Mort

Mort (1987) Terry Pratchett

After the Librarian, and the Watch, DEATH is my favorite Discworld character.

“What did you do for a living?” said the thin young man behind the desk.

The figure opposite him shifted uneasily. I USHERED SOULS INTO THE NEXT WORLD. I WAS THE GRAVE OF ALL HOPE. I WAS THE ULTIMATE REALITY. I WAS THE ASSASSIN AGAINST WHOM NO LOCK WOULD HOLD.

“Yes, point taken, but do you have any particular skills?”

Death thought about it. I SUPPOSE A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF EXPERTISE WITH AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS? he ventured after a while.

But DEATH is starting to think he needs a break, and so goes looking for an apprentice.

Mort was one of those people who are more dangerous than a bag full of rattlesnakes. He was determined to discover the underlying logic behind the universe.

Which was going to be hard, because there wasn’t one. The Creator had a lot of remarkably good ideas when he put the world together, but making it understandable hadn’t been one of them.

Of course there are other fun characters, like Albert.

Mort said, “What do all those symbols mean?”

“Sodomy non sapiens,” said Albert under his breath.

“What does that mean?” “Means I’m buggered if I know.”

I won’t say this is my favorite DEATH book, but this book is still early in the series, and the earliest books did have some kinks that got worked out in the later books.

Publisher: HarperCollins
Rating: 8/10

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