This was my first introduction to Terry Pratchett, I think, aside from the heaven/hell comedy that he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman (which I remember not finishing). This isn’t at ALL what I thought his writing style was, but I really liked it! He’s hilarious, and irreverent in a throughly British way (which I find inherently endearing). While apparently the Discworld series is immense, this was my first introduction to it–and it can be read easily as a standalone.
The story follows Mort, a young boy looking to apprentice for a career. He finds himself apprenticed to Death, personified as a rather droll skeleton with glowing blue eyes, who really just wants to be a normal guy. Death is attempting to train his replacement so that he can go work as a fry cook in a diner. After following Death for one or two “cases,” Death sends Mort out on his own. The third case Mort attempts alone is Princess Keli, whom he thinks is quite cute, and he ends up saving her life instead–which puts an enormous rift in the space-time continuum, between the world that now is and the world that should be. In the process of trying to put this right while hiding his screw-up from Death, Mort and Death’s adopted daughter have to seek the help of an ancient wizard who somehow never officially died, and Mort himself begins to take on more and more of Death’s own characteristics in the process…
A lot of fun. I may pick up more in the series.
My rating: ****
Language: none
Violence: comedic only
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
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