Having finished reading all the City Watch novels of Discworld, I’m moving on to those featuring Death. Like his friend Neil Gaiman, Pratchett created his own unique version of the iconic concept, visually similar to other versions, but with a personality that’s both charming and at times funny. Death speaks IN ALL CAPS, making his voice unique as well, and in previous appearances he was all-powerful and truly godlike. Here things take a different turn, as an entity greater than Death takes away his power, granting him a short time of actual life on Discworld. Death takes full advantage of it, finding out many things about life he only knew before from observation and hearsay. Included among them are the effects of friendship, emotion, and even love. Then his replacement shows up. Meanwhile, with Death on holiday, things are unable to die, and Discworld is filling up with rogue life force that’s emerging in many troublesome ways. One example is the very elderly wizard Windle Poons, who was perfectly happy to die, but instead finds himself one of the undead, with great strength and sudden clarity of mind that he’d really rather have skipped.
Great read, as always, and often funny. Recommended.