Low Fantasy

Review: Reaper Man

Jay
Cover of the book, featuring a skeleton in blue overalls and a straw hat holding a scythe and leaning against a tree in the middle of a wheat field.

Title: Reaper Man

Series: Discworld #11 (Death #2)

Author: Sir Terry Pratchett

Genre: Low Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Death, body horror, animal death, death of child (minor), fire

Spoiler Warning: Despite this book being eleventh in a series, it has no real spoilers for previous books.

Back Cover:

“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.

Review:

There is a lot going on in this book. Almost too much for one book, it seems. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun to read, but trying to sort it out afterwards I’m impressed so many different things got shoved into here.

Let’s start with Death, since this is his series. The supernatural people in charge of the whole universe (apparently those exist – I wonder if they’ll ever show up again) decide that since Discworld’s Death has a personality, it’s no longer a force but a person, and people can die. So Death, who suddenly has a time limit on his existence, stops doing his job and goes off to experience life as humans live it. Disguised as the tall and skinny but ordinary human Bill Door, he ends up on an old woman’s farm as a farm hand, where he gets to experience how humans interact with each other and deal with the knowledge that they’re going to die one day.

Meanwhile, Death not doing his job means that nothing is actually dying. The elderly wizard Windle Poons dies, but since there’s no Death to help him move on, ends up back in his body as a zombie, more spry after death than he had been in decades. With the occasionally-dubious assistance of other wizards, other undead, and other residents of Anhk-Morpork, he attempts to unravel what is happening to the city as excess life starts to do really weird things.

It’s fun and entertaining, as most Discworld books are, but the themes fall a bit flat. Death/Bill Door’s story had an interesting theme of dealing with the fear of death and living when you know it’s all going to come to an end, but since the book didn’t spend as much time in that storyline (I’m pretty sure less than half of Reaper Man was actually about the reaper man), there wasn’t time for it to reach full poignancy.

The storyline with the wizards and Windle Poons was mostly “hey, if Death stopped doing his job and nothing died anymore, wouldn’t the consequences be wild?” and playing with that idea. But it also tried to add some bigger ideas – the inevitability of death, the life-sucking nature of shopping malls, a couple pointed jabs at souvenirs and a particular kind of church lady, and possibly even something about the body and aging (although that one was so muddled that I’m not sure if it wasn’t just me reading too much into it). All of them were interesting ideas, but there were too many of them for any to have much of an impact.

Despite all these criticisms, this book was quite fun. I enjoyed Death/Bill Door’s attempts to figure out what humans do, fit in, and make friends. And even though Windle Poons is not my favorite wizard, I enjoy the dynamics between the wizards and how everything at the Unseen University works. Even though Reaper Man isn’t as strong thematically as other Discworld entries, it was still plenty of fun.

The Discworld series:

  1. The Colour of Magic
  2. The Light Fantastic
  3. Equal Rites
  4. Mort
  5. Sourcery
  6. Wyrd Sisters
  7. Pyramids
  8. Guards! Guards!
  9. Eric
  10. Moving Pictures
  11. Reaper Man
  12. Witches Abroad
  13. Small Gods
  14. Lords and Ladies
  15. Men at Arms
  16. Soul Music
  17. Interesting Times
  18. Maskerade
  19. Feet of Clay
  20. Hogfather
  21. Jingo
  22. The Last Continent
  23. Carpe Jugulum
  24. The Fifth Elephant
  25. The Truth
  26. Thief of Time
  27. The Last Hero
  28. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
  29. Night Watch
  30. The Wee Free Men
  31. Monstrous Regiment
  32. A Hat Full of Sky
  33. Going Postal
  34. Thud!
  35. Wintersmith
  36. Making Money
  37. Unseen Academicals
  38. I Shall Wear Midnight
  39. Snuff
  40. Raising Steam
  41. The Shepherd’s Crown