Mort
By Terry Pratchett
First published:- November 12, 1987
What’s It About?
Mort is a gangly farm boy whose father just wants him to land a good apprenticeship. When a skeletal chap with a scythe offers him an apprenticeship in the reaping (soul) business, long term employment seems assured. However, an incident involving a princess and his own romantic nature might just spell doom and not just for Mort...
Background
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the works of Terry Pratchett, this is the fourth of his highly successful series of books set on the Discworld - a flat disc of a world (carried through space on the backs of four elephants on the back of a giant turtle) where magic and comedy exists in equal measures. Pratchett had written a couple of more sci-fi leaning books before launching into a spoof of sword and sorcery novels with The Colour Of Magic in 1983 which launched the Discworld. He would then go on to write another forty novels in the series (as well as a few spin offs and other books too) before his untimely death in 2015 as a result of Alzheimer’s.
Why’s It Good?
If I’m being honest, I could pick most of the Discworld books to go in here but I think that this is the first one that has real mainstream appeal and is the most accessible way in to the series (arguably, Equal Rites is a close second here as it introduces Granny Weatherwax; one of the best characters in the series). It showcases the blend of humour, ideas, fantasy and strong character work that are the hallmark of Pratchett’s work. In the first book (The Colour Of Magic), you can see that he is still working out what the Discworld is. By the second one, it’s beginning to become more recognisably The Discworld and, by the third, we’re getting some of the iconic characters who will stay the distance.
There’s a personal connection for me with these books too (and let’s face it, this is a personal choice list so they’ll all have some sort of personal resonance). From the age of about thirteen, every birthday and Christmas (conveniently spaced about six months apart for me), my Nana would buy me the latest Terry Pratchett hardback (which continued right up until her death in 2006). It was a standing joke, my feigned surprise at what this hardback-shaped gift could be, but my delight at receiving them each time was genuine. So a set of books that I loved is inextricably bound in my memory with my Nana. What more could you ask for from a book?
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