Mort

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: Death is so cool! Of course, it's not all about Mort and love and stuff, but mostly because Mort makes a mistake in reality that he has to fix. And Death takes a vacation now that Mort's doing most of THE DUTY, as Death calls it. He goes to parties, gambles, gets drunk, and get a job at a food place. And there's a Rincewind cameo!

It's a funny book, but it's also very sweet.

Rating:
Summary: Entretenidas historias de Terry Pratchett.
Review: Mortimer es un joven soñador y despistado a quien le toca en suerte una inesperada tarea: convertirse en aprendiz de la Muerte y aplicarse en liberar almas de su envoltura carnal. La verdad, Mort no está demasiado capacitado para ello, y en una de sus primeras misiones, liberar el alma de una atractiva princesa que está a punto de ser asesinada, decide en su lugar "liberar" el alma del asesino, interfiriendo así en los designios del Destino y provocando el consiguiente desaguisado. Por su parte, la Muerte, habiendo delegado buena parte de su trabajo en Mort, se dedica a beber, jugar a los dados y embarcarse en enrevesadas reflexiones filosóficas.

Rating:
Summary: Humorous, but goes deeper than that
Review: I read this in one sitting - sitting, in fact, on the floor in Waldenbooks! Probably got a lot of funny looks from people who heard me sniggering to myself. Anyway, MORT is a fast-paced novel that tickles your funny bone, but covers several issues important in today's society. It's a smart book by a smart author, and my only complaint is that it was too short! I'm going to read the Discworld series as fast as I can get my hands on them - that's a promise. ;)

Rating:
Summary: Death takes a holiday
Review: The word on the street is that Pratchett flew out of the gate with this series, hit a downward slide, and then took his time settling back into the Discworld groove. 'Mort', book number four, strikes me as the beginning of the downward slide. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun book, filled with imagination, humour, drama, and rich characters. But it doesn't do much to further this author's reputation.

In terms of narrative, it actually bears a strong resemblance to book #2, 'The Light Fantastic'. In both stories, a supernatural entity slowly moves towards destroying the Discworld (or at least altering it in unimaginable ways). However, the red star from 'Light' is much more menacing than the device Pratchett conjures up here. It's an "interface", representing a thwarted reality, threatening to correct a mistake. My powers of explanation don't do it justice, I know, but Pratchett's do. It's an interesting concoction, but hardly menacing enough to justify the dramatic suspense it's meant to carry. That's really my only complaint here.

The strength of the Discworld series is that Pratchett is a master at taking a simple premise (e.g., What if the wizard charged with saving the world couldn't perform any spells? How would the first female wizard be treated?) and fleshing it out over the length of an enjoyable book. Here, he asks: What would happen if Death took a holiday (an allusion to the movie that inspired 'Meet Joe Black')? Well, we certainly get an answer. And yes, Pratchett's sense of humour is intact. Witness his description of Mort's (Death's apprentice) duties in the horse stables: "Some jobs offer increments. This one offered -- well, quite the reverse." I was knocked backwards when I caught that one! It's the kind of joke that shows Pratchett's verbal dexterity, as well as his complete trust that his audience will be paying attention.

Pratchett's real achievement is his depiction of the afterworld. Death's lair uses the same cliched symbols we've all seen before (hourglasses show how much time everyone has left to live; a library features instantaneously self-updating books representing all individual's life narratives; Death is a skeleton in a black cloak, wielding a menacing scythe). But it compares favourably with Albert Brooks' movie 'Defending Your Life' for its quite ingenious and original (and wonderfully self-referential) rendering of the mechanics of death.

Rating:
Summary: my first time!!
Review: No, not THAT first time! My first time at visiting the hilarious, wild, thought provoking and wonderful Discworld. Since this book I have read all but the most recent of Terry's Discworld series and with a couple of rare exceptions (Intreresting Times being one) they are truly the pepperoni slices on the pizza of literature! Mort will forever remain my favorite, closely followed by Guards, Guards, as we follow the misadventures of Mort in his apprenticship to DEATH (just having DEATH 'speak' in capitals is funny). And who knew that HE liked the odd curry and hated people who were cruel to cats. No series of books has made me laugh out loud so much, and NO humorous book has made me care about its characters to such an extent that the climatic fight leaves me not wanting to read on, but having to! Science Fiction, Fantasy call it what you will. Me, I call it a great book and a great read.

Rating:
Summary: Mort is a great book
Review: My only problem with this book is that it is far too short. I read it more and more and wish the story didn't end too soon. The story draws you in, and all the characters are portrayed very well, leading to a very tense moment when Death starts, well, um... Don't want to give away the plot. Let's just say he's losing his voice, and that's a bad thing... A GREAT book.

Rating:
Summary: The best Pratchett book I have ever read, ever.
Review: This book is amazing. If you like a good laugh and a good story then this is the book for you. If your a fan Pratchett will amaze you and if your new Pratchett will knock you out and put you in a coma because you were laughing so hard. This book compleatly shows the imagination and writing ability of Pratchett. The forth and best Discworld novel introducing you to the very belivable afterlife of the discworld and the hilarity of the death figure. Pratchett will blow your mind.

Rating:
Summary: A Funny, Funny Book
Review: Mort is one of Pratchett's funniest books. His character DEATH is one of his best creations, and Mort's ineptness as DEATH's assitant is rib-crackingly funny. I knew I was going to like this book when I found out that DEATH'S horse was called Binky...need I say more? Read this book and try not to DIE laughing...yeah I know, bad pun!

Rating:
Summary: Pratchett fan
Review: This is a very creative book. Pratchett's discription skills are well shown in this complex, but easily understood novel.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: Mort was the first Discworld novel I read - it just happened to cross my path and I had nothing better to do. Actually, I'm no friend of sf, but it made me literally fall out of bed laughing. Now I'm hooked and am reading my way through the entire Discworld series. By the way - I peeked into the German edition of a Pratchett (that I had read in English) when I was visiting a friend and had nothing to read with me, but I was really disappointed. I reread the same passages later in English - they were as good as ever. The translations are just not as full of bubbly humour, laughs and sarcasm as the original versions! Keep it up, Terry, but watch out for lousy translations!