Mort

a novel of Discworld , #4

Mass Market Paperback, 243 pages

English language

Published Jan. 31, 2001 by HarperTorch.

ISBN:
978-0-06-102068-1
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
45894907

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (339 reviews)

Death comes to everyone eventually on Discworld. And now he's come to Mort with an offer the young man can't refuse. (No, literally, can't refuse since being dead isn't exactly compulsory.) Actually, it's a pretty good deal. As Death's apprentice, Mort will have free board and lodging. He'll get use of the company horse. And he won't have to take any time off for family funerals. But despite the obvious perks, young Mort is about to discover that there is a serious downside to working for the Reaper Man . . . because this perfect job can be a killer on one's love life.

40 editions

reviewed Mort by Terry Pratchett

A Little Underwhelming

3 stars

Whilst overall enjoyable, I found this book a little disappointing when compared to its reputation. Both the plot and the characters didn't feel as developed as I'd hoped, especially coming into it straight from Equal Rites. I'd hoped the series would continue to progress, but to me this felt like a little bit of a step backward.

Perhaps I'm a little too familiar with the idea of Death as a character to appreciate how this novel was quite surprising and unique at the time that it was originally released. I think some of the later volumes, which I read in my teens, just do the whole concept rather better. Mort ultimately only hints at what is to come, and it felt a bit stodgy in the middle, with a meandering plot which didn't grip me.

An early Discworld novel

5 stars

I really liked this one! It's kind of a different version of the Death character than shows up in the later Discworld novels - this Death is a bit more of a jerk. But I think that helps with the plot development - it adds a little more stakes for the characters. And it was cool to learn that characters I was familiar with from later books had backstories that had already been fleshed out!

It's a good one!

Mort

5 stars

This book is the first that really fleshes out the character of Death, one of the best characters in the series, and his obsession with the living world that he can never be a part of.

Another thing I enjoy about this book is the whirlwind tour of the disc - a little bit of Klatch, a little bit of the Counterweight continent, and a lot of Sto Lat and Ankh-Morpork. It feels like the disc is starting to take shape, as it were.

It's the first book in the series that I really can't find any fault with, it's just brilliant.

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

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.

Mort by Terry Pratchet

4 stars

Content warning Vague spoilers

Review of 'Mort' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

Most of this was fun and I had a good time, but there were too many random moments that took me out of the narrative with an off-putting comment that didn’t fit the rest of the story. Usually this took the place of treating the mention of someone’s fatness or the idea that they might be insane as if the observation of it was the whole joke. These moments were especially frustrating because so much of the rest of the humor is great. It’s paced well, the dynamic between DEATH and Mort was strange but interesting, and I liked the ending. 

Review of 'Mort' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Terry Pratchett is what I’ve been missing when reading Douglas Adams. Mort is not just witty, but actually quite touching and even frightening. The humour seems somehow profound, for example when Death explains that everyone gets what they think is coming for them, because “it’s so much neater that way”. This light-hearted fun actually opens up a philosophical can of worms: If I expect a heavenly afterlife together with my family, but my brother expects to be rotting in hell, is the brother in heaven actually my brother? He can’t be, but did I then actually get what I expected? This dilemma is even touched upon later. I much prefer this humour to cliché nihilism.

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