Reaper Man (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "The Morris dance is common to all inhabited worlds in the multiverse..." (more)
Key Phrases: reaper man, senior wizards, other wizards, Bill Door, Miss Flitworth, Windle Poons (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

They say there are only two things you can count on ...

But that was before DEATH started pondering the existential. Of course, the last thing anyone needs is a squeamish Grim Reaper and soon his Discworld bosses have sent him off with best wishes and a well-earned gold watch. Now DEATH is having the time of his life, finding greener pastures where he can put his scythe to a whole new use.

But like every cutback in an important public service, DEATH's demise soon leads to chaos and unrest -- literally, for those whose time was supposed to be up, like Windle Poons. The oldest geezer in the entire faculty of Unseen University -- home of magic, wizardry, and big dinners -- Windle was looking forward to a wonderful afterlife, not this boring been-there-done-that routine. To get the fresh start he deserves, Windle and the rest of Ankh-Morpork's undead and underemployed set off to find DEATH and save the world for the living (and everybody else, of course).

About the Author

Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular living authors in the world. His first story was published when he was thirteen, and his first full-length book when he was twenty. He worked as a journalist to support the writing habit, but gave up the day job when the success of his books meant that it was costing him money to go to work.

Prachett's acclaimed novels are bestsellers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and have sold more than twenty-one million copies worldwide. He lives in England, where he writes all the time. (It's his hobby as well.)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch; 1st THUS edition (July 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061020621
• ISBN-13: 978-0061020629
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #52,790 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 11 in The Discworld Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dead, Depressed? Feel Like Starting it All Again?, November 23, 2004

By	Bruce Kendall "BEK" (Southern Pines, NC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

REAPER MAN is my introduction to Pratchett. Upon finishing it, I immediately ordered four more Pratchett novels. The man's a comic/cosmic genius. I had always been put off by what appeared to be the mass market packaging of his books. I thought he was just another pop fiction author. I couldn't have been more wrong. The usual comparison is to Douglas Adams, whom I also greatly admire, but I find that I respond even more viscerally to Pratchett.

It's not too difficult to figure out who the main character is in this book. But this Reaper has less to do with a Durer print than he does with the character as filtered through the mind set of Monty Python in THE MEANING OF LIFE. "Bill Door," the Reaper's flustered attempt at a moniker as he assumes his earthly identity, is one of the drollest, funniest comic characters in recent literature. He is a master of understatement. His deadpan delivery is spot on. The puns and the throwaway lines come fast and furious, throughout the book. Yet Pratchett also adds a sense of poignancy as the Reaper engages in a terrestrial romance with the somewhat addled, but strong willed Miss Flitworth. We come to care about what happens to them.

Pratchett does a masterful job of juggling several subplots, involving Wizards, a Wolfman and several other equally bizarre, but comical secondary characters. I couldn't describe all these plots and subplots coherently if I tried. Suffice it to say that what would dissolve into pure incoherence in a lesser writer's hands, holds up like juggled hourglasses in Pratchett's hands.

I had the impression that Pratchett couldn't be an important writer "and" be as prolific as he's been. Wrong. I've started several of his other books (THE COLOR OF MAGIC, THE LIGHT FANTASTIC, SMALL GODS and INTERESTING TIMES) and see that some of my favorite characters are included in other volumes. I can't wait to finish them! I definitely have to thank my Reviewer Friends for having urged me to check into Pratchett Land. As parallel universes go, Discworld can't be surpassed!

BEK

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a wonderful afterlife, November 21, 2004

By	Eileen Rieback (Coral Springs, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Death, the grim reaper, is tasked with harvesting people's souls after they have died. He has always existed beyond Time and beyond life. But he has angered the Great Ones, and now he has to share the same fate as those he reaps: he is dying. He decides to take a holiday in order to make the most of the limited time he has left. But without Death present to claim people when they move on, things are bound to go wrong as life energy builds up and wreaks havoc on Discworld. Windle Poons, the oldest wizard at Unseen University, finds that upon his death he has nowhere to go. So he returns to his body until he can finally pass on. In his quest to find Death, he finds life. "Reaper Man" alternates between two story lines: a mostly serious one about Death and a mostly whimsical one about Poons and his fellow wizards as they battle a new life form that threatens to take over the disc.

Although the character of Death was introduced in earlier Pratchett books, here he is fleshed out (if you will pardon the pun) into a fascinating character. He becomes a farm hand and switches to reaping crops instead of souls. He wrestles with the concept of saving a life instead of claiming one. He learns to get along with the townspeople and forms an interesting, and ultimately moving, relationship with Miss Flitworth, the elderly spinster who owns the farm. Now that he is faced with his own death, he begins to experience the vulnerabilities and emotions that other mortals face. I found Death to be a quite likable entity, and I think other readers will also.

The late Windle Poons evokes a lot of laughs as he tries to make his way in the world of the still living. He hooks up with a group of the Undead when he joins the Fresh Start Club, an organization that fights for equal rights for the deceased. The club members include a shy banshee, a reluctant vampire, a boogeyman, and a reverse werewolf. Poons, the wizards, the Undead, and a medium named Mrs. Cake are caught up in a funny and magically madcap race to save Discworld from a fate far worse than death.

As is usual in his books, Terry Pratchett includes wonderful nuggets of wisdom and philosophy scattered here and there between the laughs. Among the thought-provoking ideas he includes here are the relationship between belief and the object believed in, and the trolls' theory on why living things move backwards through time. He laments the intrusion of suburban sprawl and the proliferation of shopping malls. His characters ponder the meaning of life and death. This is not merely a story to race through and enjoy. It is a story to savor, and its ideas will stick with the reader long after the book is closed.

Eileen Rieback

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Discworld novel. Without a doubt., August 11, 2000

By	[e-mail] (Melbourne, Australia.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: REAPER MAN (A DISCWORLD NOVEL) (Paperback)

The Discworld series is a brilliant and beautiful series of books. This is the best of them. Do I really need to give any further explanation? Alright then.

The Grim Reaper, Death, is a character often popularised as evil and murderous, and such. But he isn't, and in fact gets quite offended should this be suggested to him. The Auditors of Reality have therefore decided to fire him, on the basis that he is taking too much personal interest in his work. Until a replacement is found, though, Death's job - taking the spirits of the dead to their appointed afterlife (if any) isn't happening, leaving a surplus of life force and an abundance of chaos.

As Death journeys through what must now be called his "life" as a farm labourer called Bill Door, and deceased-but-not-departed wizard Windle Poons attempts to find him, comedy mixes with serious issues on life and humanity. And we are amused, but moved at the same time. A beautiful book. Get it. Now, if not sooner.