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crufts's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I "read" Mort twice: once in the original novel format and once in the BBC radio play. Both are excellent.
Although this is Book 4 of the Discworld series, there's very little connection to the preceding novels and you can read it as a standalone.
Through unusual circumstances, teenager Mort (Mortimer) becomes an apprentice to Death. Yep, that Death. Stricken by a crush when he's sent to collect the soul of the assassinated Princess Keli, Mort averts her death and inadvertently sets the universe off-kilter. With the help of Death's teenage daughter Ysabell, butler Albert, and the wizard Cutwell, can he fix it all up before Death finds out?
It's a very funny novel. Having Death as an anthropomorphic character allows for wry observations about how people deal with death! In fact, no one can see Death or ghosts unless (like the wizard Cutwell) they've been specially trained.
But not everyone is sorry to see Death. Paraphrased: "The kings and queens always hang on as long as they can when I come knocking, but the peasants? They can't wait!"
Many other interesting ideas are also passed around in the form of jokes. After his endless years of service, Death has learned helplessness about the inevitability of fate: "There's no justice. There's just us." But once fresh-faced Mort is on the scene, he remarks (paraphrased): "I've gotten so caught up in how things are, that I've forgotten what they could become." This character development is satisfying to see.
Another strong point of the novel is unity of plot. The main theme is death and the inevitability (or not) of fate, and the plot sticks to that pretty strictly. There are hardly any extraneous plot threads, making for a focused, "clean" story. This is in contrast to the previous Discworld novels such as The Colour of Magic (#1) and The Light Fantastic (#2), which twist and bend all over the place in order to accommodate the jokes.
Finally, the pacing was good as well. Too many times, I've written Storygraph reviews that say "It was good, but they rushed the ending!" Not so here. The climactic showdown scene stretches out the tension of the final moments, just as it should. Time slows dramatically at all the right points and we get exactly the explosive ending we're hoping for.
I would absolutely recommend this book.
Although this is Book 4 of the Discworld series, there's very little connection to the preceding novels and you can read it as a standalone.
Through unusual circumstances, teenager Mort (Mortimer) becomes an apprentice to Death. Yep, that Death. Stricken by a crush when he's sent to collect the soul of the assassinated Princess Keli, Mort averts her death and inadvertently sets the universe off-kilter. With the help of Death's teenage daughter Ysabell, butler Albert, and the wizard Cutwell, can he fix it all up before Death finds out?
It's a very funny novel. Having Death as an anthropomorphic character allows for wry observations about how people deal with death! In fact, no one can see Death or ghosts unless (like the wizard Cutwell) they've been specially trained.
But not everyone is sorry to see Death. Paraphrased: "The kings and queens always hang on as long as they can when I come knocking, but the peasants? They can't wait!"
Many other interesting ideas are also passed around in the form of jokes. After his endless years of service, Death has learned helplessness about the inevitability of fate: "There's no justice. There's just us." But once fresh-faced Mort is on the scene, he remarks (paraphrased): "I've gotten so caught up in how things are, that I've forgotten what they could become." This character development is satisfying to see.
Another strong point of the novel is unity of plot. The main theme is death and the inevitability (or not) of fate, and the plot sticks to that pretty strictly. There are hardly any extraneous plot threads, making for a focused, "clean" story. This is in contrast to the previous Discworld novels such as The Colour of Magic (#1) and The Light Fantastic (#2), which twist and bend all over the place in order to accommodate the jokes.
Finally, the pacing was good as well. Too many times, I've written Storygraph reviews that say "It was good, but they rushed the ending!" Not so here. The climactic showdown scene stretches out the tension of the final moments, just as it should. Time slows dramatically at all the right points and we get exactly the explosive ending we're hoping for.
I would absolutely recommend this book.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Murder, and Violence
Despite having Death as a literal character, death and violence in the novel is not graphically described.bluejayreads's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Reading the early Discworld books after having read almost exclusively later books is a wild experience. I’m curious to find the point in the series where it changes from Discworld-crossing fate-of-the-world adventures to geographically-limited profound human stories.
This book came very close to being the first Discworld book that I didn’t finish, and its saving grace was that it’s so short. By the time I got well and truly fed up I only had an hour and a half left and I figured at that point I might as well finish the thing.
Mort follows Mort, a farmer’s son who gets apprenticed to Death and completely screws up everything because he saw a pretty face. That is literally his motivation. He glimpsed a pretty girl while in the middle of doing something else and proceeds to fall so head over heels for this girl who is pretty and whom he has never spoken to that his actions start unraveling the very fabric of reality. And he does his gosh darned best to avoid putting it right despite one method of putting it right requiring him to do absolutely nothing and let a thing happen. This is not technically an idiot plot because Mort is the only real idiot here, but I suppose Death is partially at fault too for giving his apprentice a ton of responsibility and then not bothering to check on him.
Death himself is a pretty neat character to follow around, and I think I would have preferred the book to be about him. Mort isn’t awful as a character, except for the idiot part, but a couple of jarring fast-forwards through time make his growing-up process feel weirdly abrupt (and yet he doesn’t grow out of being an idiot). Death’s adopted daughter is rude, bratty, and obnoxious, and yet like Malicia in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, she is justified and rewarded for it in the end. I hate it and I hate her, but luckily from the ending I don’t think she’ll be showing up again.
The Discworld is cool. Death is awesome. Mort is an idiot, Death’s daughter is obnoxious, and the entire plot could have been avoided if Mort was less of an idiot for a pretty face or if Death actually checked his apprentice’s work. There’s a lot of great ideas here, and I hope they get to be in a better story in the next book featuring Death.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Animal death and Child death
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Body horror
Adult/minor relationship details:booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Most of this was fun and I had a good time, but there were too many random moments that took me out of the narrative with an off-putting comment that didn’t fit the rest of the story. Usually this took the place of treating the mention of someone’s fatness or the idea that they might be insane as if the observation of it was the whole joke. These moments were especially frustrating because so much of the rest of the humor is great. It’s paced well, the dynamic between DEATH and Mort was strange but interesting, and I liked the ending.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Murder, and Death
Minor: Toxic relationship
hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Murder, Alcohol, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
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