Title: Reaper Man (Discworld #11, Death #2)
Author: Terry Pratchett.
Format: Hardcover.
Publisher: Gollancz.
Page count: 298.
Release day: May 1991.
Genre: Adult, fantasy.
Rating: 2.5 stars.
See my review for the first Death book (Mort) here!
What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)
‘Death has to happen. That’s what bein’ alive is all about. You’re alive, and then you’re dead. It can’t just stop happening.’
But it can. And it has. So what happens after death is now less of a philosophical question than a question of actual reality. On the Disc, as here, they need Death. If Death doesn’t come for you, then what are you supposed to do in the meantime? You can’t have the undead wandering about like lost souls. There’s no telling what might happen, particularly when they discover that life really is only for the living…
Rating:
Characters: 5/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Writing: 7/10
Plot: 5/10
Intrigue: 5/10
Logic: 4/10
Enjoyment: 4/10
Average: 5.29
My thoughts:
I was quite excited to pick this one up after really enjoying Mort! I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed Mort, so I think because of that my expectations were quite high for this one. And unfortunately they were not met.
I still really did enjoy the character Death! I really liked him exploring the living people life! But that was only part of the story. I was not really that interested in Willow Poones story, or maybe not not interested but I just felt a bored while reading his parts. And also all the parts with the priests, which is related to Willow Poones story, felt a bit boring and I didn’t get it at parts.. Meaning that Death’s part of the story was only like a third of the book, so that really took my enjoyment down.
Since I was only enjoying such a small part of the book I wasn’t very intrigued to pick it back up.
The writing was still great, I also really enjoyed the setting of this book and series so far!
Since I really enjoyed the first book and still really liked Death in this one, I will definitely pick up the third book in the Death series, Soul Music!
Sorry this one didn’t quite work for you but I do hope to get to the Death books at some point. I haven’t read a ton of Pratchett, but what I’ve read so far I’ve absolutely loved. 🙂
The first book in this series was amazing, so i will still definitely read the next one!
I hope you will like them!
I’m starting Mort this weekend! Sorry to hear this one wasn’t great, but I’ve heard so many great things about Death as a character, so hopefully future Death books will be better.
Mort was amazing! And I hope I will love the rest more, since I did really like Death as a character!
Isn’t is amazing how a great character can convince you to read past a meh story line? I felt the same with one of my middle grade reads recently. Great review!
Molly @ SilverButtonBooks
It is!
Thanks 🙂
I just love Death in these books. You may not know this, but he shows up in every Disc world book, sometimes just a cameo appearance, other times a bit more involved. But I do remember this one being a bit of a let down. Death was the best part of it for sure. Glad to hear you are not giving up on the books though.
Oh I did not know that! I´m happy to hear 🙂
Glad I was not the only one haha! I shouls read the next one soon!