But not sad, somber, rather unentertaining Death. Indeed, do yourself an enormous favor and read anything and everything Terry Pratchett has ever written, including that thing he wrote and published when he was just thirteenthe cheeky bugger.Īnd if you still need further encouragement to read REAPER MAN, imagine Shakespeares MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, but instead of being a treatise on Love, its a treatise on Death. Yes, he does run on a bit sometimes, sort of like Im doing at the moment, so let me sum up: there are times when he could have used a literary ruler across the knuckles and some brave editor exclaiming, Terry, please, enough already! Quit meandering about and be done with it! Here I must fault him, and I shutter to do so, as I couldnt in my wildest dreams write as beautifully as he does. Pratchett is a literary Einsteinor at least Einsteins love child.Īnd then there are Sir (he is knighted after all) Pratchetts plots. And when it comes to writing such characters Mr.

Pratchetts characters, let me interrupt this review to make a quick editorial comment: It takes a very intelligent writer to write unintelligent people so well, AND make them entertaining at the same time. Some I would even serve my best wine, although I would keep a wary eye on them afterwards.Īnd speaking of Mr. In short, no one, and I do mean no one, writes them better than Mr.

This was especially true in the first half of REAPER MANindeed, perhaps even the first two-thirds of the bookand there were times when I simply gave up and moved on with the sure and certain knowledge that at some point (hopefully in the very near future) my brain would catch up with his.Īnd then there were his characters. I just wasnt smart enough to figure it out.Įven today reading one of his books is like putting together a very complicated puzzle of say, the New York City skyline at night, during a blizzard, thats unfortunately missing a few key pieces. Pratchett knew EXACTLY what he was writing. At first I rather self-righteously dismissed these moments as poor writing on his part, when in fact the problem was me. In reading Terry Pratchett I learned early on that there would be times when I would have absolutely no idea what he was talking about. At least those who like to fancy themselves as mature, as I do on rare occasions. Let me say, first off, that Terry Pratchett novels arent for those who like their literature spoon-fed.

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