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Aug 27, 2007

Jennie rated it:

Probably my favorite of all of the Discworld novels (and that's a hard choice, given my total love of the series). Of all of Pratchett's many quirky characters, I think I love Death the best, though I couldn't begin to tell you why. In this installment, Death gets fired and has to get a day job. In typical Discworld fashion, not everything goes according to plan.

Don't pay attention to the critics' quotes on the front of the book. Anyone who compares Pratchett to Tolkien or Dougla More...

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Dec 16, 2009

Aaron rated it:

If I could steal credit for a book and claim it as my own, Reaper Man would most likely be it. This is the point, I think, where the Discworld novels stopped being entertaining light reading, and really became literature. It's a very subtle shift from the little parodies of science fiction and fantasy conventions of things like The Light Fantastic to the rich satire of a book like Jingo. Behind the story of Death being fired for having developed a personality, there's a clever little parable abo More...

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Mar 07, 2009

Jon rated it:

Probably a 3.5 stars, but I'm feeling generous today.

I enjoyed the humor and the silliness churned out by Terry Pratchett in this Discworld novel. I also liked the philosophical wonderings of Death that resulted in a kinder, gentler Grim Reaper.

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2011

Hosker rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 29, 2010

Nancy rated it:

Terry Pratchett is funny. Terry Pratchett is a philosopher. Terry Pratchett is a delight and the trouble with Terry Pratchett is you should read his books more than once.
Terry Pratchett is maddening. I'm not at all sure I got everything he was saying. There are double meanings everywhere and to read this book is to want to start over and read it again.

If anyone asks about what Pratchett's book is about, just hand it over. He is very hard to explain. If you want to add quo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2010

Matt rated it:

"But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you." - Psalm 39, verse 7

"LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN" - Death, 'Reaper Man' by Terry Pratchett

Now is the season of being snowed in and unable to take hikes or paddle down streams. Now is the season of drinking tea on a couch and trying to keep the mind from hibernating, while at the same time, not necessarily forcing it to wake up. Hense, Terry Pratchett. A More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 19, 2009

Josh rated it:

I'm going to assume that anyone reading this review has neither read this book nor much in the way of Discworld. If you saw either Hogfather or (especially) The Colour of Magic Sky TV productions, forget what you saw in them - the way to enjoy Discworld is to read Discworld!

The book is more or less about Death. Both Death the Grim Reaper and death the fact of life, actually. Reading Mort before Reaper Man is a good way of getting into Discworld's Grim Reaper - he's actually a loveabl More...

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Apr 11, 2009

Anthony rated it:

How can you not like Death?

HOW, INDEED?

I'm sorry, did someone say something?

NEVER MIND. I'LL ONLY BE HERE A MOMENT.

Oh, okay then. Anyway, as I was...erk...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2012

Христо rated it:

Смърт изфирясва и животът зомбясва в “Жътварят” на Тери Пратчет
http://www.knigolandia.info/2012/01/blog...

Има различни видове активизми, а покрай лесната слава на социалните мрежи се пръкват още и още. Църковните твари са едни от претендиращите да имат думата по следсмъртните въпроси (невярно), но само активистът за правата на мъртъвците Рег Шу се бори за правата на мъртвите-които-още-имат-вземане-даване-с-живите. А в един останал без Смърт свят ще има доста такива. Пъстрата гру More...

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Jan 10, 2012

Teri rated it:

What if Death took a vacation? Well, that was Pratchett's last book in his "Death" series, Mort, but Reaper Man picks up the story of Death when the keepers of the continuum (known as the Auditors of Reality) decide that Death isn't quite grim enough to be the Grim Reaper, and is therefore flawed and must be done away with. Death notices his own hourglass running low and running out of something he thought he'd never have a problem with: time. And he's going to spend it.

Wit More...

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Jul 02, 2011

Gavin rated it:

Compelling, Heartbreaking, Thought-provoking and made to look effortless.

Death has started to exhibit a Personality, and that which is must surely end. He is shortly retired and chooses to work for an old lady on a farm for the remainder of his days under the pseudonym of (Good Old) Bill Door. Meanwhile the oldest wizard in the world dies and finds that (during this regrettable interim transition) there's nowhere for him to go, becoming the world's least willing zombie. I can't really More...

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Jun 27, 2011

Sarah rated it:

The powers that be have decided DEATH has too much of a personality and made him mortal – retired him. He now has his own little timer that lets him know how much time he has left and a job on a farm working for a slightly insane woman. Unfortunately, the PTB forgot that while they were looking for a suitable replacement for DEATH, people and animals and etc kept dying. And since no one was available to usher their souls onward, they simply returned to their bodies and continued on. Primary More...

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Apr 22, 2010

Loren rated it:

From ISawLightningFall.com

I never really read funny fiction while growing up. Perhaps it was due to a generally introspective temperament. Maybe it was because those kinds of stories don't typically garner mainstream accolades. I even might owe it to teachers and librarians simply failing to put the right sort of book in my impressionable hands. Whatever the reason, the extent of my foray into humorous storytelling was pretty much limited to James and Deborah Howe's Bunnicula, which More...

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Mar 11, 2011

holy_fire rated it:

DEATH gets a life.....

short plot description: when DEATH gets retired (they let him keep the horse for his good service) he is going to discover about the high cost of living (apologies to Neil Gaiman) and soon learns that life is a habit awfully hard to break.
Meanwhile elsewhere on Discworld nothing is dying until a new Death arises but the wizard Windle Poons (130 years old and looking forward to the afterlife) has no intention to take the situation lying down....

More...

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Sep 03, 2011

Andrés rated it:

I was spoiled by "Small Gods." Period. Not to say I didn't like "Reaper Man," but it was hard put to top the god Om. "Reaper Man" is funny borderline hilarious on several occasions, particularly those involving the wizards. Yo! Pratchett is surprisingly adept at pulling pranks with words and phrasing.

The narrative is split between the stories of Windle Poons and DEATH who find themselves out of a life (and death) and out of a job respectively.

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Feb 20, 2008

Jamie rated it:

What did I learn from this book?

I learned that I loved Death!!!!

No, I'm serious. The character of Death in Terry Pratchett's discworld novels is fantastic, simply one of the most hilarious fictitious forces of nature ever committed to paper.

The book made me wonder what would happen if one (or more) of the Universe's elemental forces was given the sack, as you would expect, hilarity and chaos ensued, and I loved reading every little bit of it.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 31, 2011

Katja rated it:

After hearing many people go off on many rants about how amazing Terry Pratchett is, I was a bit underwhelmed by this book. In my opinion, the writing was quite lazy, nothing special, and the word “said” was used about 350,000 times. The story was alright and the characters were well portrayed - I’d never have believed that Death could be so endearing! It was the writing style that annoyed me – the sense of smugness seeped out of every page, and it didn’t sit well with me. There were definitely More...

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Jul 21, 2009

Molly rated it:

All throughout high school, my friends raved about the awesomeness that is Terry Prachett. I tried several times to get into the Discworld series, but ultimately gave up and pronounced myself NOT a Terry Prachett fan.

This experience teaches me one vitally important pearl of wisdom: I was an idiot in high school.

I may still be an idiot (fiercely debated by both sides), but at least now I'm an idiot who enjoys well-written fiction. I haven't the foggiest idea what Terry Pra More...

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Jan 06, 2008

Jessica rated it:

Okay, this book is very good, and Terry Pratchett is a great writer...however, I keep reading this right before bed because I'm out like a light in three pages. In fact, the other night I put down one book because it was keeping me awake, picked up Reaper Man and was asleep in ten minutes. The book isn't boring, but for some reason it's like a sedative to me. I almost don't want it to end...I've been much more rested lately.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 09, 2011

Andrew rated it:

What happens when Death retires? In Discworld, he’s given a golden life timer and suddenly finds he will only continue to exist for a finite length of time. How should he use his limited remaining time? He ends up boarding with an old spinster, working as a handyman and along the way learns a great deal about what it means to be mortal.

Meanwhile, the life force from all the creatures who continue to die begins to build up without Death to usher it on. When the oldest wizard at Un More...

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Dec 31, 2010

Chrissy rated it:

As usual, Pratchett starts with a simple joke, and takes you way beyond. When death is given his own hourglass, he gets a taste of what it's like to live on limited time. As usual, his reaction is to turn to the humans he harvests to attempt to understand his impending doom. He takes up farm work as a reasonable alternative to reaping souls. In a parallel story, the wizards of the Unseen University are dealing with a surfeit of life, the obvious result of which is, of course, a shopping mall, co More...

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Sep 25, 2010

Daveski rated it:

This is yet another great Discworld novel, and like the best entries in the series, it manages to be funny, riveting, and thoughtful all at the same time. This is the second "Death" novel, the first being Mort, and while this one may be slightly less funny, it more than makes up for that with sharper satire and deeper meaning.

Half the fun in these books is seeing how the plot unfolds, so I won't give anything away. If you are interested in checking out some of the Discwor More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 24, 2010

Paula rated it:

Can't help but give a Pratchett book 4 stars; they are sheer enjoyment for me! This particular book in the series focused on Death, one of my favorite characters.

Throughout the book Pratchett embarked on a discussion of what it means to live life, to know that you are living life, and what kind of chaos who ensue if people didn't stop living when they died. Very interesting, really.

Death got fired, which meant he now had a limited amount of time before he would die, and he More...

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Aug 31, 2011

Suzanne rated it:

So in this one Death (or Bill Door, whichever you like), has been given the sack and turns to reaping corn (you must admit, he’s a lot of experience with a scythe) for an old woman while he waits for the new death. The way he reaps the corn one strand at a time had, to me, a reverential sort of feeling to it.
Now Death has got to be my favourite character. I think it’s the way he tries to understand our world and will, on occasion, get the wrong end of the stick. His time in the village is More...

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Feb 22, 2011

Howling rated it:

Non ho mai avuto un buon rapporto con Pratchett, per qualche strano motivo i suoi libri non sono mai riusciti a piacermi e a coinvolgermi. Il tristo mietitore è stato l'ennesimo tentativo di approcciarmi in maniera positiva allo scrittore inglese e questa volta direi che non è andata male.
E' un libro che ha dei limiti. Tende verso la conclusione a diventare affollato e confuso, si fa fatica a seguire la narrazione e c'è un certo moralismo che non ho gradito particolarmente.
Limiti s More...

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Aug 11, 2011

Helen rated it:

There must be something very wrong with me, my top two favourite Pratchett's both feature Death...

The reality auditors (like auditors everywhere) have a distorted sense of the essentials - they decide Death is inefficient because he has a personality - something that they lack. So he is retired, with a parting gift of time and the horse. Death returns to the Discworld to spend his time and takes a name, Bill Door, and a job on a farm at approaching harvest time.

However his retirement causes th More...

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Mar 22, 2011

Sally rated it:

I love Discworld stories. This is only the second one I've read that features Death as a central character, and it easily is a logical sequel of sorts to Mort, although not a chronological sequel according to publishing order. Although Death appears in the other Discworld novels I have read, generally he is a character who pops in at an appropriate moment. The thing I like about how Terry Pratchett handles the character is to portray him as a gatekeeper between mortal life and the afterlife. More...

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Jun 12, 2009

Jamie rated it:

Death (with a capital D, or even all small-caps if you're a particularly cheeky typographer) is the only character to appear in just about every one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. And better yet, he occasionally gets to star in one, like Reaper Man. The gist is that Death seems to be developing a bit of a personality and compassion for the souls he collects once their lifetimers have counted down, and that's a big no-no according to certain guardians of the Right Proper Order of Things. More...

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Jan 19, 2010

Nic rated it:

Not something I'd ordinarily say, but yay Death!

I liked Death's adventures more than Windle Poons', though the latter's contained lots of fun characters. This was largely because Windle Poons' plotline ended up hinging on that thing Pratchett does where stuff comes in out of nowhere. The snowglobe-shopping cart-mall life cycle was entertaining, which is the main thing I look for in a Discworld book. It did get me, though, when Windle says something like, "Oh, they're eggs! T More...

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Feb 18, 2009

Ann rated it:

So, Death is informed that he is mortal and his time is running out, just like everyone else's. He decides to cash in his vacation, so to speak and spend his remaining days as a Regular Joe. He takes the name of Bill Door and goes to work as a handyman on Miss Flitworth's farm. Meanwhile, 130 year old Wendell Poons has finally died, had a lovely funeral, and then awaken inside his casket - what bother! That's what happens when there is no Death; life just keeps hanging around and making a nuisan More...

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