Terry Pratchett’s Reaper Man was released 33 years ago…
There is probably not a more iconic character in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series than that of Death himself. Sometimes sassy, a complete cynic and one who always manages to garner a laugh at his appearance in any of the Discworld novels, it wasn’t until ‘Reaper Man‘ that the meaning of life, and by extension, death truly began to become explored. Following Death and the countdown to his demise, Death decides to go on his first holiday, leaving those dying left to be undead and a whole lot of other chaos in the process. From reality-bending supreme beings, Death falling in love, backwards werewolves (I couldn’t even begin to describe that one), and even the subverting of fate; Pratchett creates a humanising tale in one of the unlikeliest of characters, taking readers on a journey that only made his figure of death oddly more loveable. It’s another hilarious book in another hilarious series, easily one of my favourites and offering us one of the best characters in fantasy to date. If you ever need the perfect Pratchett book to start with, Reaper Man may just be the right one for you.
