- Hardcover: 96 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; 1st Edition edition (22 Sep 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575056975
- ISBN-13: 978-0575056978
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,215,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Mort (Discworld Novels)
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Review
" 'Pratchett is a comic genius' - Daily Express 'Pratchett's humour takes logic past the point of absurdity and round again, but it is his unexpected insights into human morality that make the Discworld series stand out' - Times Educational Supplement 'Cracking dialogue, compelling illogic and unchained whimsy... Pratchett has a subject and a style that is very much his own' - The Sunday Times 'He is screamingly funny. He is wise. He has style' - Sunday Telegraph"
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
- The first seven Discworld titles are being reissued with stunning new covers, publication coincides with 21 years of Discworld anniversary and the hardback publication of "The Celebrated Discworld Almanak" and "Going Postal".
- "Like Jonathan Swift, Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own, and like Swift he is a satirist of enormous talent... incredibly funny... compulsively readable." --"The Times"
- "His spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction." --"Mail on Sunday"
- "The great Terry Pratchett, whose wit is metaphysical, who creates an energetic and lively secondary world, who has a multifarious genius for strong parody... who deals with death with startling originality. Who writes amazing sentences." --A.S. Byatt, "New York Times" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
- "Like Jonathan Swift, Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own, and like Swift he is a satirist of enormous talent... incredibly funny... compulsively readable." --"The Times"
- "His spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction." --"Mail on Sunday"
- "The great Terry Pratchett, whose wit is metaphysical, who creates an energetic and lively secondary world, who has a multifarious genius for strong parody... who deals with death with startling originality. Who writes amazing sentences." --A.S. Byatt, "New York Times" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The concept of Death needing an apprentice captures the imagination from the very start of this book.The fact He likes cats,enjoys curries and His horse is called Binky leaves you doubting all you have been brought up to believe. His choice of a gangely, knocked-kneed youth named Mort, presents us with our unlikely hero whose adventures unfold like a comedy of errors but, as in all good adventures, the hero wins through in the end. Terry Pratchett takes us on yet another magical journey of character descriptions,colourful places and wierd happenings(you can almost taste the scumble). Long may he write.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This was the first Terry Pratchett book I read and it had me hooked! It's definately the best, and when I recommend Pratchett to people, this is the book I tell them to read. Death is my favorite character (just beating the luggage!) and he is at his best in Mort.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When we mere male mortals reach a certain age we sometimes, aware that we are closer to our future death than our past birth, start to act up. We trade the 1981 Min in for a sports car, quit our old job to write a great novel, and have even been known to trade in our wives for a younger, newer model. It's known on Earth as a mid-life crisis. But on Discworld, and in the hands of the master Terry Pratchett, a banal mid-life crisis is turned into another one of his hilarious and thought filled romps. Through Pratchett's hilariously skewed prism this crisis is not being experienced by a mortal but rather by the harbinger of death, the aptly named DEATH. What we have is a mid-death crisis. Death may, like an ever-rolling stream, bear all its sons away but DEATH seems more than a bit tired of doing all the bearing away.
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. Mort seems to enjoy living at DEATH's house and enjoys the food prepared by Albert, who may not be quite what he seems. He doesn't seem to get along to well with DEATH's daughter, Ysabell but that again may not be quite what it seems.
Within no time DEATH is entrusting Mort with more responsibility while he experiments with drinking, dancing, and a stint as the best short order cook in Ankh-Morpork. Meanwhile, Mort, left to his own devices makes a mess of things in short order. Specifically, Mort falls for the heavenly charms of a Princess and fails to bring her over to the next world. This of course causes no end of confusion as the natural order of things on Discworld has been greatly disturbed.
As with most Discworld books, events proceed at a furious pace followed by a conclusion that, like death itself, is inevitable. For any Pratchett fan, of which I am one, the joy is mostly in the journey and not in getting to the conclusion. IN fact, generally I have so much fun I don't want the books to end. Along the way we are treated to the usual array of cultural references and little jokes. When Albert mutters "s-odomy non sapiens" under his breath Mort asks what that means to which Albert replies "buggered if I know." When DEATH notes he is closing out a bar, alone, at a quarter to three, Pratchett tracks the lyrics to Frank Sinatra's old "One for My Baby". Funny stuff indeed.
Last, this is a stand-alone Discworld book. Although some recurring characters make cameo appearances the reader does not really need to be overly familiar with any of the other Discworld books to enjoy Mort. Mort was a pleasure to read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Funny, nice to read, and nice to look at.
Great artwork, great writing and funny jokes! This is a fantastic read and beautiful to look at. I recommend to all Pratchett fans!
Published 13 days ago by Peter
Who Knew Death Could be so Charming?
I was really looking forward to reading this as I loved the character of Death in 'The Light Fantastic', and I wasn't disappointed. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Anna Clare
Darkly Satisfying
Well well well, This book was genuinely amazing, the way Pratchett portrays the comedy of Death's pass times and airy persona is incredibly impressive. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Richard
A truly interesting book with a refreshing take on life, death and...
A truly interesting book with a refreshing take on life, death and destiny. The writer takes you to a fictional reality with many parallels with our reality and in this way touches... Read more
Published 2 months ago by GK
Mort: A Discworld Novel
A purchase of three books. Decent price, excellent service and communicaton and the trade makes revenues for charity. I'm pleased.
Published 6 months ago by Michael Mal
It brings back happy memories!
I well recall reading Mort in the back of my parents car and rocking my feet in delight. Prior to my stroke, I've taken to re-reading old favourites of my books. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Charlie T.
Wanted: apprentice for ... Death?
The fourth Discworld novel does not disappoint. In this Death (with a capital `D') thinks he might like to get an apprentice so he can take some time off - however Mort does not... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Keen Reader
Mort
This was bought to replace a copy I had for years to "lend" to a so-called friend who never returned it and can't find it (they emigrated). Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. M. J. Spillets
Still the best
Mort was the first discworld novel that I ever read. I have read every single one since and, to me, Mort still stands up as the very best of the lot. Read more
Published 10 months ago by BookerJohn
Mort on Kindle
I am reading all the Discworld books in order on my Amazon Kindle. Mort is the fourth book in the series and so far is my favourite. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Traffic
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