Paperback, 272 pages
English language
Published Nov. 28, 1989 by CORGI ADULT.
Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job. Death is the Grim Reaper of the Discworld, a black-robed skeleton carrying a scythe who must collect a minimum number of souls in order to keep the momentum of dying, well . . . alive. He is also fond of cats and endlessly baffled by humanity. Soon Death is yearning to experience what humanity really has to offer . . . but to do that, he'll need to hire some help. It's an offer Mort can't refuse. As Death's apprentice he'll have free board, use of the company horse - and being dead isn't compulsory. It's a dream job - until Mort falls in love with Death's daughter, Ysabell, and discovers that your boss can be a killer on your love life . . .
This seems to be an increasingly uncomfortable read for me, in that the basis for the entire thing relies on a contract that's broken.
There are few books that manage the careful balance of gradual character development, fast-paced events, careful thematic consideration, and a consistent, strong tone. Mort is one of them.
All of the characters, in spite of the absurdity they deal with (and live on) every day, manage a strange realism that gives them personality beyond what's on the page. When a character is in a new, wildly different situation, their actions are rarely surprising. When prompted to change, you can see the influence from all the other facets of their life feeding into their transition. When there's a joke, or a silly situation, or even just a mildly amusing turn of phrase, the characters are all capable of playing off of the comedy naturally to elevate it from funny to laugh-out-loud hilarious. And in the end, everyone ends up pretty much exactly where you know they should, even if you're not …
There are few books that manage the careful balance of gradual character development, fast-paced events, careful thematic consideration, and a consistent, strong tone. Mort is one of them.
All of the characters, in spite of the absurdity they deal with (and live on) every day, manage a strange realism that gives them personality beyond what's on the page. When a character is in a new, wildly different situation, their actions are rarely surprising. When prompted to change, you can see the influence from all the other facets of their life feeding into their transition. When there's a joke, or a silly situation, or even just a mildly amusing turn of phrase, the characters are all capable of playing off of the comedy naturally to elevate it from funny to laugh-out-loud hilarious. And in the end, everyone ends up pretty much exactly where you know they should, even if you're not sure how it's going to shake out as you get closer.
The plot is pretty simple: Mort's a klutz and his dad wants him to get a job to get him off the farm, and Death needs an apprentice and decides to be Mort's master. They're both sort of fuck-ups at these roles, but they piece it together pretty well over time and the influence of teacher and student on each other shines through in their development throughout the book. It's kind of remarkable watching a mentor relationship with both characters being fatally flawed, and both working through those flaws while still maintaining their distinct characters in the end. It's too often that we see mentors who are flawed only in their own minds and students who suck up every good trait from their mentors like a little pink ball.
The conflicts between Death and Mort come mostly from the nature of death itself. Death works much the same way as in reality: it's merciless, indiscriminate, inevitable. Unlike in reality, Death is a person, and his apprentice is a teenage boy who's really quite a nice fellow. Merciless is not how I'd describe him. Yet when asked to do Death's job, he (usually) does it. He talks with the recently and soon-to-be deceased about their deaths, his job, the whole situation. While Mort learns about the nature of death, so does the reader. No matter how things shake out, it's going to happen, and there's not a whole lot of reason to get too upset about it.
In spite of all of this talk about how great the writing is, Pratchett maintains a humorous, irreverent, satirical tone throughout the entire thing. There are only a couple of scenes where he drops this for a serious moment, but the whole thing feels like it's written as one big joke. And, I mean, the world is a disc sitting on the backs of four elephants sitting on the back of a turtle, so it probably is. Regardless, the way you can pull out some serious looks at the way this book is written and the way the themes are handled, and you can laugh at a few dirty jokes along the way, is fantastic.
Basically, either Pratchett is a genius and hit every nail perfectly on the head or his tongue is so far in his cheek that I can't tell what I'm reading anymore. Either way, this book is bloody fantastic.
I think this might be my favorite one so far!
The best/funniest book in the series so far. The story is tighter around Mort and there's less irreverence overall. It's still zany, but more focused.
A fun read that introduces Death. Lovely read when he's around, drags when he's not.
Still funny, but a bit darker and more serious than the other Discworld novels I've read so far. I enjoyed it.
This was a great Discworld novel and I highly recommend it for newcomers to the series. The best part of the book is probably the character Death, who is very unique and surprising in this universe. The plot moves along quickly as well, making this a short, enjoyable read.
For my full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2015/05/book-review-mort-by-terry-pratchett.html
I'm afraid to admit that this was my first Discworld book, though not my first go at it. I tried reading The Colour of Magic about ten years ago, but apparently for some unfathomable reason I was unsuccessful.
Now that Death has finally collected his creator, I couldn't help but learn more about both of them.
Mort was quite a delightful read. I enjoyed reading it altogether and I think I will continue with Reaper Man and pave my own path through the Discworld.
Death takes on Mort as an apprentice. We find Death trying to make sense of life, and Mort trying, horribly, not to unravel life as he knows it.
This is a fun read.
This is #4 in the Discworld series, and takes the recurring character of Death to the center stage. Death always makes an appearance in each Discworld novel, but this is the first (but not the last!) one in which he is a main character. We learn more about how Death does his job, where and how he lives, etc. He needs an apprentice and finds one in Mort. The problem though is that Mort is not satisfied to let everyone die on schedule and tries to change fate. This will of course go wrong in hilarious ways.
As before, I listened to the audiobook.
4.5 I do enjoy tales involving the character Death.
This was another fun addition to the Discworld series but I can only read so many of these in a row before yearning for novels of a little more substance.
Terrific as usual, but the story felt a bit more complicated than it needed to be, and some characters were kind of blanks to me, like the Princess. I couldn't really picture her in my head for some reason. Still a hilarious read.
Taking a break from the Witch series.
Really funny, intriguing. This is my first book from the Discworld series, infact my first fantasy book. Now i can't wait to read them all. Death as a character is not only funny, but surprisingly human. Pratchett certainly puts words together in a way unlike others. I loved the little gems like
> "Sodomy non sapiens," said Albert under his breath.
> - "What does that mean?"
> - "Means I'm buggered if I know."
>"It would seem that you have no useful skill or talent whatsoever," he said. "Have you thought of going into teaching?"
