book review: Mort, by Terry Pratchett

 Let me just get this out of the way: I, a humor writer, will never be as funny as Terry Pratchett.

But I don't feel so bad about that, because neither will you. Or him. Or her. Or almost anyone, with the possible exception of Douglas Adams. So why worry? Am I jealous? Yes. Yes, I am.

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Mort-Novel-Discworld-Terry-Pratchett-ebook/dp/B000W967UQ/

  

Mort is the fourth Discworld book, and the second I read, which I personally don't recommend. But I'd heard enough about them by then not to be surprised by, for instance, the fact that the Discworld is a flat planet,  being carried on the back of four elephants, which ride on a giant turtle swimming through space. There's also magic--lots and lots of magic.

Mort is a teenager who's unsuited to the family business of farming, so his father takes him to a local hiring fair. At the last minute Mort is indeed taken on as an apprentice--by Death.

THAT Death.

Mort accompanies Death on his rounds, and when Mort tries to interfere with an assassination, his new boss warns him that deaths are predetermined, and he shouldn't mess with fate.

Naturally, that's exactly what Mort does, foiling another assassination attempt on a beautiful young princess. A happy ending? But although the princess is alive, no one seems to quite realize it unless she gets in their faces. Mort soon learns he's created an alternate reality. Unfortunately, actual reality doesn't like that at all, and begins to correct it--which will soon lead to the princess's death, among other bad things.

Meanwhile, Death ... well, Death takes a holiday.

 

Some authors can be funny, as with the first three Discworld novels; some can come up with clever, complicated plots; some can create memorable characters the reader comes to care about. Somehow, Terry Pratchett manages to do all three in Mort, with a seeming ease and grace that makes all other writers wonder what the heck is wrong with them.

Before his death Pratchett wrote more than forty Discworld books, which have been turned into every other form of entertainment imaginable. I can't imagine how anyone could read Mort and then not want to dive into the entire universe. (You might also want to check out "The Watch", a TV series that's pretty good even though only very loosely based on the original.)

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