Mort

Rating:
Summary: Very Fun and Witty
Review: This is my first Terry Pratchett book - and frankly, after reading this book, I'm not sure why I didn't start earlier. But first - "Mort" tells about Mort, a young boy living in the Discworld who is looking for an apprentice position. Fortunately (or not), Death - yes, the grim reaper - is looking for an apprentice and Mort seems like a very good candidate. Mort takes on the offer and starts a rather bizarre existence.. especially since he falls in love with one of his "Clients" and refuses to let her die, thus, challenging the destiny and gods of the Discworld.
As a stranger to discworld I was a bit afraid that I will not understand many of the puns and ideas of this book, but it is *completely* self contained. I did feel there were some references that I wasn't familiar with, but nothing which ruined the fun in the least. Very highly recommended, reading it was a nonstop pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: Death isn't all it's cracked up to be . . .
Review: There are, I believe, a couple dozen titles now in the Discworld series, but this one -- the fourth -- is still one of the best. Death, who SPEAKS IN ALL CAPITALS, and takes his job seriously, decides nevertheless that he's in need of a break. So he takes on an apprentice, a young farm lad named Mortimer -- Mort for short. On his first solo soul-collecting assignment, Mort discovers he can't allow the teenaged Princess Keli to be assassinated by her uncle the Duke, tries to prevent what is supposed to happen -- what *must* happen -- and, of course, messes thing up. Reality tends to heal itself in the long run, though, and there's no way the kid can stop history from getting back on its proper track. But he's certainly going to try. As one might expect in a Pratchett yarn, things get a bit out of hand after that, especially when Death goes AWOL for a time, trying out human experiences and vices, and when Mort begins taking on more and more of his boss's characteristics. After all, as Mort explains to Death's adopted daughter, Ysabell, DEATH IS WHOEVER DOES DEATH'S JOB. The final confrontation between Mort and Death is a marvelous set-piece. Can Mort win? Can Death lose? Is it even fair? THERE IS NO JUSTICE, as Death is fond of remarking. THERE'S ONLY ME.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: "Mort" is Terry Pratchett's first truly great novel. The gimmick, of course, is that Death is a main character in this book. Growing tired of his job, he takes on a young boy named Mort as an apprentice. The arrangement isn't perfect, however, as Mort still experiences emotions that are entirely foreign to Death. This leads Death on a quest to gain understanding of the human concept of fun, while Mort runs into certain problems during his first attempt at the job. The situations looks to be spiraling out of control, but everything comes together in an absolutely brilliant climax.

Like many folks, I've spent years listening to friends and critics hail Pratchett's genius nonstop. I finally bowed to peer pressure and dove into his body of work, starting with "The Color of Magic", "The Light Fantastic", and "Equal Rites". Now those are all fine books with lots of big laughs, but they didn't quite justify the endless claims of Pratchett being one of the great fantasy authors of all time. "Mort" does. The first two Discworld novels were straight-up farce, and "Equal Rites" seemed a bit uncomfortable with its serious themes. "Mort", however, shifts solidly into character-driven humor. The jokes come not entirely from ludicrous diversions, but rather from watching the personalities in the story bounce off each other. And through it all, Pratchett never forgets the subject matter that he's dealing with. He makes good use of the concept of Death.

With that said, "Mort" is just plain hilarious. I've remarked before how Pratchett has an almost unique gift for choosing words and sentences for maximum effect. In this respect, he just gets better and better with each book. One example from "Mort" that sticks out in my mind is a scene where Mort encounters three thugs in the streets of Ankh-Morpork. First, the author is aware of and plays with formula fantasy conventions. But more importantly, the way that he cuts between different perspectives while telling the story and constructs each sentence with care brings out maximum comic effect. It's so brilliant, I could read twenty more of these novels. Matter of fact, I think I will.

Rating:
Summary: Very Fun and Witty
Review: This is my first Terry Pratchett book - and frankly, after reading this book, I'm not sure why I didn't start earlier. But first - "Mort" tells about Mort, a young boy living in the Discworld who is looking for an apprentice position. Fortunately (or not), Death - yes, the grim reaper - is looking for an apprentice and Mort seems like a very good candidate. Mort takes on the offer and starts a rather bizarre existence.. especially since he falls in love with one of his "Clients" and refuses to let her die, thus, challenging the destiny and gods of the Discworld.
As a stranger to discworld I was a bit afraid that I will not understand many of the puns and ideas of this book, but it is *completely* self contained. I did feel there were some references that I wasn't familiar with, but nothing which ruined the fun in the least. Very highly recommended, reading it was a nonstop pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: Second-funniest Death book to date
Review: The the story of Death and his sidekick. Lots of nice detail about life in Ankh-Morpork as well as various hinterlands. The coming-of-age aspect is nicely done, with Mort proceeding from an inept farmhand to apprentice and eventually challenging Death. A lot of fun about the nature of reality and what happens if you change history. When Death walks off the job, to wander Ankh-Morpork drinking top-shelf liquor and working as a short-order cook, the results are hilarious. This is somewhat comparable with Piers Anthony's book from his Incarnations of Immortality series, On a Pale Horse, but Anthony suffers by comparison for his lack of real world-building and for taking himself far too seriously. The side characters here are great, including Death's daughter, and Death's servant Albert, who turns out to be of more importance than he seems. As is unfortunately typical in Discworld books, the ending is more a scramble to tie up loose ends than a masterfully shaped summation and conclusion; it must not have been memorable, because I can't remember it (how's that for circular reasoning?)

Rating:
Summary: great chapter in the series
Review: "Mort" is one of the novels in Pratchett's Discworld series. If you've never read any of the Discworld books let me set the stage for you...

Discword is a flat planet that sits atop 4 huge elephants that ride on the back of a giant turtle that is "swimming" through the universe. The Discworld is run by various gods and consists of wizards, dragons, trolls, heroes, and various other figures that are accounted for in other fantasy novels. What is different about these novels is that they are satire. They are some of the most humorous books that you may ever read.

"Mort" is a story that revolves mainly around the grim reaper of Discworld. In this story, he takes on an apprentice and sets out to "find himself" in the land of the living. He takes on odd jobs and tries to understand human emotion which leads to some hilarious adventures. While he's away from his duties, his apprentice disrupts the time continuem and almost destroys the world in the process. Death must go back and put everything right again.

(...)

Rating:
Summary: Death, Part 1
Review: Being part of the Death sub series this book is inclined to get good ratings, which it does deserve. While it's not as complex as the books later in the Discworld, such as The Truth, or Nightwatch, Mort is a good starting book to the series (Even though it isn't actually the first. Go figure.)

Rating:
Summary: Hook, Line, and Sinker.
Review: So you must've heard of Terry Pratchett before somewhere. About his wildly successful Discworld series, his praised, able-to-make-you-laugh-out-loud, humour. So it's finally got you interested, at least to prove everybody wrong about this hack. I mean, can someone British really have a sense of humour?
Then start with this book. Prove us all wrong. It's the fourth in the series but you don't need to read the preceeding novels, nor the ones after. Pick it up, without reading reviews elsewhere as to what it's all about and venture into that mad, magical world like a castaway stranded in seemingly-desolute, uncharted territories, with treasures hidden all over; explore this world on your own; you'd want it to be all yours.
Terry can get to be a silly old man, but he's not dumb. Every Discworld novel makes numerous refrences, a lot of them being historical. Trust me, some things he didn't make up. For example, in the beginning of the novel, Mort's dad takes Mort to the marketplace to try to find a job for him. Mort stands around all day hoping to get hired while people from all over come searching for the best apprentice to hire. This procedure is done something like once a year, although i'm not too sure about that. What I'm sure is that Terry didn't make this up from the back of his head. This used to happen in old England, up until a century ago, i guess. I found that out when i read Thomas Hardy's "Far From The Madding Crowd" a few days ago, so i'm sure this was practiced for some time.
It's a small detail but just goes to show you how much thought Terry puts into his novel.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: "Mort" is Terry Pratchett's first truly great novel. The gimmick, of course, is that Death is a main character in this book. Growing tired of his job, he takes on a young boy named Mort as an apprentice. The arrangement isn't perfect, however, as Mort still experiences emotions that are entirely foreign to Death. This leads Death on a quest to gain understanding of the human concept of fun, while Mort runs into certain problems during his first attempt at the job. The situations looks to be spiraling out of control, but everything comes together in an absolutely brilliant climax.

Like many folks, I've spent years listening to friends and critics hail Pratchett's genius nonstop. I finally bowed to peer pressure and dove into his body of work, starting with "The Color of Magic", "The Light Fantastic", and "Equal Rites". Now those are all fine books with lots of big laughs, but they didn't quite justify the endless claims of Pratchett being one of the great fantasy authors of all time. "Mort" does. The first two Discworld novels were straight-up farce, and "Equal Rites" seemed a bit uncomfortable with its serious themes. "Mort", however, shifts solidly into character-driven humor. The jokes come not entirely from ludicrous diversions, but rather from watching the personalities in the story bounce off each other. And through it all, Pratchett never forgets the subject matter that he's dealing with. He makes good use of the concept of Death.

With that said, "Mort" is just plain hilarious. I've remarked before how Pratchett has an almost unique gift for choosing words and sentences for maximum effect. In this respect, he just gets better and better with each book. One example from "Mort" that sticks out in my mind is a scene where Mort encounters three thugs in the streets of Ankh-Morpork. First, the author is aware of and plays with formula fantasy conventions. But more importantly, the way that he cuts between different perspectives while telling the story and constructs each sentence with care brings out maximum comic effect. It's so brilliant, I could read twenty more of these novels. Matter of fact, I think I will.

Rating:
Summary: Keeps getting better
Review: If you liked discworld 3 (equal rites) at least a little, you must get this next one in the series! You could start with this book as well, as it is self contained. Always interseting, always looney, sometimes laugh out loud funny. This is a deeper look into the character Death, and how related things work in Discworld. Supprised me a bit as the 1st two books (The Light Fantastic mainly) although not that good, led you to assume some things that is turned upside-down here.