Mort

Mort by Terry Pratchett

Continuing my trek through the Discworld (I'm reading them chronologically because making any other kind of decision about where to begin proved to be too overwhelming), and so I have arrived at Mort. The first of the books about Death, who is very quickly becoming one of my most favorite Discworld characters.

In this book, Death takes an apprentice named Mort; his first apprentice that we know of. Death also has a daughter named Ysabell and a very aged housekeeper/cook named Albert. These 4 comprise our main cast of characters. As Mort grows in his apprenticeship, Death decides to turn over all reaping responsibilities to him for a short time and go on a holiday. Things go sideways, as is to be somewhat expected when you put a teenage boy in charge of ushering souls to the afterlife.

As is usual when I review installments in series, I'm just going to touch on some things I especially enjoyed (light spoiler warning, but no big plot points).

Mort's insistence on being called 'Mort' instead of 'boy' is a great running joke.
Death's library, where each book is the story of someone's life. So cool and creepy.
The pocket universe and how that whole bit is executed was just such fun.
Death living his best life for a little while as Mort wreaks havoc, especially the bit at the pub and the bit with all the kittens.

I am really enjoying this series, it's quite good fun. Looking forward to Sourcery next!

“He'd been wrong, there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and it was a flamethrower.” 

“He was determined to discover the underlying logic behind the universe.Which was going to be hard, because there wasn't one.” 

“THAT’S MORTALS FOR YOU, Death continued. THEY’VE ONLY GOT A FEW YEARS IN THIS WORLD AND THEY SPEND THEM ALL IN MAKING THINGS COMPLICATED FOR THEMSELVES. FASCINATING.”

“How do you get all those coins?" asked Mort. IN PAIRS.”