Musing on Reaper Man

My Discworld Book Number

This is my 16^th Discworld book.

Discworld Serial Number Based on Publishing Date

This is the 11^th book in the Discworld series and was published for the first time in 1991.

Introduction to Discworld Series

Discworld is a fictional world created by writer Terry Pratchett. It is a flat world balanced on the back of 4 elephants; they in turn stand on a giant turtle. The turtle’s name is Great A’Tuin. The names of 4 elephants are Berilia, Tubul, Great T’Phone, and Jerakeen.

Pratchett writes stories set in this world. He has written 41 Discworld books. The genre of these books can be broadly said to be fantasy-satire. 

Discworld is a satiric reflection of our own world. The flat world should be the first indication of the satire. Because in this world things are as people (as in flat-earthers) want them to be.

Magic is strong in Discworld. Light travels quite slowly because of thick magic in the atmosphere. 

In this world different humanoid species (combinedly known as sapients) live together, but not necessarily peacefully.

Premise of Reaper Man

The books of Discworld series are set in different parts of Discworld with different set of characters and different subjects. Reaper Man is the second book in the Death sub-series.

Death of Discworld gets fired for developing a “personality” because

Becoming a personality is inefficient. We don’t want it to spread. Supposing gravity developed a personality? Supposing it decided to like people?

He has a limited time to live so like mortals he starts feeling physical and emotional things. He decides to spend the rest of his life in experiencing life. He becomes farm hand of an old lady named Miss Flitworth.

But with no death there is chaos all around. People die and their life forces get accumulated then turn inanimate object into animate and dead people into undead. How will Discworld get out of this brand new crisis?

Important Characters

Death

As we know Death of the Discworld is wise and fair. His physical description is as we would have imagined – very tall skeleton in black dress. He can’t stop caring about people and well being of Discworld. He is fond of experiencing life but real life can be exhausting. He can just move on without caring about the present crisis but as mentioned above he cares too much.

LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?

In his stint as farm hand, when he christens himself Bill Door he makes quite a few good friends. Miss Flitworth, her employer is one of them.

If Death writes in Gothic font only should not Pratchett have written his dialogues in Gothic font in place of mere all-caps?

I AM ALWAYS ALONE. BUT JUST NOW I WANT TO BE ALONE BY MYSELF.

Miss Flitworth

She is an old woman with a broad mind. She understands things.

Windle Poons

This 130 year old wizard from Unseen University dies but come back again because of the “crisis”.

There is life after death. And it’s the same one. Just my luck.

But after death his life (or something) changes drastically he can use his brain and senses much much better. He even joins a support group for dead people, whose motto is

“proud to be grey”

They are activists of dead Rights movement for undead. Readers meet many interesting characters in this movement.

‘Huh! Priests!’ said Mr Shoe. ‘They’re all the same. Always telling you that you ‘re going to live again after you’re dead, but you just try it and see the look on their faces!’

Windle Poons’s colleagues in Unseen University are trying their best to make him dead again.

Mrs. Cake

She is a real medium with souls from beyond. Her daughter is a werewolf, who is in love with a wereman. Quite an interesting relationship!

Auditors of Reality

They are oblivion and keep check on the running of the world.

Azrael

It is the Death of the multiverse controlling the time and Death of every world.

There are a billion Deaths, but they are all aspects of the one Death: Azrael, the Great Attractor, the Death of Universes, the beginning and end of time.

Bursar

As we know he is the only responsible and sincere person among the teaching staffs of the Unseen University. This always keeps his stressed physically and mentally.

‘He hasn’t got a coffin!’ wailed the Bursar, whose grip on sanity was always slightly tentative.

…

Except for the Bursar, of course. He didn’t eat much, but lived on his nerves. He was certain he was anorectic, because every time he looked in a mirror he saw a fat man. It was the Archchancellor, standing behind him and shouting at him.

Orangutan the librarian

The librarian is the other responsible and sincere staff of Unseen University. He is doing his own research to take care of the current situation. As we know due to some inter-dimensional accident the librarian turned into an orangutan long back and then loved to stay that way.

Some Quotes I Loved

Pratchett brilliantly writes about time.

Alone of all the creatures in the world, trolls believe that all living things go through Time backwards. If the past is visible and the future is hidden, they say, then it means you must be facing the wrong way. Everything alive is going through life back to front.

His comprehension of economics is always dead on.

….there were also robbers and bandits in the hills but they got on well with the actual residents and were essential to the local economy.

His understanding of Gods is also dead on.

That’s how gods get created, for example. They clearly must be created by their own believers, because a brief resume of the lives of most gods suggests that their origins certainly couldn’t be divine. They tend to do exactly the things people would do if only they could, especially when it comes to nymphs, golden showers, and the smiting of your enemies.

When someone is expert on Gods they have to be expert on religion too.

Some of the Klatchian religions say you go to a lovely garden full of young women, which doesn’t sound very religious to me . .

My Two Pennies

I always enjoy books from this sub-series. I loved the book. It is clever, witty, humorous and poignant in places.

In the Ramtop village where they dance the real Morris dance, for example, they believe that no-one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away – until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life, they say, is only the core of their actual existence.