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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
"No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away, until the clock wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life is only the core of their actual existence".
Like all books that involve Death, I wish there was more Death.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
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
I do wish that the entirety of this book centered around Bill Door just spending his time on the farm and Schleppel being the most courteous little Boogeyman that ever did say "excuse me." 😆
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 - good
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
I was going to give this 4 stars because i dont think the wizards/windle poons sections of this book are anywhere near as good as the Death sections but the Death sections are actually so amazing i couldn't possibly give this book anything less than 5 stars. Death is easily my favorite character in fiction, and this may be my new favorite book. I have never consumed any media that felt this far up my alley before.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I remarked soon after starting Reaper Man that there's a lot of similarity between the conversational style of a bunch of wizards from the Unseen University and Them (Adam, Pepper, Wensleydale and Brian) in Good Omens. That amuses me because, although I haven't hit the Wizards books yet, they do seem to have a fair bit in common with a bunch of excitable kids. But also it's a pointer to how distinctive Terry Pratchett's writing voice is. There is not another author you could mistake him for.
I have the feeling that Reaper Man is going to end up as one of my favourite books out of the many, many Discworld novels. There's a logical progression in Death's arc — in Mort, when he hired an apprentice, Death stepped out for a little bit to try out human pastimes. Reaper Man takes it step further: he's pushed out by the Auditors of Reality who feel that he's developing a bit too much personality and a bit too much attachment to the souls he harvests, given a timer of his own, and given the boot from being a personification. He's still pretty skeletal, and most people (more on 'most' in a minute) still don't see him as what he truly is...but he's not living in his timeless realm any more. Just him and Binky the horse.
He ends up in a small village, probably not that dissimilar to the one that produced Mort, bearing the name of Bill Door and working for Miss Flitworth for sixpence a week and his keep. Good value for Miss Flitworth, he's handy with a scythe. While there he encounters one of the few people who see him for what he is; a small child who sees him as a 'skelington' (but it's okay because he's not a dead one). One of the reasons the faceless forces pushed Death out was that he was beginning to identify with his charges; unwittingly, the little girl pushes that even further. Another mark of the change in Death is visible in the shift from his attitude to Mort and Ysabelle's future children (he claims to not have the right sort of knees to be a grandfather) but here he patiently listens to the child's flow of conversation...and in the end, when her life is at risk, he goes to great lengths to help. If the faceless forces didn't like him before, they certainly will have even stronger views about him now.
Meanwhile, with Death out of the job and nobody else taking up the mantle, things are going awry. People are coming to the end of their lives...but Death isn't collecting them. Ancient Windle Poons, wizard, finds that he's dead but still running around and, once he gets the hang of consciously managing his body, he finds he's actually in better shape now than he had been in a long time while still alive. And Windle isn't the only one affected; there's suddenly an excess of life force in Ankh Morpork (elsewhere too, but Ankh Morpork is a busy place) and something is seeding itself in the city, in a process involving snow globes, shopping trolleys and, eventually, a shopping mall of sorts.
Death's relationships formed while working as Bill Door are particularly touching, especially his gestures towards the little girl and to Miss Flitworth. Pratchett conveys Miss Flitworth's last night and her soul's final disposition in a beautifully understated fashion; it's emotional but written very delicately, letting the reader experience everything without clubbing them over the head to induce emotion. It's a lovely piece of writing, and an act of trust from the writer to the reader.
Windle and Death both learn to actually, truly live in their separate stories. Windle is, obviously, the more human of the two but Death's readjustment to living as a human is the more profound. He discovers having company, being a friend, the pleasures of small things. When he confronts the new Death, formed from humanity's overall beliefs, he is righteous, rightly, about New Death's crown and dramatic self-presentation; that is not how it should be done. There's no room for self-aggrandizement, there's only the harvest, done with care and respect. I really do think Reaper Man will end up being one of the top books in the Discworld series for me.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
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
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated