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Reaper Man: A Discworld Novel by: Terry Pratchett

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Rating: - Not in the John Deere catalog . . .

Shortsighted management has forced another "downsizing". This time the victim of layoff is Death himself, "retired" by the Auditors. He does his job efficiently and he doesn't sass the boss. He's just become "too involved" with those due to receive attention from his infinitely sharp scythe. The Auditors want a firmer hand on the reaping blade. On the street with time on his hands, Death decides he's going to spend it. Wandering the Discworld, he "gets his feet under the table" as hired man at Miss Flitworth's farm. Although a bit confused about eating and sleeping, he's able to respond with resolute affirmation when she asks, "Can you use a scythe?" He demonstrates a harvesting technique only Pratchett could devise.

With Death no longer performing his role, strange events result. Unconfined, the life force manifests itself in bizarre ways. Death, visible to wizards, fails to arrive at an appointment. In consequence, Windle Poons is subjected to various indignities. His colleagues have a prejudice about zombies. Not having actually died, Windle decides to "get a life". Over a century of breathing doesn't necessarily mean you've been living, and Windle, like Death, decides to see something of the [Disc]world. His colleagues, uncertain as to why Windle's still upright and subjected to some mild indignities of their own, seek the cause of unusual manifestations.

If you're new to the Discworld, all this must sound pretty grotesque. Death "fired" only to become a reaper on a spinster's farm? Wizards who can see him and know precisely when he's due? Take heart, this isn't a bleak version of the Merlin legend, nor a Stephen King horror story. It's Terry Pratchett, a writer with an unmatched talent for looking at the world we live in. He peers deeply at how life works. Then with countless deft twists, restructures our globe into a flat Disc. The Disc's filled with novel ideas and even more unusual people, but on second glance all seem terribly familiar. Death isn't a killer, for example. He's only there to collect lives when they're due to end. Unlike the tax man, he only arrives once, and he's terribly, terribly good at his job.

To those familiar with Pratchett, this book should receive high marks. All of Ankh-Morpork's finest are here - even Sergeant Colon makes an appearance. While enlarging on the cameos Death's played in other Discworld books, Pratchett nearly lets Miss Flitworth walk away with this one. But it's Sal Lifton who does that - the Small Child who recognizes Bill Door as a "skellington" as she ponders how he can eat or sleep. For it's Sal who personifies why Death's been put out to pasture [sorry!]. What that implies about Death's philosophy of life [sorry, again!] and how all this reflects Pratchett's own views becomes vividly clear when the "new hire" appears. As with many modern managers, the Auditors have acquired a labour saving appliance.

Pratchett's great genius is many-leveled. A light skim of any of his books is to experience high mirth rates. His talent for quirky description and one liners you seek ways to use in conversation is matchless. But a few months later, Reaper Man may arrive unbidden back in your hand. "There's something else", you may muse, going back to seek it. More jewels will be discovered, the witticisms skipped over revealing things of deeper value. You will then discover why this reviewer considers Pratchett as one of today's most valuable philosophers. And who rejoices seeing his children with PTerry in hand. If there's hope for survival of this species, it will be people like Pratchett conveying human values to people who need it most - the next generation. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Rating: - haunting

This book has wormed it's way into my mind. Terry's other books have been great fun, trying to find the sources for all his jokes, but this one is different. It makes you think. It burrows it's way in and makes you feel alive, knowing the end is somewhere out there, when? How? Softly? It has taken over the first place in my list of Favorite Books.
Enjoy

Rating: - Public service withdrawn

Death probably the most important thing on the discworld after the gods. Death as everyone knows takes away dead peoples spirits but when death himself becomes mortal that's when trouble ensues. Death has gone missing and is staying on a little farm in the hills. Of course then who takes the excess life away, nobody, dead people stay alive and any other life-force is emptied into the sky. Leading to millions of trolleys and the most excersice the dean of the unseen university has got in years. A bit more complicated than some other discworld books but is in the end a good book with the usual polish of all the others. Not recommended for beginners but experienced discworld readers will find it a pleasure to read.

Rating: - Reaper Man

Together with a good story line and Pratchet's wit and humor, Reaper man is a book I can highly recomend to anyone who enjoys discworld novels. It is a very easy read, like most of Pratchet's books, and at a lot of places you will find yourself laughing out loud. Personally, I dont think there was one part that I wasn't enjoying myself. A fun read.

Rating: - Come back Death! All is forgiven.

The bureaucratic powers of the multiverse have decided that Death has developed way too much personality and so he's going to have to go. But what happens to the living when they run out of life, only to find that Death is off duty? A population explosion of the undead and a life-force that's expanding fit to burst! In Ankh-Morpork, the patrician calls in the priests, the wizards, the alchemists and the city guard - in fact everybody except Mrs Cake, the lady who knows what's going on. She's a medium. How's it all going to end?

I enjoyed this book. It's comedy, fantasy, romance, philosophy, horror (if you can stop laughing long enough to spot it), science, politics, economics, insanity (or should that be psychology) and more. And the characters are fairly well rounded and mainly very likeable. Terry Pratchett seems to be a man of infinite imagination and, fortunately for us, he can write.

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