Mort - Terry Pratchett - ★★

AUTHOR: Terry Pratchett

SERIES: Discworld, #4, Death, #1

GENRE: Humorous Fantasy.

PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1987

RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: Never thought I’d be an outlier for my very first Terry Pratchett book. Maybe this was the wrong book to begin the exploration with. But it felt very young adult in style and quite flat in character and plot. The titular Mort was not as appealing as the intriguing Death, who is mostly kept to the background. I hope my GR friend Ian doesn’t mind my borrowing his astute observation: “too little Death and too much Mort.” That sums up the problem perfectly.

Plot Preview:

Mort is an inept resident of Discworld with a good heart and zero common sense. Worried about his son’s future, his father decides to loan him as an apprentice to whoever would hire him. As luck would have it, Death aka the Grim Reaper is looking for an apprentice, and seeing Mort’s response to his arrival, picks him up immediately. (It helps that all the other candidates were already chosen.)

Death plans to let Mort help him collect souls with his scythe while he himself explores what humankind has to offer. With Death’s powerful scythe, an ability to walk through walls, free lodging, and access to the magnificent Binky, Mort thinks he can handle what has been asked of him. But the question is: can he actually do so?

This is the fourth book of the Discworld series, and the first book of its ‘Death’ subseries. I haven’t read any Discworld book prior to this one, but this seems to be self-sufficient in its info and can hence be read as a standalone. Of course, I might have missed out any Easter Egg references to prior books without even realising the same.

Bookish Yays:

🦄 Some interesting one-liners herein: some witty, some deep, some both. Here’s one of my favourites: “History has a habit of changing the people who think they are changing it.”

🦄 Who would have thought that Death would have a horse named Binky? That is such an absurd and hilarious name! I wish Binky had a greater role in the story. He was a champ!

🦄 I love the cover of this edition. (Though it created very different expectations about the content.)

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🔮 The book is something like a philosophical fantasy with a hefty dollop of satire. Of these three things, philosophy never works for me, and sadly, philosophy is quite dominant in the writing. The fantasy part is quite lowkey: good but not mindblowing.

🔮 Somehow, books with Death as a main character have almost always worked for me. This book too would have, had Death had a more active role. Though his character was primary, the narrative is mainly reliant on the titular Mort, who isn’t as enigmatic or appealing.

🔮 While the book held my attention in parts, the plot wasn’t consistent in holding my attention. A main chunk of it felt rambling in an episodic way. One event made me sit up straight, hoping for a swing towards the positive side, but this came only around the halfway mark, and it was still not the prime focus of the second half, which continued the meandering style. I *almost* gave up on the book many times after this point.

🔮 The actual plot is quite paper thin, but the book is 270+ pages long, most of which is padding. I am very much a plot person, so there was no other way this could go.

🔮 In theory, this book had my kind of humour, with double entendre, sassy remarks, satirical comments, and some situational comedy. But it worked for me only in bits and pieces, with the sex jokes being too cringeworthy. It was like listening to a standup comic, who has great jokes but only of one kind. After a point, when the one-liners start feeling repetitive, your smile starts wavering and your attention starts wandering.

🔮 The Discworld seems interesting, combining some indigenous lore into a fantastical universe. If only it had a greater focus in the story! (Maybe it does in the remaining Discworld books.)

Bookish Nays:

💥 Mort is a character with potential, but the writing makes him appear unidimensional. Of course, this might also be because Mort has only one dimension – that of being a bumbling oaf. Either way, Mort didn’t work for me. And we all know what happens when the lead character doesn’t appeal to us.

💥 The two primary female characters – Death’s daughter and the princess – get some of the focus, but they barely have anything substantial to do. Their character development is almost at the zero level.

💥 The narrative viewpoint shifts around too much, making the plot feel even more scattered.

💥 The ending is truly disappointing, almost anticlimactic to everything established till that point. I would still have given the book a 2.5 plus rating had the ending been more satisfying than annoying.

In short, this did not go at all like I had expected it to. I was so desperate to like it that I even tried the audio version for a few chapters, in hopes that it would click better. (Note: It did not! It was worse!)

I am very much an outlier and frankly, I had not expected to be one considering how much I've heard about this series and how much I loved Good Omens. (Perhaps, it was more Gaiman than Pratchett, after all!) This was my first Discworld book and maybe I should have started with the first one of the series as I usually do to appreciate the foundation better, or maybe it was just the wrong time, or maybe this just wasn't meant to be.

At this point, I don’t know if I want to read more Pratchett. I have always seen praises heaped on his writing, but sometimes, even our best efforts cannot ensure a connect with some books. A part of me feels that I *might* have liked this in my teen years, when entertainment superseded logic and character development. It has a strong YA feel, and at this stage of my life, I am allergic to YA-style writing.

Basically, I am glad this is a hit for so many readers, but I’d rather read Neil Gaiman over this kind of ‘fantasy’ any day. If I feel generous in another decade or so, I might just give Pratchett a second chance. Reviews do say that the subsequent books are better, so who knows! Bidding a temporary (?) adieu to Pratchett for now.