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Terry Pratchett: Mort (1987, New American Library)

181 pages

English language

Published Nov. 25, 1987 by New American Library.

OCLC Number:
19808047

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4 stars (5 reviews)

Death takes on an apprentice who's an individual thinker.

41 editions

Enjoyable and poignant

4 stars

Enjoyable read. Not my favourite of the first five, but had plenty of good moments.

Story revolves around Death taking on a (human) apprentice.

Of course, humans feel compassion and love and so on - so are not especially well-suited to the job of Death. Which is where the drama for the story comes.

But Sir Terry does a good job of 'humanising' Death - yes, he does not really experience life, and he seems to be trying to learn by copying what he sees - but he comes across as a very lonely creature indeed who cares greatly for those entrusted into his care, and it is quite poignant to read this after he took Sir Terry in the end.

#GNUTerryPratchett

Review of 'Mort'

4 stars

This is such an amazing book (my first Terry Pratchett book), would have given it a 5/5, but the last 20-30 pages just falls apart pacing wise and depends on some rushed exposition crammed into the last 2-3 pages that I had to open up the plot of the book on Wikipedia to understand it, the end also just feels out of place with the rest of the book. The first like 90% however has to be one of the most enjoyable reads I've ever had, every page (up to those last few) a pure joy.

Surprisingly unnecessary ending

3 stars

The ending of this book really doesn't make justice for the whole setup and build-up.

One of the Pratchett books that certainly gets worse on the re-read. I will dare to say that both Colour and Light were significantly better as a whole than this one.

Subjects

  • Discworld (Imaginary place) -- Fiction