Mort by Terry Pratchett

Read this book over a two-day period. I have read about 5 others in the Discworld series, a bit out of order, but we have most of them now, so I will read the rest in order.

Mort is a young boy who finds himself hired as Death’s apprentice. Hilarity ensues when he fumbles a job his first day out, and then tries to cover his slip-up. Meanwhile, Death has some time on his hands while Mort is making the rounds, and tries his hand at some more human pursuits.

In general, this book takes a very light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek approach to Death, which makes it like everything else on Discworld (a bit tongue-in-cheek). Not as serious or in-depth as the Incarnation of Death portrayed in On A Pale Horse (one of my all-time favorites by Anthony). But it seems appropriate that the Death patrolling Discworld should be a bit weird (such as riding a pale horse named Binky).

Anyway, the book is not really about Death, it is about Mort, the apprentice. (For story-analysis students, this is very much a character-based story, tracking Mort’s change in character over time).

True to form, Pratchett gives us a very light-hearted story, and the humor is quite intellectual. The writing style, as with the other books in the series, pokes fun at everything, including itself. Good stuff.