Reaper Man
Ratings243
Average rating4.1
“...no-one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away... The span of someone's life, they say, is only the core of their actual existence.”
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man
This was one of the first Discworld books I ever read and I had no idea when I picked it up what I was in for. Turns out it was the perfect book for me; a far out story with wacky, witty humor. I had no idea at the time that Discworld was a fantasy series parody; to me this book had a life of its own and much better than any standard warrior and wizard novel. You don't have to read the series in any particular order. You can pick up any of these books and enjoy them without feeling lost.
Re-reading I came to appreciate it on a deeper level besides just “woo, zany comedy.” There is a tidy symmetry between the two main stories. The Death incarnation from Discworld is fired and has to live as a mortal human. Rather than existing as an eternal, unchanging being, he experiences a life with limited time. He also needs an occupation, so he gets a job as a farm hand and becomes a companion to an old woman, and even risks his life to save a child.
The second part of the story is Windle Poons, a wizard who dies but is not allowed to move on because Death is absent. He is forced out of his sheltered life at the University and becomes active and observant, something he never was when he was alive. He discovers an evil entity that's trying to take over the city by means of a shopping mall, and he and his new undead friends help foil it.
Both Death and Windle Poons have greater adventures and deeper human connections than they would have been capable of in their original incarnations. It may be a cliche but it seems the characters needed to face death in order to live life fully. With Pratchett this message never becomes too cheesy because he knows how to throw in the jokes at the right moments.
There is also an assortment of eccentric characters if the two above don't strike a chord with you. There's a psychic who answers your questions before you know you're going to ask them. The bullheaded wizard archchancellor whose curse words turn into flying insects. And don't forget the boogeyman who is just looking for a door to hide behind.
If you like Discworld and haven't read this one yet, it's worth picking up. If you're thinking about trying the series this is a fine place to start. Good for fans of humor, fantasy, SciFi, and intelligent thoughtful writing.
Y'know what, I was prepared to give this book maybe a 4 stars until the ending hit me straight in the feels and I cried throughout the last 10-20%.
It's not even a particularly sad ending. Pratchett keeps the action and the plot light-hearted and completely absurd throughout the entire book. But Reaper Man really showcases how masterful he is in writing about such complex, deep, and abstract thoughts in such a light-hearted and absurd way. (Huge kudos to Nigel Planer whose narration of the audiobook and performance for each character significantly amped up my enjoyment of this book)
Reaper Man's plot is fairly simple - Death has been sort of “suspended” from his work and has gone to seek work elsewhere. In the meantime, all around Discworld, lives are ending but Death isn't there to take it away, resulting in an overabundance of life force which makes things happen.
The humour here is still very much on point, but what struck me as the biggest difference between this one and the first book in the series, Mort, is that it's more - introspective somehow? It's funny that this book is more philosophical and thought-provoking than actual philosophy or self-help books.
I don't know if it's just me being emotional or hormonal, but the themes in this book and the semi-abusrd way Pratchett dealt with them just went straight to my feels. This review is all over the place because this book is truly one of a kind. I'll end it with some amazing quotes:
Alone of all creatures in the world, trolls believe that all living things go through Time backwards. If the past is visible and the future is hidden, they say, then it means you must be facing the wrong way. Everything alive is going through life back to front.
“If people knew when they were gonna die, they'd probably lead better lives.”IF PEOPLE KNEW WHEN THEY WERE GONNA DIE, THEY WOULDN'T LIVE AT ALL.
Death travels inside that space where time has no meaning. Light thinks it travels faster than anything, but it's wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds that darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
I truly enjoyed the adventures of Bill Door, and Pratchett has some lovely sentiments about the human condition. But I always feel like he's amusing himself far more than he's amusing me, and the wizards' plot grew tiresome. Still, the other side of the story deserves 4 stars on its own, and Mrs. Cake & Ludmilla are well worth getting to know.
Executive Summary: I enjoyed this, but it wasn't as funny or enjoyable as [b:Mort 386372 Mort (Death, #1; Discworld, #4) Terry Pratchett https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388181166s/386372.jpg 1857065] in my opinion.Full ReviewSo I love Death as a character in Discworld. His parts in the previous books are always some of the highlights. I also feel like [b:Mort 386372 Mort (Death, #1; Discworld, #4) Terry Pratchett https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388181166s/386372.jpg 1857065] has been one of my favorite books of the series so far.I didn't find myself laughing at this one as much as I have with the others, but I did enjoy it. My main issue was it focused too much on Windle Poons and not enough on Death himself. The parts that focused on Death were great.Death goes on vacation is a great seed for a story, and while Windle is meant to highlight some of those consequences, I just never really connected with him or the other supporting characters in his story that much. The two exceptions would have to be the Boogeyman and Mrs. Cake. I especially liked Mrs. Cake and the reaction from other characters to her throughout the book.But as this is a Death book, Death himself is the real star. His experience at what it means to be human is at times amusing, but often very insightful. Mr. Pratchett has some very poignant things to say about what it means to be alive, which is that much more meaningful because it ends.Death comes to all things, and a world without death is one that could not sustain itself as this book illustrates.Overall I thought this was still one of the better books of the series so far, but not quite as good as some of the others. I hope the next Death book in the series will spend more time focused on him than this one did.
4.50/5.00 “When I see what life does to people, you know, you don't seem so bad”.
Reaper Man will be the most ridiculously creative story you've read, a tale of bringing life to death, a story that builds a character most beloved to the discworld. Terry Pratchett's wisdom and incredible prose weaves a tale that spins so out of control and winds back elegantly to present the beautiful message of this story. Life is worth living, life has meaning because death cares, something cares.
“Good grief, you must walk like a cat!” she said. I MUST ?“I mean I didn't hear you”.
ROFL!!!
Emotional Impact -> Ah the archchanceller and the warriors of the unseen university are an infinite amount of fun! Omg the comedy is wonderful. I was laughing for quite a bit of this book. The romance between Bill Door and Renata is a precious gem, one of the best fantasy romances I have read. And Schlapall, wow, just amazing. I loved the wonderful journey of windle poons. Great read! Fav discworld book so far.Characters -> Death grows in predictable ways, but it's satisfying. I love Ridcully and the wizards, Renata, Schlapall and the death of rats! Windle my dear windle. Solid characters!Plot -> I didn't see the confrontation between death and Bill Door coming. Renata giving up her life time to save Death is a so awesome. The crazy living city, the first timers club, the auditors and Arazel! What a crazy ride. Great plot!Prose -> so funny. So witty. So poetic. So Terry Pratchett. Excellent.World Building -> In Reaper Man, Discworld takes more a solid shape. While still insane and absurdist in the best way, it also gets better defined. I'm loving it! The auditors and the way they speak, the life timers, the living city, the life force, the death of rats lol... Extraordinary!!
Took a long time to read this but was worth every second. End could've come a good 50 pages before but we won't get the incredible ‘darkness gets before the light' line. I highlighted sentences like a mad man in this one.
Gah, my absolute adoration for these books grows with every single one that I read Pratchett is proving himself to have been an absolute mastermind in the art of weaving a heartfelt story that has the ability to absolutely floor me with laughter.
I don't think I've ever read a book that has been this profound while still managing to maintain such a lighthearted air to it. The balance that he strikes between these two is done so deftly that he can heel turn the tone of the book in a matter of paragraphs without it feeling even remotely out of place at any point.
This is achieved through a few different factors, the main one being the characters. The most obvious one has to be Death, who in my opinion is probably the best character that Fantasy has ever been graced with. His adoration for humanity and life in general shines through brilliantly in this book, capitalising on what Pratchett had set up in Mort.
Then there's the various characters from the undead rights movement, who are just wonderful. Of particular note are the Winkings, who are a married couple, one of whom is a vampire, that being Arthur. Doreen, his wife, has decided to take on the part of being a countess to him, in order to be supportive of him, donning a fake Transylvanian accent, doing up their house like a vampire's castle, and renaming the Notfaroutoe's. The entire time, Arthur is very disapproving, as he never wanted to be a vampire in the first place. In my opinion, it's a very sweet dynamic that shows just how dedicated to each other they are, even if Arthur seems a bit sick of it at times.
Then there's the story itself, which is an absolute gem. Death has grown a personality, and for the auditors of reality, his bosses, that just simply won't do, so they give him the sack. This, in a subversion of expectations, delights Death, since now he gets to experience the life that he's only ever experienced the end of, or has lived vicariously through his daughter and apprentice.
He takes a position on a farm, helping out an old lady, and becoming a person unto himself. This is used as a contrast to the job of being Death, where he still gives reverence to each individual blade of grass, or head of wheat, since it's in his nature to give every piece of life it's due reverence.
Whilst all this is going on, things around the disc are going rather pear shaped, as people have stopped dying in the interim between our Death being fired, and a new one being believed into existence.
What the book ends up becoming as these two plot threads are explored, is a wonderfully vibrant love letter to being alive. As you read it, you can tell that Sir Terry Pratchett adored life, and wanted others to at the very least be able to glimpse how wonderful life was. And to an extent, it works quite well. I think you'd be hard pressed to walk away from this book without at least a minor improvement to your outlook on life.
The pacing of the book is something to be noted, because oh my lord, it flows so well. It's a reasonably fast paced book, but Pratchett knew when to slow down and let the story breathe. There wasn't any point where I felt like the pacing didn't fit.
On top of all of that, this book was just an emotional rollercoaster. I got ping ponged between emotions almost constantly, to a point where I felt like I was suffering from emotional whiplash. And I loved it. One minute I'd be busting a gut laughing, then I'd be contemplating the nature of my existence, and after that I'd be basking in how great being alive is. When I finished the book, I just broke into tears for a solid 5 minutes. This was such a bittersweet book, and I'm begging you to read it.
I could gush for ages about the book, but I genuinely don't see a point. As I said before, you should read it, you do yourself a disservice everyday that you don't, it's just that good. Pratchett is one of the greatest authors of our time, and we're likely never going to see someone as gifted as him again. This is one of the easiest 5 stars that I think I've ever given, and has shot Discworld up to a top 3 fantasy series for me.
Another book in the Discworld universe that I'm not fond of.
There's something lost in translation, for me, when reading this series in ebook form. Maybe I need to get the physical book or the audio because the scene changes, especially towards the end, are very quick and short, which generates alot of frustration and confusion for me.
Like some of the others, the story goes beyond the logical end of the story, leaving me wondering what this extra bit is for?
And alot of unanswered questions about plot references. What does the bit about the creation of a city have to do with Death's story? Any why is Death, not Death anymore?
In which Death gets his own lifetimer and experiences mortality for a while. The Auditors appear for the first time, and the Death of Rats comes into existence.
The main thread of the story is OK, but the whole subplot about the wizards, the undead, and the supermarket trolleys strikes me as rather pointless and unsuccessful. And I don't like the Auditors.
This is my 5th Discworld book and possibly my favorite. I was only continuing the Death books because I want to read “Hogfather” in December, not because I liked “Mort” (because I didn't). The humor was spot on for me, there was a rich plot and depth to this book I was shocked by, and oh geez I surely did tear up at the end! Very nearly a 5-star book for me.
I found this book very slow compared to Mort. The middle of the book was a bit meh, but still well written.
