Terry Pratchett’s profoundly irreverent novels are consistent number one bestseller in England, where they have catapulted him into the highest echelons of parody next to Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen.
In this Discworld installment, Death comes to Mort with an offer he can’t refuse — especially since being, well, dead isn’t compulsory. As Death’s apprentice, he’ll have free board and lodging, use of the company horse, and he won’t need time off for family funerals. The position is everything Mort thought he’d ever wanted, until he discovers that this perfect job can be a killer on his love life.
Possibly my favourite Discworld book ever – certainly the one I recommended to my brother (and therefore Niece) as such. It’s a fairly early Discworld book and has any of my favourite Characters (#1 being DEATH) and many of my favourite lines (I DONT KNOW ABOUT YOU (says death early on) BUT I COULD MURDER A CURRY)
For me, I reread this in 2020, during the pandemic, and I definitely consider this as a “Comfort” read. Yes, every reader needs to decide what they class as “comfort” and some may see reading a book where the main character collects souls as a bit morbid, but that is not what I take from this. This book has Love, Romance, Morals, Doing the Right Thing, Responsibility, Thinking of the long game (and others), self identity, cultural perception and ultimately, the delivery of a damn fine line – preferably whilst walking through a wall like it is not there.
Some of the comfort for me came from the expectation of certain lines/jokes, some of which did not appear in this book (It turns out I miss the stories of the other 3 horsemen of the apocalypse going down the pub more than I realised). That means they appear in other books, so I need to do a full re-read in order to get my “fix”.
So: This is a good Entry Level Discworld book. It sets the reader up for several characters and concepts that pop up in later books (e.g. Why does Death have a grand daughter and why is she so significant in later books etc?).
Writing about books 