“There is no
justice.”
“No, there is only me.”
And with
that, Death gave the core struggle of this flawed novel that could have been
much more proper with its wonderful ambition.
I will be
honest, one of the reasons I have loved Death is that he is associated with
most of the characters in the series and plays off them with aplomb –
especially through some brilliant deadpan humour. Seeing that this is the first
in his own ‘miniseries’, I feared overexposure but Pratchett is brilliant in
that he fleshes out the Death Universe cast in wonderful ways, even adding a
newcomer to the mix.
A core
struggle for Death seems to have been his fascination with the world of human
beings, which actually mirrors the reactions of many versions of Deaths in
other mythos – but here, Pratchett takes it up another notch by giving him a
human apprentice and a growing desire to reinvent himself.
By diverging
into two concurrent threads, the author manages to create an intriguing
challenge to the core cast as the human named Mort does something that we have
seen in numerous science fiction shows and stories – try to change something
that is meant to happen.
Pratchett
goes into wonderful thought process of the purpose of Death in the universe of
Discworld, the balance that comes through him and what might happen if that
balance is disturbed. Especially sharp is that effect of Mort and Death slowly
trying to integrate themselves into each other’s worlds, with both coming
across as flawed individuals trying to find a purpose.
The cast of
this book is much tighter than previous ones, with the plot very woven around
this passage of power from Death to Mort and the consequences of such. But the
given cast, with a returning ‘daughter of death’ Ysabell, proves to be worth
investing in and their roles in the plot form pillars in how the resolution is
reached.
Where my
issues lay with, was the key conflict of the book. While I was very happy with
how it initiated, certain events and characters grew increasingly grating as
time went on – finally culminating into irrelevance. I am perfectly happy with
characters becoming driven by the plot, but they need fleshing out and I think
that was a miss. Also, the resolution was too neatly done, after all the
actions before that. I was happy though to see that with great power comes
great responsibility theme was applied here – as the actions of certain
characters end up in proper consequences.
Pratchett’s
dark humour comes to the fore here though, especially given Death is both a key
character and a key theme in the novel – and at times it brings both smiles and
hurt to the reader. Exploring Death’s Domain again was another treat, and
showed how much pathos is involved in the lives of its inhabitants.
So, I give
it 8 out of 10.
+A
wonderfully eclectic bunch of characters
+Beautiful
exploration of themes of death and choice
+Mort proves
to be a proper flawed protagonist
+Death as
usual is a delight
+That
wonderful Pratchett dark humour
-The
conflict seemed a bit stretched out
-A better
resolution could have been devised.
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