joshsolves 's review for:

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

3.75

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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The humor of the later Discworld books is here. The moments of sentimentality are fewer than you might expect, but stronger than usual. The satire isn't quite as front and center, but I don't think the book suffers for it. What the book does suffer from is the plot just not being as satisfying as I've come to expect from a Discworld story. This one felt like two separate plots following the two main characters, but where most Discworld books would put the important characters on a collision course, this one felt like two parallel stories in time, each entirely self contained, where they meet after the resolution of the Important Bits. There is also less tension because as much as I like both characters, there's something different about someone who is undead and wants to die being in mortal danger than someone who is alive and doesn't want to die in similar circumstances. Its still a fun read, don't get me wrong, and if it was my first Discworld I still would've been interested in more, but it pales in comparison to some of the others I've read.

Now for some quotes:

He knew from experience that the living never found out half of what was really happening, because they were too busy being the living. The onlooker sees most of the game, he told himself. 

 Belief sloshes around in the firmament like lumps of clay spiraling into a potter's wheel. That's how gods get created, for example. They clearly must be created by their own believers, because a brief resume of the lives of most gods suggests that their origins certainly couldn't be divine. They tend to do exactly the things people would do if only they could, especially when it comes to nymphs, golden showers, and the smiting of your enemies. 

 a threat more certain than the creak of thin ice on a deep river 

 "I don't see why you're bothering with them," said Doreen. "They buried you alive just because you were dead."
...
"They thought they were doing it for the best," said Windle. "People often do. It's amazing, the things that seem a good idea at the time." 

Arguing over petty details at times of dimensional emergency was a familiar wizardly trait.

Of course it was only a metaphor. People were more than corn. They whirled through tiny crowded lives, driven literally by clock work, filling their days from edge to edge with the sheer effort of living.