Mort: 11/28/08

Mort comes early in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. It's number four in a series containing nearly forty novels. It has the freshness of humor that makes Colour of Magic so charming.

Mort, the title character, needs a job. Death, or rather, the anthropomorphic personification of death, needs a break. It's a match made in the after life: Mort becomes Death's apprentice.

Death has a fatalistic view of the universe and certainly of how things work on the Discworld. Mort, being young and mortal has a decidedly different view of how things work. Their differences come to a head at the botched assassination of princess.

The princesses' death or not depending on where one is on Discworld calls into question basic assumptions about reality. It also brings Death to a breaking point. I liked seeing how the two literal interpretations of reality (Death's and Mort's) play out. My favorite scene, though, is Death's final breakdown where he decides to leave his "job" and become a fry-cook.

I've read this book for the third time for the "Herding Cats" challenge hosted by Bottleofshine. The challenge ran May 1 to November 30, so I'm coming down to the line with this last review.

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