Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

...verge on the literary. Reaper Man marks a bit of a watershed in the series as, although it is full of wizards and undead and animated compost heaps, it also contains a lot of thoughtful prose about fate, time, life and the erosion of community spirit due to out-of-town shopping centres. No, really. The novel is routinely described as 'one of the Death ones'. Death is probably Pratchett's most widely-known character, a seven foot skeleton with a ...
...Ankh-Morpork where, without the Grim Reaper around to guide them on their way, the souls of the recently departed are wandering the streets in a fairly bemused manner. Wizard Windle Poons is the main focus for this subplot, as he wanders the streets of Ankh-Morpork with the rest of Mrs Cake's undead chums. This choice of central character is yet another shift away from the fresh-faced young people that populate Pratchett's earlier work, as Poons ...

Olly_Plimsoll 01.11.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

This time I’m armed. With Quotes. “Reaper Man” is the tenth instalment of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld collection; if you haven’t read the previous nine, then don’t worry, you’ll be finding the time later. And then you’ll be searching for the next fifteen or so. And since the man is still not dead, you’ll find yourself as addicted as the rest of us in keeping up with the goings-on in a world not so much resembling the watched ball but the half-time ...
...the Pratchetts, but there have certainly been a few near scrapes. And anyway, there are surely worse ways to go than laughing your head off… Death, it seems, has gone on strike. Lives are ending, but not going away. And, perhaps surprisingly given their experience, the Army can’t cover this one. It’s come as something of a surprise to the ancient wizard Windle Poons that the next world is in fact the same one, but with no automatic pilot. Once he’s ...

TallTone 20.12.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

...are two connected plots to Reaper Man, one involving DEATH and the other the wizards of the Unseen University, as well as various other assorted dead, undead and vaguely alive characters. And shopping trolleys. In the first, Reaper Man could alternatively be called Death Takes an Enforced Holiday. Cloaked figures, The Auditors, who disappear should they develop individual awareness are unhappy with DEATH. As an incarnation, he should also be devoid ...
...of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, Reaper Man is funny and satiric. The idea that shopping malls suck life out of towns and cities is not a new one. Pratchett voices our collective discomfort with the cost of conspicuous consumption that shopping malls and the other little conveniences of life (like shopping trolleys) provide. He even satirises mall music! However, the book has a serious side as well. I certainly chuckle at DEATH’s ...

mattygroves 12.07.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

...The Truth). In Reaper Man there are two separate but linked plots, one involving death (perhaps predictably depicted as a skeleton) and the other involving the wizards from the unseen university (the discs premier school of magic) and the results of the absence of death. The character that features most strongly in Reaper Man is death, the book develops the character of death. Death is relieved of his duties because he develops a personality, which ...
...of reality. The only problem is that without death, souls are beginning to pile up with no one to usher them into the next world. Meanwhile after being given a life death takes binky and an incredibly sharp scythe in search of a job. He finally finds a job as a farm hand and "Bill Door" is the more life filled, but still skeletal incarnation of death. Death however does not have much time to enjoy his new life, as soon as the new death arrives the ...

Azurel 10.08.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

How on earth am I going to convey enough about all the plots and characters in this novel without actualy typing in most of a book's worth of review? This is an excellent and very full book. I only hope I can do it some sort of justice. Pratchett's discworld series is now very long indeed. The seting is a fantasy world - The Discworld, a large disc supported by four elephants who stand on the back of a giant turtle. The place often bears an uncanny ...
...a strange resemblance to Shakespeare and a whole host of fantasy novels. (Pratchett having a distinct fondness for parody) Death has been a presence in the books since the very begining and has gradually become quite a presence. "Mort" is worth reading before you have a go at this one, and "Soul Music" has a lot of Death in it as well. They work fairly well out of order, so don't worry too much. The Plots: Death has been fired by the dull beings ...

Bryn_Pearson 29.10.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

...thought that I would give Reaper Man a try. In fact I have had this book finished for a week now and was stuck as how to review it, or what exactly I thought. So lets get on shall we? PLOT Death (in the form of the Grim Reaper) has been made redundant, he is old technology, and the cosmic forces want a new Death. Now Death himself is not so pleased about this event, but as part of his compensation and before death himself is reaped by his replacement, ...
...concept such as the Grim Reaper a rather endearing character is great and very novel. But the in my view the shopping trolley idea was not that amusing and I found this part of the book’s plot, disappointing and rather drifting. MESSAGE Does Pratchett have a social message? Well, yes I think he does, the redundancy of Death before the cosmic forces have made plans is rather socialist. Is this a swipe at large companies that make the work ...

KingHerrod 27.04.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

As Death stalks the seemingly endless corridor he sees the rows of timers with the sands of life essence slowly trickling away. Out of the corner of the void that is his eye socket he notices something he has never encountered before. A small golden timer with the sands of life essence flowing rapidly from the top to the bottom of its dual bulbs. On closer inspection he sees five letters discreetly, yet undeniably printed across the timer. Those ...
...happen to the life if there is no Death? "Reaper Man" is Terry Pratchett's eleventh novel in his Discworld series. For those unaware the Discworld is a flat, circular planet supported by four giant elephants who are in turn stood on the back of Great A'Tuin the sky turtle. Only on such a world could witches, trolls, werewolves and dwarves live alongside humanity. This novel is in two parts and essentially follows two plot lines. That of Death's ...

Shortsharpshock 21.08.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

Discworld is a place where myths are real, where people are… well, people… where anything can happen… and where Death exists as an anthropomorphic personality, complete with black robes, scythe, and TALKS LIKE THIS (so you can always tell from a quick glance at the page if Death is on it or not!). He has a thirst for new experiences though, so he does all sorts of things that anthropomorphic representations aren't really supposed to do. One of these ...
...an apprentice. (These both happened in the afore-mentioned Mort). He also journeys down to earth on occasion when not on business, for example to find out what this alcohol business is all about. There are things in the multiverse (Discworld exists in just one of the possible universes, or realities, you see… the idea is that everything MUST exists at some place at some time) of Discworld called Auditors. They are the Filing Clerks of the multiverse, ...

CaptainDisaster 23.05.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

With Reaper Man Terry Pratchett takes his insane sense of humour one step further, he allows Death to take a holiday. This strange event is all triggered by Death realising that his life timer is running out. Having his mortality suddenly thrust on him he decides enough is enough and that he deserves a nice holiday after all the quality reaping he has performed over the eons of existence he has seen. There’s just one problem though, people ...
...stage left comes Windle Poons a decrepit wizard who strangely enough is to be the hero Pratchett wants us to believe in. Windle Poons is one of those Death was supposed to claim but neglected to due to Death’s new apathy to his normal work. Poons soon discovers that he is more alive in his undead state than when he was actually alive. His abilities both mental and physical are augmented to the extreme in his new but very odd existence. Meanwhile ...

Guzman 10.04.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

I have to say, I loved this book so forgive me if this appears to be a bit biased. This is the second book in the amazing Discworld series that features DEATH as a main character. The plot revolves around Death being made redundant from his current position, ie 'Being the Grim Reaper'. Temporarily, things stop dying which leads to a build up of life force, which in turn causes a whole cart load of mayhem. As the wizards sit at old Windle Poons' ...
...unhealthily thin character called bill turns up at an old farm and is surprisingly good with a scythe...... The book itself is actually split into two intermingling stories, which come together at the end. One focuses on Death (Mr Bill Door), the combination Harvester, a skeletal rat and a very important harvest. T'other looks at the Wizard's approach to Zombies, each other, shopping trolly's and a very special suit with a second pair of trousers ...

Orca88 07.11.2002 (08.11.2002) · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

reaper Man" is the first Terry Pratchett book I read, and I have been hooked ever since. "Death is missing, presumed...er...gone." This is a quote from the book. Can you imagine what would happen if Death, The Grim Reaper, took a holiday? Chaos. With no one to collect all the souls, the dead don't know they are actually dead, so they just continue about their business. Reg Shoe, Dead Rights activist, is suddenly very busy. And Windle Poons, a wizard ...
...in a coffin. Windle, and the rest of the dead from Ankh-Morpork find themselves having to fight to save the world. Some of the more colourful characters include, Arthur Winkings, who became a vampire after being bitten by a lawyer, and the bogeyman, who carries a door around everywhere to hide behind. Then there is and Mr Ixolite, a banshee with a speech impediment, so instead of howling from the rooftop when someone dies, he writes OooEeeOooEeeOoo ...

Belgarath_02 12.07.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

Death takes a holiday! This is Terry Pratchett in fine form as usual. Death goes missing (well, kind of) and The Discworld is left to cope without him there to collect the dead. Basically we follow Windle Poons as he approaches death and how he copes with his afterlife and near death (or not very near death as the case may be) experience. We get to learn more about the undead (or the differently alive as Terry puts it) and we also get to see how ...
...going to die and be replaced by a new Death who is rather less user friendly than the Death we have come to know and love. With nothing dying theres lots of life pouring into the Discworld & it has to go somewhere. Swearwords come to life, Snowglobes develop a lifecycle which eventually becomes a Shopping Mall. The book is one of the stranger ones, it has lots of funny moments as well though. It's a book with an good if somewhat unusal resolution ...

atytyut2434 21.07.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

Haven't written a review for a while, thought I had better come back! Anyway, what can I say. The books based around DEATH are by far the best in the Discworld series. Pratchett has attempted (and succeeded) in showing DEATH in a new light. DEATH makes mistakes, gets drunk and even saves lives! So, what is this book really about. The main premis is that DEATH gets tired of his job, and this is noted by the "Auditors". If you have even been audited, ...
...a new DEATH is required, and the current DEATH is "given time". This basically means that he is no longer immortal and "has a life". This is when the problems all begin. ******** SPOILER ALERT ************ Anyway, on with the review. So DEATH is at a loose end. He moves into the barn of a woman in a village in the Ramtops and becomes a handy man. Unsuprisingly, he is particularly good at harvest time, and even manages to beat a combine harvester ...

pob0782 25.10.2003 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

...the country, hence the title: Reaper Man. When in the country, Death, surely Pratchett's most ingenious character meets Miss Flitworth, who eventually helps him to prepare for the coming of the new Death- the Death of Humans. When he comes, you can almost feel the tingling emotion and pathos as all hiss emotions rise to the surface, and he aims his scythe into his midriff: pure drama. Death's characterisation is indicative of Pratchett's skill as ...
...audience can empathise with, sympathise with, and genuinely find funny. His scene setting, and locations also make for an excellent novel, and there is little doubt that he is one of Britain's finest novelists of the 20th Century. To cut a long story short, he succeeds, but you MUST witness the brilliance with which Pratchett pulls off this ridiculous plot to appreciate his genius. In short- truly oustanding. ...

Fady 07.02.2001 (08.02.2001) · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

Death finds out one day that he's suddenly mortal and that his sand is running out. So he leaves his job. This leads to very inconvenient situations in the world, as no one, or indeed, nothing, is dying. Enter the hero--Windle Poons is an ancient wizard who hasn't done anything worthwhile, or even useful, for a score of years. He dies but doesn't, and suddenly he has superhuman senses and is as strong as an ox. Death, meanwhile, has buggered off ...

JeffSumm 01.09.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett