Mort

Paperback, 167 pages

English language

Published Jan. 1, 2000 by Transworld.

ISBN:
978-0-552-14429-2
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OCLC Number:
37484699

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4 stars (4 reviews)

Mort is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett. Published in 1987, it is the fourth Discworld novel and the first to focus on the character Death, who only appeared as a side character in the previous novels. The title is the name of its main character, and is also a play on words: in French and Catalan, mort means "death". The French language edition is titled Mortimer, and the Catalan language edition is titled Morth. In the BBC's 2003 Big Read contest, viewers voted on the "Nation's Best-loved Book"; Mort was among the Top 100 and chosen as the most popular of Pratchett's novels.In 2004, Pratchett stated that Mort was the first Discworld novel with which he was "pleased", stating that in previous books, the plot had existed to support the jokes, but that in Mort, the plot was integral.

16 editions

Mort: A Hilarious and Heartfelt Adventure with Death

4 stars

Mort is a funny, heartwarming introduction to Death, one of the major Discworld characters. It starts off with Death deciding to take on an apprentice, Mort. Turns out, Death loves curry, has an adopted daughter, Ysabell, and gets REALLY UPSET and VERY ANGRY indeed when people harm or kill cats and kittens. And he rides a horse who is most adorably named Binky.

After starting on his new job and getting acquainted with Death’s household consisting of Ysabell and his servant Albert, Mort starts to realise that one of the reasons for Death taking on an apprentice was so that Ysabell would have a companion to talk with. After showing him the ropes so to speak, Death starts to send Mort on solo missions. One of the souls he has to usher into the beyond is that of young Princess Keli who is about to be assassinated by an assassin …

Review of 'Mort' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Terry Pratchett is what I’ve been missing when reading Douglas Adams. Mort is not just witty, but actually quite touching and even frightening. The humour seems somehow profound, for example when Death explains that everyone gets what they think is coming for them, because “it’s so much neater that way”. This light-hearted fun actually opens up a philosophical can of worms: If I expect a heavenly afterlife together with my family, but my brother expects to be rotting in hell, is the brother in heaven actually my brother? He can’t be, but did I then actually get what I expected? This dilemma is even touched upon later. I much prefer this humour to cliché nihilism.

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rated it

3 stars
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5 stars

Subjects

  • Drama texts: from c 1900 -
  • General
  • Fiction - Fantasy
  • Fiction
  • Fantasy - General
  • DEATH (FICTITIOUS CHARACTER : PRATCHETT)_FICTION
  • DISCWORLD (IMAGINARY PLACE)_FICTION
  • FICTION_FANTASY_GENERAL
  • Fiction / Fantasy / General