Ratings702
Average rating4.1
I kind of liked this book at first. But I just got more and more bored with the world and the humor as it went on. This might be the only book I've stopped reading 75% of the way through, I just didn't care enough to finish.
Pratchet's works always balance and enticing story with entertaining literature amazingly. A short but sweet adventure with a unique style of writing unique to this author and it's obnoxious world.
A bit worse than the standard Discworld book, but with a great ending nonetheless. All characters are quite defined and interesting, especially Death, on what could be called the first of his book series.
Witty. Pithy. Hilarious at times.
That describes discworld in a nut shell. Mort was no exception, though she ending stumbled a bit. It felt jarring, but I guess that could also be satirical commentary on authoring as a profession...
Delightfully funny and refreshing. (I can easily see how my favorite author was influenced by Pratchett. T. Kingfisher has the same dry humor and wit in her works, too!) This is the second Discworld novel I've read, the first being [b:Guards! Guards! 64216 Guards! Guards! (Discworld, #8; City Watch, #1) Terry Pratchett https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431127356l/64216.SY75.jpg 1128601] This one was just as funny, and just as enjoyable. I can only hope the rest of the books are similar.I'm rather fond of how Pratchett does Death's voice - the all caps bit, and whatnot. Not to mention that he's an excellent character and I can't wait to read more about him.
EN REALIDAD SERÍA UN 4.5
Me ha encantado este inicio del arco de LA MUERTE. Por ahora he sucumbido a todo lo que leído de Sir, este más cortito y de fácil lectura hace que sea dinámico y rápido. Le coges cariño a los personajes incluso siendo tan cortito. Seguiré descubriendo el maravilloso Mundodisco.
2.5 really struggled with this book. Really enjoyed Death but I found Mort and the overall story a bit annoying.
"Mort," said Mort.
very very fun. enjoyed very much mort saying his own name like a pokemon throughout. also my favourite personification of Death i've ever seen. would go out for drinks with him.
3.50/5.00
Reading this book was a learning experience for me. When I finished this book, I didn't like the ending. I watched some review and I read the ending again, slowly this time, and realized that I missed many things. I am glad to have this experience since I think it made me appreciate discworld so much more. Mort is a beautiful story, and with an ending I did like. I get it now. “THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS JUST ME” - DEATH.
SPOILERS!!
Plot -> Great plot, a character driver story, which I did not pick up on in the first read through. I will strongly recommend reading this slowly. Some details like Mort realizing how time zones worked, and Mort and Ysebell's relationship and so endearing.
Worldbuilding -> This was much better. The life-story books, Binky, Death's role and Mort, the bubble of alternate reality, the gods and the whole concept of afterlife was just first class worldbuilding.
Characters -> Mort's character is subtle but powerful. The book's character development is focused on Death, and how all these Mortals are changing as a person ( or to a person). Mort himself seems pretty much himself through the book. His character is very consistent, driven by instincts and his gut, he challenges Death in many ways. Ysebell's final scene with Death where she confronts him on his hypocrisy is just gold. Then Death realizing that he is a hypocrite is pretty satisfying.
Prose -> Excellent prose. Probably I am not able to appreciate the book as much as some others because of Terry Pratchett's style. His humor is often based on similes and metaphors, which often exit from the discworld and use real-word elements, which I found disorienting.
Emotional Impact -> A very fun story, so philosophical, so deep! I loved the worldbuilding so much. Death as a character is a masterpiece of fantasy storytelling. I don't find the humor as funny as most others but I think Discworld books are funnier than most.
This is a story about Death and his new apprentice, Mort. For me, the Discworld's Death is fine in small doses. This book is perhaps too large a dose, although it's quite a good book and there are some good laughs in it. It's only the 4th Discworld book, and Pratchett is still funny, although Death is inherently a rather sombre subject.
I enjoy the early part of the story more. Then Mort starts taking over Death's Duty, and makes rather a mess of it, which I don't enjoy so much.
The Goodreads blurb says that Mort falls in love with Ysabell. In fact, she gradually falls in love with him, while he seems more interested in Princess Keli. But it all works out in the end, and we get a happy ending, for which I'm grateful.
The book is worth at least three stars, but I still feel reluctant to give it four, because there are only isolated bits of it that I actively enjoy.
It handles the topic of death with grace and humour, but I found the plot a bit thin. Not as good as “Guards, Guards!” But I still really enjoyed it! Probably closer to 3.5.
I've decided that these books aren't for me
I enjoyed mort more than the others I have read but there is nothing about these books that keep me wanting to read. I can see why people love them but discworld isn't a story I find myself liking. The humor isn't my kind of humor and hind myself bored most of the time and not caring about the characters.
I've been hearing about Terry Pratchett for the better part of 15 years now. My dad was a massive fan of his, owning about 20 or so of the books at one point, desperately trying to get me interested in his works. However, the thing that finally got me to read his works was in fact the adaptation of another of his books, Good Omens. And I couldn't be happier for it.
This book doesn't just mark my first foray into the Discworld however, it's also the first time that I've listened to an audiobook the entire way through, and hoo boy, what a good one to start with. Specifically, I listened to the new audiobook narrated by Sian Clifford, who does a stellar job selling the world and characters, though I'll get back to that soon.
The brass tacks of the plot are as follows: Death decides he wants an apprentice, picks a young lad called Mort, we find out that Death isn't actually an utter bastard, then once Mort starts taking on more of the job, him and Death start to swap personality traits, and we discover why it's so important for Death to be impartial.
Ultimately, this story is a love letter to being alive. And that's wonderful to experience. So many fantasy stories feel like they want to focus on how cool war and death is, so it's nice to hear a story that wants you to know that it's okay to just live, and be normal. I think that even when I've read all of Discworld, that Mort is going to stand out to me as one of the best examples of Pratchett's personality shining through his work.
But, that's not where the good bits end, because this book is absolutely hilarious. Almost every single joke landed for me. Maybe I'm just a soft touch, but I think it's more likely that Pratchett was just that good of an author. He can weave in-universe jokes with pop culture references together deftly, without it feeling jarring, which is just masterful.
Then there's the characters. I'm going to quickly touch on Mort, because he's the character we spend the most time with. Mort is a solid protagonist. He's nothing special, if anything, he's quite tropey, being a farmboy from the middle of nowhere who embarks on a quest, but that's actually to the characters advantage, as he's put up against this backdrop of events that are far far above him, and rises to the occasion. He also manages to serve as a kind of “Human Prime” who contrasts with Death to show why the two should never intermingle, creating a wonderful dichotomy.
Then there's Death. Death is one of the single greatest characters in the history of Fantasy. This is a character who's inspired by the Grim Reaper, but if he was nice. Death is fascinated by humans, he absolutely adores them. But not just humans. He has this deep respect for life that is just intoxicating to read about.
For instance, one of the few times we see Death get genuinely angry appears at the beginning of the book. Mort is asking him rather banal questions, and struggling to comprehend the answers, and all of a sudden, Death becomes incredibly terse and angry. Mort continues with his questions, and Death sprints off down a back alley, and stops at a fountain. Mort is understandably worried that he's already annoyed his new master less than a few hours into his apprenticeship, but this worry is soon allayed when Death pulls a wet bag out of the fountain.
Death proceeds to open the bag, and out comes the souls of a few dead kittens. And Death is disgusted by the callous disregard of their lives, and the cruelty of their end. I could sit here for a long time, and gush about Death, because he is endlessly wonderful, and I'm sure as I continue with the Death books he'll grow even more so, but I'll leave it here with a heartfelt recommendation to read the book just for this.
Though, I would highly recommend the audiobook. I had an absolutely stellar time with it, the only issue I could point to being Albert's voice, which I found grating most of the time, due to the combination of pitch and how nasally it was. Death's voice actor in particular was a standout to me, the only voice I would have preferred would have been the late Christopher Lee's, who had voiced the character in the animated adaptation of Soul Music.
All in all, this is a damn near perfect book, and I think you owe it to yourself to read it. 5/5 stars, heartily recommend it.
3.5
I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I liked the premise, and Death's world, but most characters felt underdeveloped, and the Discworld itself felt much less alive than in other books in the series.
I've had the same thing with all these books. In the beginning, I was interested in the problem's concept and setup of the problem. But then it just takes too long and I get bored. The text is funny for sure, but nothing ever really has consequences and you can tell from the very beginning.
These are all good in between good and just a little too mild for me. I need something more dark and eventful with consequences and crazy realisations for me to be really interested.
A great read!
I love the world building and writing style. It is not often that a book makes me chuckle and this one did so repeatedly.
I am looking forward to delving deeper into the Discworld.
I started this because I really wanted the absurdist humor I found prevalent in the the Witches books of the same series. I also heard Death wanted to explore his humanity and thought that with what I'm discovering with Terry Pratchett I'd love this. Overall it was just fine.
Proper title: Discworld: Death: The Teen Love Edition
Mort, Death's new apprentice, meets a girl. Once. Very briefly. Then becomes obsessed with her. And breaks reality for her.But ends up with the girl I thought was his love interest from the start because all they do is argue.
...
Look, I know Discworld. I've mostly enjoyed the other Discworld books I've read. It was a toss up between starting the Death arc (which I already read one of the later books of) or continuing the City Watch arc. The humor might not have been working the best for me at the start, but I know the series and what to expect.
At least, I thought I did, because I didn't expect this to be so juvenile - it's like a bad YA fantasy that is focused on ‘romance' and how hot the boys find the girls. And who winds up with who.
Two stars solely because there were a couple chuckle moments and seeing Death trying to figure out what is ‘fun' and looking for a new job was...all kind of awesome.
Finally, one of the greatest mysteries of my life has been resolved. Namely, why I hadn't seemed to be able to get into Discworld despite everything pointing to it being entirely up my alley.
Turns out, I was just reading the wrong books as entry points into the universe, and Mort has finally rectified all of that. I cried laughing at this book and I'm now a budding fan.
Mort is your average, gangly, awkward teenage boy who just happens to have caught the eye of Death himself to become his apprentice. Unfortunately, being the reaper of souls (or at least carrying out his duties while he has his days off) isn't quite all it's cracked up to be when hormones get in the way, as they usually do with teenagers.
The irreverent humour in this book was on point and just hit the sweet spot of all that I enjoy. I laughed so much at this book that even my husband got curious about it and has since put it on his own TBR. It's such a good mixture of irreverence and philosophy.
‘And he goes around killing people?' said Mort. He shook his head. ‘There's no justice.'Death sighed. NO, he said. [...] THERE'S JUST ME.
BEGONE, YOU BLACK AND MIDNIGHT HAG, he said. [...]''Oo are you calling a midnight hag?' [the cook] said accusingly...MAY ALL THE DEMONS OF HELL REND YOUR LIVING SPIRIT FI YOU DON'T GET OUT OF THE SHOPT HIS MINUTE, Death tried.‘I don't know about that, but what about my bedwarmer...‘IF YOU WOULD CARE TO GO AWAY, said Death desperately. I WILL GIVE YOU SOME MONEY.‘How much?' said the cook, with a speed that would have outdistanced a striking rattlesnake and given lightning a nasty shock. [...]
Some jobs offer increments. This one offered - well, quite the reverse.
Death is a great character and I love his appearances in the other books. My one gripe was with Mort being so set on saving Princess Keli even though he barely knew her. It was a little too hard to believe for me. It made the middle part a slow read, though I really enjoyed the beginning and end.
Great fun. With Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, you generally know what you're going to get: breezy, thoroughly enjoyable satire, ranging from fairly dumb humor to really perceptive skewering of society. If you haven't read one of them, just pick one that sounds interesting and go for it. Mort is about a schmuck of a teenage boy who nobody will take on as an apprentice, but he lucks into becoming the assistant Grim Reaper, who it turns out is ready to pursue some earthly hobbies after all his years on the job. Good old Mort accidentally rips a hole in the fabric of reality while harvesting souls one night, and hilarity ensues. All good stuff. I also really liked Small Gods if you're more interested in the idolatry side of the religious conversation instead of the existentialistic side. Enjoy.