Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Reaper Man

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Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

2 reviews

je_fancyb's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I've been reading Discworld in order off and on for a while, and this is definitely the strongest one so far. It's got a lot of what folks love about Discworld: snappy writing and satirical concepts, fun characters, and tender sentimental moments. And a skeleton wearing overalls, it's all here!

My strongest criticism of this book is that I wish we spent more time in the more meditative and solitary parts of the book with Death, but I get that it's definitely more exciting to focus on the chaotic ensemble action in Ankh-Morpork

Content Warnings

bluejayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny

Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

There is a lot going on in this book. Almost too much for one book, it seems. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun to read, but trying to sort it out afterwards I’m impressed so many different things got shoved into here.

Let’s start with Death, since this is his series. The supernatural people in charge of the whole universe (apparently those exist – I wonder if they’ll ever show up again) decide that since Discworld’s Death has a personality, it’s no longer a force but a person, and people can die. So Death, who suddenly has a time limit on his existence, stops doing his job and goes off to experience life as humans live it. Disguised as the tall and skinny but ordinary human Bill Door, he ends up on an old woman’s farm as a farm hand, where he gets to experience how humans interact with each other and deal with the knowledge that they’re going to die one day.

Meanwhile, Death not doing his job means that nothing is actually dying. The elderly wizard Windle Poons dies, but since there’s no Death to help him move on, ends up back in his body as a zombie, more spry after death than he had been in decades. With the occasionally-dubious assistance of other wizards, other undead, and other residents of Anhk-Morpork, he attempts to unravel what is happening to the city as excess life starts to do really weird things.

It’s fun and entertaining, as most Discworld books are, but the themes fall a bit flat. Death/Bill Door’s story had an interesting theme of dealing with the fear of death and living when you know it’s all going to come to an end, but since the book didn’t spend as much time in that storyline (I’m pretty sure less than half of Reaper Man was actually about the reaper man), there wasn’t time for it to reach full poignancy.

The storyline with the wizards and Windle Poons was mostly “hey, if Death stopped doing his job and nothing died anymore, wouldn’t the consequences be wild?” and playing with that idea. But it also tried to add some bigger ideas – the inevitability of death, the life-sucking nature of shopping malls, a couple pointed jabs at souvenirs and a particular kind of church lady, and possibly even something about the body and aging (although that one was so muddled that I’m not sure if it wasn’t just me reading too much into it). All of them were interesting ideas, but there were too many of them for any to have much of an impact.

Despite all these criticisms, this book was quite fun. I enjoyed Death/Bill Door’s attempts to figure out what humans do, fit in, and make friends. And even though Windle Poons is not my favorite wizard, I enjoy the dynamics between the wizards and how everything at the Unseen University works. Even though Reaper Man isn’t as strong thematically as other Discworld entries, it was still plenty of fun.

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