Mort (Discworld Novels (Audio))

Rating:
Summary: The Best Yet
Review: I've started reading the Discworld series from the beginning since they've started reissuing the ones that were out of print. "Mort" is by far the best I've read so far. If they keep getting better as the series progresses, I'm going to have to restrict myself to reading these books at home because of the weird looks I get if I laugh at a book in public. Death is the most hilarious character in the book. Death has decided that he needs an apprentice so that he can look around a bit, do a bit of sightseeing on the Disc. Mort is the only boy in his town that wasn't offered an apprenticeship... until Death came. He gave Mort the offer of a lifetime. Free room and board, a great job, use of the company horse. What more could Mort ask for? But Death starts spending more and more time away and Mort isn't quite ready to start taking over the job full time. This book explores what happens when someone doesn't die that the entire universe expects to die. Like I said, it's one of the *best* of the series so far, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Rating:
Summary: Another great Pratchett book
Review: This is the fourth book in Terry Pratchett's books on the Discworld - a flat world, supported on the back of four massive elephants riding on the back of a planet-sized turtle, anything hilarious can happen here, and eventually does. In this book, Death (capital "D", he's the man, or rather the anthropomorphic personification) decides to take an apprentice, and selects Mort, a rather inept young man from the Ramtops. As Death takes less interest in his job, Mort's interests cause him to create a tear in reality.

This is another great Pratchett book. Running several storylines at once, the author succeeds in having all of them move along smoothly. Also, the book contains a goodly dollop of Terry's humor and ironic footnotes. I love the Death books (this one, plus Reaper Man, Soul Music, and Hogfather); in this one Death tries the joys of drinking, dancing, gambling and so forth, all with hilarious results.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Second-funniest Death book to date
Review: This is the story of Death and his young sidekick, Mort. There are lots of nice details 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 become Death's apprentice and eventually his rival. Like Pratchett's best Discworld novels, there is a light touch of serious philosophical inquiry here about the nature of reality and just what would happen if you really could 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. The story is somewhat comparable to Piers Anthony's _On a Pale Horse_, but Anthony suffers by comparison for his lack of real world-building and his insufferable seriousness. The side characters here are great, and include Death's daughter, and his servant Albert, who turns out to be of more importance than he seems. As is unfortunately typical in Discworld books, the ending is a mad scramble to tie up loose ends, but this is still one of the better Discworld novels.