DEATH has dutifully done his job for ages but the powers at be have told DEATH that he is now surplus to requirements. They thanked him, gave him severance pay (his horse Binky) and left him with 'time' of his own. However, when you have 'time', it can run out.
Pratchett is another one of those well-known established authors that I am reviewing. I read his Colour of Magic book last year and sad to say that I didn't really enjoy it. I didn't really get it. I subsequently read Good Omens and two of his YA books, 'Only you can save mankind', 'Johnny and the Dead.' I always give authors a second chance and so I picked up Reaper Man. I found Reaper Man much more to my liking. It was much more humorous and the characters gave Pratchett more freedom for his satire. The story is shared among two main characters, DEATH and a wizard called Windle Poons. Much like Colour of Magic, I just didn't really like the wizard characters, but to contrast this I really liked DEATH and the characters that were around DEATH. It was well done how Pratchett moulded DEATH, giving him a more human persona and you really felt his (DEATH) awkwardness of adapting to having 'time'.
Picking up one of Pratchett's discworld novels can be much of a lottery (if you haven't read any before) because they contain different characters and not all characters are created equal.
If you haven't read Pratchett before, I suggest you research a tiny bit before picking up one of his discworld books. I have heard that books containing the city guards are the best and I myself might have to pick up another discworld book. Go on....take the gamble and have some laughs!
4 comments:
Agreed that it's a bit of a lottery. I remember Reaper Man as being a weak effort, but that's only because the previous book to feature DEATH, Mort, had been so strong. The City Guard books are the best sub-series though and starts with Guards, Guards.
Thanks for the heads up. I'll definitely give discworld a few more go's!
I'm absolutely glad you decided to give Mr. Pratchett a chance. His non-Disc books can be a bit gitchy and confusing, but the Disc books are straight up classic story telling. I see them as divided categorically though I'm not up to date w/ the series now. The witches, the guardsmen, death... I love the Death series, it is ever so funny and Death of Rats and all is very clever. I loved the character Windle Poons and the shoppin trolleys were hilarious! I agree w/ Mr. Parnham, Mort is great, and kicks off the Death series. I totally recommend it. With Mr. Pratchett I reccomend starting at the beginning and go to the end with the Discworld-- the last novel I read was Going Postal and it's amazing to see how the world had advanced since the previous book I'd read (which was years between)-- they had e-mail, heh heh. WHereas in a book like Wyrd Sisters it was very primative. Clever clever. Sorry this comment is long winded, I'm quite enthusiatic.
Long winded comments are better than no comments! I can always trust on you to comment Michael when it comes to Pratchett!
I probably won't read all the Discworld novels but will definitely pick up a few more like Mort and Guards Guards.
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