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Mort is the first book where Pratchett decides to show the reader an up close and personal view of Death, one of the more mysterious entities of the Disc. And how well he does it. The potrait of Death Pratchett paints is not that of the spectre of all evil but instead a rather eccentric gentleman who has seen rather too much of life. Ths is Pratchett does with some excellent wit: for example Death's horse is named Binky.
The story itself is very well done, concentrating on Death and his new apprentice Mort. Mort cannot bring himself to do Death's job out of compassion and so ends up letting a dead princess live on.
The masterpiece of this novel is the character of Death. Pratchett turns religious convention on its head, making Death far from evil. Indeed he actually makes you feel horribly sorry for Death and the reader will be moved emotionally by Pratchett's clever but subtle way of showing the actuality behind the myth.
The reason I have not given this the 5 stars it deserves is because of its audio book status. While I enjoy audio books for when I am relaxing, I cannot give it 4 stars because a great deal has been abrigded from it - many of the sequences deemed unessential to the plot have been cut which is disappointing. However Tony Robinson does an excellent job as usual of narrating, giving all of the jokes a cynical edge which only enriches their comic value.
Terry Pratchett's Mort tells a rather simple tale. DEATH is looking for an apprentice. Young Mortimer, one of life's simple trusting souls is a young man with little career prospects. He is ungainly and spends a bit too much time thinking random thoughts. Mort's dad and relatives find him to be a well-intentioned but generally useless young man. Dad has been told that becoming an apprentice will get Mort off his hands and teach him a trade. So off to town they go for `apprentice day' in the market square. As luck would have it, DEATH arrives and takes Mort on as his apprentice.
Mort develops in the expected Pratchett manner. The relationship between Mort and DEATH, and the chores Mort performs to learn his trade, seem very similar to that in the movie Karate Kid. Shoveling horse poop is not immediately relevant to learning how to become the messenger of death yet Mort takes to his tasks well.
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