Reaper Man

by Terry Pratchett

This is my second Discworld book that features Death as the main character. I enjoyed it and found myself chuckling serveral times but it didn't enthrall me like Mort did. In Mort Death decides he needs a vacation so he finds himself an apprentice.

In this one Death is forced to retire. His time is up and a new reaper man is to be hired soon. That was a bit startling since Death is one of my favorite Discworld characters. Before the new reaper man is hired and Death faces his demise there are some weird things that go on that the Wizards have to sort out. All-in-all a good story with humor guised insights. I definitely look forward to my next indulgence into Discworld, rather it features the Wizards, Death, the Witches or the Guards.

I like to refer to the Discworld reading guide. This reference shows the starter novels for each group, i.e Wizards, Witches, Death, etc. I have printed out the Microsoft Excel version and added numbers to the book titles that show the order the books were published (check the bottom of the page). When it comes to reading the novels, Pratchett wrote them all as stand-alones except for The Coulour of Magic which is followed by The Light Fantastic.

Part of the charm of these books is that they're not written in any main sequence, but rather in several interrelated series that follow the lives of many different characters and subplots. Each book does a pretty good job of standing alone, and they all incorporate major characters from other lines as minor characters in their own, which makes the whole thing very meaty and extra fun to read. ---Cory Doctorow

Whenever I review a Pratchett book I get asked which book do I recommend starting with. My answer is always Mort because it's my favorite. Keep in mind I've only read 4 of the adult novels and 3 of the Tiffany Aching YA novels. I was visiting with Framed recently and she started with Making Money and loved it. So I don't think it really matters where you start.