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ggcd1981's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Alcohol and Death
Minor: Animal cruelty, Murder, Death of parent, Violence, and Adult/minor relationship
saltycoffee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Murder, Death, and Suicide
naomi_k's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Minor: Murder, Bullying, Classism, Death, Alcohol, and Cursing
ampharos906's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Animal cruelty, Blood, Violence, and Misogyny
puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Death and Murder
Minor: Sexism, Alcohol, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, and Animal death
josiee's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Murder
scottie_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The book isn’t broken up into traditional chapters and the narrative jumps among the characters. Once you get used to it the pace picks up.
I really enjoyed my first foray into the Disc. The story is clever and funny and the characters become ones you care about.
I think as I read more Discworld books my rating for Mort may change. Look forward to reading more in the series!
Graphic: Murder and Death
Minor: Alcohol
blymanor's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Moderate: Death
Minor: Confinement, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Animal death, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder
sigynmoon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Fatphobia and Murder
Minor: Animal death, Classism, and Animal cruelty
Fatphobia: Throughout the book a character is described as chubby in a way that implies she is unattractive for it. Murder: There's a lot of murder and death in this book as a whole, the whole story is revolved around death. Animal death and cruelty: Near the beginning, a bag of drowned kittens is found. We do see these kittens come up as ghosts which personally made me feel better but it's still definitely saddening for animal lovers. A man attempts to sacrifice an elephant but fails, however the elephant is still injured in the process. Classism: A princess throws out a bit of classism here and there.crufts's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Although this is Book 4 of the Discworld series, there's very little connection to the preceding novels and you can read it as a standalone.
Through unusual circumstances, teenager Mort (Mortimer) becomes an apprentice to Death. Yep, that Death. Stricken by a crush when he's sent to collect the soul of the assassinated Princess Keli, Mort averts her death and inadvertently sets the universe off-kilter. With the help of Death's teenage daughter Ysabell, butler Albert, and the wizard Cutwell, can he fix it all up before Death finds out?
It's a very funny novel. Having Death as an anthropomorphic character allows for wry observations about how people deal with death! In fact, no one can see Death or ghosts unless (like the wizard Cutwell) they've been specially trained.
But not everyone is sorry to see Death. Paraphrased: "The kings and queens always hang on as long as they can when I come knocking, but the peasants? They can't wait!"
Many other interesting ideas are also passed around in the form of jokes. After his endless years of service, Death has learned helplessness about the inevitability of fate: "There's no justice. There's just us." But once fresh-faced Mort is on the scene, he remarks (paraphrased): "I've gotten so caught up in how things are, that I've forgotten what they could become." This character development is satisfying to see.
Another strong point of the novel is unity of plot. The main theme is death and the inevitability (or not) of fate, and the plot sticks to that pretty strictly. There are hardly any extraneous plot threads, making for a focused, "clean" story. This is in contrast to the previous Discworld novels such as The Colour of Magic (#1) and The Light Fantastic (#2), which twist and bend all over the place in order to accommodate the jokes.
Finally, the pacing was good as well. Too many times, I've written Storygraph reviews that say "It was good, but they rushed the ending!" Not so here. The climactic showdown scene stretches out the tension of the final moments, just as it should. Time slows dramatically at all the right points and we get exactly the explosive ending we're hoping for.
I would absolutely recommend this book.
Minor: Death, Murder, and Violence
Despite having Death as a literal character, death and violence in the novel is not graphically described.