions of how the end of life happens (the mayflies and the oaks are interesting examinations of the event and how our perception of time may not be the only view in the Universe). Not my favorite book of the Disc, but a good one nonetheless.

Comments

[messyah.livejournal.com]

the mayflies moment was one of the most touching and simultaneously funny moments in the whole discworld series.

"when i was your age, all you could see was fields..."

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

I liked the "They don't have sunlight nowadays like they did this morning...." And the idea that the oaks could not see the lumberjacks, so for them Death was the sound of chopping and sawing.