On
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, the gods come into existence when people believe
in them. Similarly, Death manifests itself as the Grim Reaper because people
believe Death is a skeleton, in a hooded black cloak, with a scythe.
In
Reaper Man, the Powers That Be have
relieved Death of his duty on the grounds that Death has become too sympathetic
of his clients (us: the dying and the dead).
They
send Death off with his hourglass* and let him keep his horse, Binky. For the
first time in his existence, Death has a life, and for the first time in his
life, Death has Time.
And
he’s going to spend it.
But
first he has to get a job.
*Do
you get the joke? He’s been a faithful employee so they send him off with his hourglass. It’s hilarious.
Soon
after, a tall dark stranger appears on a farm in the country. It’s harvest
time, he’s looking for work...and he’s good with a scythe.
Meanwhile,
chaos runs through the City of Ankh-Morpork. Death (an important public service)
is gone, so the dead are queuing up in the increasingly crowded space between
this world and the next.
Windle
Poons, a 130 year-old wizard from Unseen University, has been waiting to die
and reincarnate for a long time. (So has the faculty member waiting to take
Windle’s room.) But without Death to escort him to the afterlife, Windle Poons
just...comes back.
As
a corpse.
“No wonder the undead were
traditionally considered to be very angry.”
Windle must adjust to his new (un)life
by:
a) Attending a support group for
the undead.
2) Enduring the antics of his
kind academic colleagues, who help him out by repeatedly trying to kill him
d) Suffer the influx of
poltergeist activity and other phenomenon resulting from Death’s absence.
And a sinister power is feeding
on this new energy...and growing within the city.
Reaper
Man is an entertaining story that fires on all
Pratchett cylinders - save one.
Firing cylinders:
a) The premise is hilarious and
the execution is brilliant
2) Death’s life as a human
provides a humorous and profound angle on the human condition (This is what pain feels like? How do you keep
living when you’re just going to die? Are you tricking me into drinking an
alcoholic beverage for your personal amusement?)
d) Death is simply one of the
best characters on Discworld
The “save one”:
While the Windle Poons storyline
is humorous (especially with the antics of the Unseen University faculty), the
silliness-level goes out of control - á la Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy – so that at some point you stop knowing or caring
what’s going on…except that someone’s rushing about doing something exciting
and it’s all very entertaining.
I rate this book a solid 7/10.
And I must say: I was very
impressed with the ending.
With the final paragraphs.
With the final sentence.
That’s what you call a memorable
ending.
Well, done, Mr. Pratchett.
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