Reaper Man (Discworld 11)
Feb. 18th, 2023 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishIn which Death gets fired. (As distinct from Death taking a bit of a holiday, as in Mort.)
This marks the first appearance of the Auditors, who I think become sort of recurrent ... villains? Plot-motivators? At least, I remember them from the movie version of Hogfather. They seem like the sort of thing that would show up somewhat often.
Reaper Man feels like two half-books glued together: "Death gets fired" and "the wizards do some stuff back in Ankh." As a "Death" book, I like this less than Mort. As a "Wizards" book, I like it better than any of the other Wizards books thus far, excepting possibly The Light Fantastic. So, progress, of a sort?
Like everyone else in the known universe, I like Pratchett's Death. I like him as Death, and I like him as Bill Door. I guess this was a way to work the "Death learns about life" part of Death Takes A Holiday into the mythos, and it does a good job of that. I was happy to see Mrs Flitworth when she turned up (a rarity in a Pratchett female character for me, so far), I very much enjoyed the Death-vs-newDeath duel. As for the Combination Harvester and Death as John Henry... that, I'd say is how to do Modern Life Into Discworld in a way that I appreciate it.
Speaking of which: I did not enjoy the shopping mall, in the 'wizards' half. Partly it feels very nineties, very much Of Its Time in a way that even Moving Pictures wasn't; partly it just ... wasn't interesting. Okay, malls as parasites on cities, got it, but then it just sits there. (Snowglobes into trolleys is a better-worked-out version of Avram Davidson's "Or All The Seas With Oysters" but I preferred the original. Possibly because it didn't outstay its welcome.)
Against my will I have developed a fondness for Archchancellor Ridcully and his utterly unwizardly approach to wizards and wizardry. I hope to see more of him. Also the ridiculous vampires, and the werewolves.
Overall I'd say this was a better than average Discworld, but not as good as I'd hoped from a Death book. But after the disappointments ofFaustEric and Moving Pictures, it's a welcome change. More trajectory like this, please.
Next time: Witches Abroad.
This marks the first appearance of the Auditors, who I think become sort of recurrent ... villains? Plot-motivators? At least, I remember them from the movie version of Hogfather. They seem like the sort of thing that would show up somewhat often.
Reaper Man feels like two half-books glued together: "Death gets fired" and "the wizards do some stuff back in Ankh." As a "Death" book, I like this less than Mort. As a "Wizards" book, I like it better than any of the other Wizards books thus far, excepting possibly The Light Fantastic. So, progress, of a sort?
Like everyone else in the known universe, I like Pratchett's Death. I like him as Death, and I like him as Bill Door. I guess this was a way to work the "Death learns about life" part of Death Takes A Holiday into the mythos, and it does a good job of that. I was happy to see Mrs Flitworth when she turned up (a rarity in a Pratchett female character for me, so far), I very much enjoyed the Death-vs-newDeath duel. As for the Combination Harvester and Death as John Henry... that, I'd say is how to do Modern Life Into Discworld in a way that I appreciate it.
Speaking of which: I did not enjoy the shopping mall, in the 'wizards' half. Partly it feels very nineties, very much Of Its Time in a way that even Moving Pictures wasn't; partly it just ... wasn't interesting. Okay, malls as parasites on cities, got it, but then it just sits there. (Snowglobes into trolleys is a better-worked-out version of Avram Davidson's "Or All The Seas With Oysters" but I preferred the original. Possibly because it didn't outstay its welcome.)
Against my will I have developed a fondness for Archchancellor Ridcully and his utterly unwizardly approach to wizards and wizardry. I hope to see more of him. Also the ridiculous vampires, and the werewolves.
Overall I'd say this was a better than average Discworld, but not as good as I'd hoped from a Death book. But after the disappointments of
Next time: Witches Abroad.
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Date: 2023-02-19 02:54 am (UTC)(I am reading them in order, partly because that is Just How I Do Things and partly because, to paraphrase Shiv Ramdas, that means that they start out good and get better.)