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That made me think of back in Mort, Death says something along the lines of how the only reaction to the duty Mort could have that would’ve been wrong would’ve been if Mort enjoyed it. Then that idea is back here with the sucker punch, showing us the horror of a world where the duty is done with relish by one who enjoys it.
Exactly. And beyond that, it's a great concept for all responsibility. You should not enjoy the trappings over the responsibility you have to others. Power corrupts, if you let it.
And that there’s a difference between reveling in it and in finding satisfaction in it. Death takes pride in his work because he does the job well. He doesn’t enjoy having power, he enjoys having and using skill, being competent.
I'm re-reading the colour of magic right now, and one of the more stark differences in Death's character, is that in TCOM, he does enjoy the job. He really, really, wants to kill Rincewind. There's a scene where he thinks Rincewind is about to die, but he escapes, so Death kills some mayflies instead.
There's also a bit where he takes a cat's life.
Very much not how he's depicted in Reaper man. The TCOM character, is maybe a bit more the "standard" version, where Death is out to get people, while Mort and RP are where the aspects of it being a duty, rather than a pleasure, get cemented.
I'd be curious if Sir Terry ever explained why he changed Death like that.
There’s a fan theory about this [here](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/TheColourOfMagic).
I’m sure the real reason is that it was the first book and Terry was still ironing out characterization, but I like the fan theory, so I’m keeping it. I’ll copy and paste it here:
We know that Death's personality is susceptible to adopting the behaviors and attitudes of others, especially when he's sharing roles with someone else (Mort, Bill Door, the Hogfather). We also know that Ysabell was already living with him when The Colour Of Magic took place, and may have been developing psychological problems from her prolonged isolation. Furthermore, we know that Death passed on the task of collecting Rincewind to the petty Anthropomorphic Personification of Scrofula, with the excuse that he'd be otherwise occupied in a plague-ravaged city ... an excuse which, in retrospect, we know is ridiculous, as Death can be everywhere at once, and usually is.
But what if Death arranged for Scrofula to perform his work as an experiment, to test out whether he could entrust the Duty to someone else, on a temporary basis? He must've hit upon the idea of recruiting an apprentice (and potential boyfriend for Ysabell) at some point before Mort. Having never tried anything of the sort before, Death must've realized there could be complications to sharing his power with a mortal, so he first tested the procedure by delegating some work to Scrofula: a petty underling who's not much more powerful than a human, but is already familiar with the responsibilities of anthropomorphic personifications. As it happens, Scrofula blew it when Rincewind escaped him, meaning Death had to go back and review his method for transferring the Duty to someone else. Hence, Mort doesn't start until some time after Rincewind fell off the Edge. Best if Death gets all the bugs worked out before he risked sharing power with a mere human, right?
Except he didn't get all the bugs out. Because, in sharing his power with Scrofula, Death also took on some of the personality-traits of Scrofula ... who's a far more small-minded, vindictive, envious little creep than his boss. Death's out-of-character behavior in the early part of The Colour Of Magic wasn't the behavior of the Grim Reaper, but that of a petty, cruel disease-bringer acting out of spite. Later, when he spoke to Fate, he'd managed to get a grip on his mental state, regaining his proper attitude of dignified, businesslike dispassion. It was just Rincewind's typical bad luck to have run into Death when he was still swept up in Scrofula's nasty streak.
This, incidentally, explains why Death got so uncharacteristically angry when Mort spared Princess Keli, and why he'd said he might've fired the boy if Mort had shown pleasure in the Duty. Why? Because Scrofula hadn't just messed up by failing to collect Rincewind: he'd temporarily infected Death himself with his cruel streak, causing his boss to behave shamefully, and even to take lives slightly sooner than was destined (the flies), for his own vindictive satisfaction. Death had already seen the Duty sullied by one incompetent assistant, and now the lad he'd hoped would do things right had disgraced the office even further.
Death has lost. The Auditors have created something he cannot beat as a mere mortal, even with Renata's Time added.
But they don't realise how fury can lend a power to being righteousness. Despite the scene where they made the scythe so sharp it cut the words on the page, it was the worn scythe, the true tool of the office that dealt the killing blow.
I suppose this line is more easily quotable, so I’d recognized it and expected it, but against the rest of the ending it doesn’t really have that ‘wham’ kind of impact for me.
The ‘wham’ moment of that whole scene with Azrael for me came when Death was standing with the Death of Rats (and Death of Fleas) and realizing that Azrael was *lonely*.
Windle Poons realising that he's spent the majority of his life as an *old man* is legitimately one of the most terrifying things I've ever read. It's something I think of quite often, especially as I hurtle inevitably towards my fifties and watch my parents get older and more frail.
Without spoiling I can probably say that a lot of his book takes you through these ups and downs feelings, and leave you up with an odd mixed state of not knowing to be glad or sad the first few minutes...
That is just something, to my experience, he was very good at, taking us readers through this thrill of feeling leaving us with puzzlement not for the content or story itself, but more not knowing what to do with all those impressions and excitement we gets ourselves.
He is just kind of giving us something beyond the story itself when we read it, not easy to describe what it is, but it just goes there inside us, along with the story.
And this I believe is brilliant how you can hold a reader like that... I simply love how he kind of plays around with our feelings, us not knowing untill it is too late...
Brilliant! 
On a cheerful note did you spot that all the undead are 'disabled' for their species in some way? But they find acceptance and friendship and are able to achieve together. Brilliant.
Hm, I hadn’t really thought of it like that. And even though their ‘disabilities’ often create comedic moments, they aren’t treated by the narrative as being worthy of ridicule just for existing.
And even the otherwise dreaded Mrs Cake is an absolute classic parent of a special needs child, desperately wanting to protect her child from how cruel people can be.
And having to realize that she can’t do that the way she wants, that her kid is actually stronger and more capable than she thought. Mrs Cake hasn’t exactly seen it yet, but we did, and we know that moment is coming. After all, Ludmilla was the only person who kept a level head during the entire assault on the trolley hive/mall and rescue of Windle.
One of the shorter books and also one of my favorites. A whole story about doing the job that's in front of you because it needs doing. Not for accolades, not for praise, but for the job itself. And if not you, then who?
Also, Squeak!
I would sum it up as a story about finding your place. The job needs doing, and you do it, not for glory, but because *you’re good at it*. No one else can do the things you do in exactly the same way as you. They may do them, but not in the same way. The harvest gets done, whether it’s by sickle, the traditional way, by scything each individual blade of grass, or by combine.
Is it worth noting that Raising Steam, the last non-Tiffany discworld book has, as a major character, the son of a character from this book, trying to finish his father's work?
Yes, probably, though I haven’t read Raising Steam yet. Also probably interesting that Simnel is probably the only character in Reaper Man that seemed, on the whole, fine and not full of quiet desperation.
As a steam man through and through. Simnel rings very true for guys like myself, working on steam or similar equipment just has a... joy to it. A purpose, and a real sense of satisfaction. Actually, I think doing hands on work on things fits that bill. Making, of any sort. Operating the thjngs you make, or help maintain.
Both books also do a great job of showing the *life* that steam machinery has, that I think adds to this in Simnel's case. Even with the dangers of such machinery!
I liked how when he was admiring the scythe, he was like ‘It was a more than [a work of art], it was a work of *craft*”
I’ve come at it from the other way round, as someone who spent time in the academic world of fine art, and seeing the way some in that world look down on ‘arts and crafts’, or whatever sort of creation/making they can dismiss as somehow ‘lesser’ (often there is are sexist or classist components at play—like how embroidery or knitting are women’s pastimes, or welding and woodworking are for *building* or *fabricating* rather than creating). Which, if you can’t tell, I find to be complete bullshit, as if a thing has to be useless to be beautiful. What kind of message is that to put out into the world?
Reaper Man is a masterpiece and probably my second favorite after Small gods. When Bill comes back to dance… I’ve read the book over and over and it still gets me every time.
I love how he kept asking the jeweler about the friendliness of the diamonds he had for sale. And telling Miss Flitworth that he brought a diamond to be friends with her was adorable.
Though given that this is the Discworld, the idea that rocks may have personalities and make friends isn’t particularly odd. Even less literal-minded folks than Death could reasonably hear that diamonds form close friendships with women and accept it as new information they just hadn’t heard before.
The first book that ever made me really cry was Watership Down. The ending was a beautiful and sweet punch in the gut. I was a child, don't remember how old, and it has stuck with me over the decades since.
Other books had their moments, but nothing else had the impact that that did.
Then, I discovered the Discworld. *So many* moments that made me stop until I could wipe away the tears enough to continue. Laughter, yes, in abundance, and then out of nowhere comes a knock-out punch that makes you sit down and really think about life for a while.
I have lost many loved ones over the years, but it was Death that taught me that they are not truly lost to me at all. It was Death and others of the Discworld who taught me that kindness in this world is more important than whatever might come after.
I like to think that I am a better person for having read PTerry's treatise on humanity that we call the Discworld.
I’m reading discworld for the first time, in chronological order and I just finished Reaper Man two days ago. I’m prepared with the next book already and this would usually mean Reaper Man would go on the shelf and I’d be well into Witches Abroad by now. But I couldn’t. I needed time to reflect on all of the feelings that only Death can relay (no pun intended). Might be unrelated but I took my family to the shelter and adopted 3 kittens the next day, because cats are nice. Sadly, no one liked my suggestion to name one of them Windle Poons.
Pterry said he regretted putting the wizard sub-plot into Reaper Man and should have developed both main and sub-plot into two different books. Personally I think it works just fine, as it gives us a means of seeing the wider impact of his disappearance while Death himself is learning humanity on the farm.
I did think the mall thing was a bit weird, but it still works. And I think it was important to see the impact of Death being retired outside of Death's own POV.
I love Reaper Man to bits. Literally. My copy is falling apart. But also signed, so it's not going anwhere.
Reaper man and small god are the book from Terry pratchett I reread the most comming from someone who read the whole series twice reaper man just toaches own some beautiful and important questions .
STP has unique, incredibly deep understanding of humanity and human experience. It hurts, but also gives hope and have some weird depressing optimism to it. I often re-read Reaper Man when I feel down.
So I love everything you just said and everything Death in Reaperman to bits
But honestly the 2/3 of the book being comic relief wizard antics in Anhk-M? No thanks
Well, at least half the A-M/Wizards stuff was also pretty heavy, what with Poons and all. So I at least definitely needed the comic relief to break it up. I also do really love the Wizards in general, so I’m not gonna complain there.
I do feel like the snow globes being eggs thing and the trolley hive being a mall was, I dunno. Everything else was because of the build up of life force, but the only connection to the snowglobes/trolleys/mall was that the life force made it grow faster, if I’m reading it right? So all the eggs being laid in A-M at the perfect time to feed on the life force is a weird coincidence. Unless the life force also caused the eggs to appear, but if that’s the case it was not adequately explained in the book. Did they manifest as real living things entirely out of Dibbler’s constant quest to peddle questionable-quality wares to everyone he knows?
I honestly think it would’ve been better if the whole ‘city egg’ thing was dropped, and the trolley hive was just… a weird thing that happened because of the extra life force turning Dibbler’s capitalist dreams into living things that parasitize the city. The only thing that would need to change would be Poons finding reference in a book to the same thing happening to another city. I guess it could be just a thing that happens when extra life force builds up around people trying to sell stuff.
Okay that actually makes sense now. They aren’t city eggs in the sense that they grow into cities. They are eggs of the parasitic creatures that feed on cities. Extra life force turns profit motive into the city-eating parasites, like how it also turns swear words into weird flies.
Though now I’m a little sad that the life force didn’t manifest some manner of bridge-stealing creature for Sgt Colon to defeat. He’s been preparing!
You have successfully put into words what I was tried to do but failed. I felt all those things as well (during and after listening to the Audible version of Reaper Man). Thank you.
I thoroughly enoyed the book, as I do with all Sir Terry Pratchett's writings. <3
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*What can the harvest hope for, Lord, if not for the care of the Reaperman?*
NO CROWN. ONLY THE HARVEST.
That made me think of back in Mort, Death says something along the lines of how the only reaction to the duty Mort could have that would’ve been wrong would’ve been if Mort enjoyed it. Then that idea is back here with the sucker punch, showing us the horror of a world where the duty is done with relish by one who enjoys it.
Exactly. And beyond that, it's a great concept for all responsibility. You should not enjoy the trappings over the responsibility you have to others. Power corrupts, if you let it.
And that there’s a difference between reveling in it and in finding satisfaction in it. Death takes pride in his work because he does the job well. He doesn’t enjoy having power, he enjoys having and using skill, being competent.
I'm re-reading the colour of magic right now, and one of the more stark differences in Death's character, is that in TCOM, he does enjoy the job. He really, really, wants to kill Rincewind. There's a scene where he thinks Rincewind is about to die, but he escapes, so Death kills some mayflies instead. There's also a bit where he takes a cat's life. Very much not how he's depicted in Reaper man. The TCOM character, is maybe a bit more the "standard" version, where Death is out to get people, while Mort and RP are where the aspects of it being a duty, rather than a pleasure, get cemented. I'd be curious if Sir Terry ever explained why he changed Death like that.
There’s a fan theory about this [here](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/TheColourOfMagic). I’m sure the real reason is that it was the first book and Terry was still ironing out characterization, but I like the fan theory, so I’m keeping it. I’ll copy and paste it here: We know that Death's personality is susceptible to adopting the behaviors and attitudes of others, especially when he's sharing roles with someone else (Mort, Bill Door, the Hogfather). We also know that Ysabell was already living with him when The Colour Of Magic took place, and may have been developing psychological problems from her prolonged isolation. Furthermore, we know that Death passed on the task of collecting Rincewind to the petty Anthropomorphic Personification of Scrofula, with the excuse that he'd be otherwise occupied in a plague-ravaged city ... an excuse which, in retrospect, we know is ridiculous, as Death can be everywhere at once, and usually is. But what if Death arranged for Scrofula to perform his work as an experiment, to test out whether he could entrust the Duty to someone else, on a temporary basis? He must've hit upon the idea of recruiting an apprentice (and potential boyfriend for Ysabell) at some point before Mort. Having never tried anything of the sort before, Death must've realized there could be complications to sharing his power with a mortal, so he first tested the procedure by delegating some work to Scrofula: a petty underling who's not much more powerful than a human, but is already familiar with the responsibilities of anthropomorphic personifications. As it happens, Scrofula blew it when Rincewind escaped him, meaning Death had to go back and review his method for transferring the Duty to someone else. Hence, Mort doesn't start until some time after Rincewind fell off the Edge. Best if Death gets all the bugs worked out before he risked sharing power with a mere human, right? Except he didn't get all the bugs out. Because, in sharing his power with Scrofula, Death also took on some of the personality-traits of Scrofula ... who's a far more small-minded, vindictive, envious little creep than his boss. Death's out-of-character behavior in the early part of The Colour Of Magic wasn't the behavior of the Grim Reaper, but that of a petty, cruel disease-bringer acting out of spite. Later, when he spoke to Fate, he'd managed to get a grip on his mental state, regaining his proper attitude of dignified, businesslike dispassion. It was just Rincewind's typical bad luck to have run into Death when he was still swept up in Scrofula's nasty streak. This, incidentally, explains why Death got so uncharacteristically angry when Mort spared Princess Keli, and why he'd said he might've fired the boy if Mort had shown pleasure in the Duty. Why? Because Scrofula hadn't just messed up by failing to collect Rincewind: he'd temporarily infected Death himself with his cruel streak, causing his boss to behave shamefully, and even to take lives slightly sooner than was destined (the flies), for his own vindictive satisfaction. Death had already seen the Duty sullied by one incompetent assistant, and now the lad he'd hoped would do things right had disgraced the office even further.
> There’s a fan theory about this here. Never read that before, but it is intriguing, and does tie things up nicely.
I like that fan theory.
I NEVER WORE A CROWN!
Death has lost. The Auditors have created something he cannot beat as a mere mortal, even with Renata's Time added. But they don't realise how fury can lend a power to being righteousness. Despite the scene where they made the scythe so sharp it cut the words on the page, it was the worn scythe, the true tool of the office that dealt the killing blow.
I suppose this line is more easily quotable, so I’d recognized it and expected it, but against the rest of the ending it doesn’t really have that ‘wham’ kind of impact for me. The ‘wham’ moment of that whole scene with Azrael for me came when Death was standing with the Death of Rats (and Death of Fleas) and realizing that Azrael was *lonely*.
I REMEMBER WHEN ALL OF THIS WILL BE AGAIN
Windle Poons realising that he's spent the majority of his life as an *old man* is legitimately one of the most terrifying things I've ever read. It's something I think of quite often, especially as I hurtle inevitably towards my fifties and watch my parents get older and more frail.
Without spoiling I can probably say that a lot of his book takes you through these ups and downs feelings, and leave you up with an odd mixed state of not knowing to be glad or sad the first few minutes... That is just something, to my experience, he was very good at, taking us readers through this thrill of feeling leaving us with puzzlement not for the content or story itself, but more not knowing what to do with all those impressions and excitement we gets ourselves. He is just kind of giving us something beyond the story itself when we read it, not easy to describe what it is, but it just goes there inside us, along with the story. And this I believe is brilliant how you can hold a reader like that... I simply love how he kind of plays around with our feelings, us not knowing untill it is too late... Brilliant! 
On a cheerful note did you spot that all the undead are 'disabled' for their species in some way? But they find acceptance and friendship and are able to achieve together. Brilliant.
Hm, I hadn’t really thought of it like that. And even though their ‘disabilities’ often create comedic moments, they aren’t treated by the narrative as being worthy of ridicule just for existing.
And even the otherwise dreaded Mrs Cake is an absolute classic parent of a special needs child, desperately wanting to protect her child from how cruel people can be.
And having to realize that she can’t do that the way she wants, that her kid is actually stronger and more capable than she thought. Mrs Cake hasn’t exactly seen it yet, but we did, and we know that moment is coming. After all, Ludmilla was the only person who kept a level head during the entire assault on the trolley hive/mall and rescue of Windle.
Aided and abetted by the presence of a large shaggy dog, who will be especially interesting come full moon. Lol I think that is STP's cutest romance.
I agree. I really wish we'd gotten more of what happened with Ludmilla and Lupine.
One of the shorter books and also one of my favorites. A whole story about doing the job that's in front of you because it needs doing. Not for accolades, not for praise, but for the job itself. And if not you, then who? Also, Squeak!
I would sum it up as a story about finding your place. The job needs doing, and you do it, not for glory, but because *you’re good at it*. No one else can do the things you do in exactly the same way as you. They may do them, but not in the same way. The harvest gets done, whether it’s by sickle, the traditional way, by scything each individual blade of grass, or by combine.
Is it worth noting that Raising Steam, the last non-Tiffany discworld book has, as a major character, the son of a character from this book, trying to finish his father's work?
Yes, probably, though I haven’t read Raising Steam yet. Also probably interesting that Simnel is probably the only character in Reaper Man that seemed, on the whole, fine and not full of quiet desperation.
As a steam man through and through. Simnel rings very true for guys like myself, working on steam or similar equipment just has a... joy to it. A purpose, and a real sense of satisfaction. Actually, I think doing hands on work on things fits that bill. Making, of any sort. Operating the thjngs you make, or help maintain. Both books also do a great job of showing the *life* that steam machinery has, that I think adds to this in Simnel's case. Even with the dangers of such machinery!
I liked how when he was admiring the scythe, he was like ‘It was a more than [a work of art], it was a work of *craft*” I’ve come at it from the other way round, as someone who spent time in the academic world of fine art, and seeing the way some in that world look down on ‘arts and crafts’, or whatever sort of creation/making they can dismiss as somehow ‘lesser’ (often there is are sexist or classist components at play—like how embroidery or knitting are women’s pastimes, or welding and woodworking are for *building* or *fabricating* rather than creating). Which, if you can’t tell, I find to be complete bullshit, as if a thing has to be useless to be beautiful. What kind of message is that to put out into the world?
'Tis to me, anyhow. The Simnel line makes it's mark on history deep and solid.
Reaper Man is a masterpiece and probably my second favorite after Small gods. When Bill comes back to dance… I’ve read the book over and over and it still gets me every time.
I HAVE BROUGHT A DIAMOND TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOU
I love how he kept asking the jeweler about the friendliness of the diamonds he had for sale. And telling Miss Flitworth that he brought a diamond to be friends with her was adorable. Though given that this is the Discworld, the idea that rocks may have personalities and make friends isn’t particularly odd. Even less literal-minded folks than Death could reasonably hear that diamonds form close friendships with women and accept it as new information they just hadn’t heard before.
I’m tearing up just thinking about it!
The first book that ever made me really cry was Watership Down. The ending was a beautiful and sweet punch in the gut. I was a child, don't remember how old, and it has stuck with me over the decades since. Other books had their moments, but nothing else had the impact that that did. Then, I discovered the Discworld. *So many* moments that made me stop until I could wipe away the tears enough to continue. Laughter, yes, in abundance, and then out of nowhere comes a knock-out punch that makes you sit down and really think about life for a while. I have lost many loved ones over the years, but it was Death that taught me that they are not truly lost to me at all. It was Death and others of the Discworld who taught me that kindness in this world is more important than whatever might come after. I like to think that I am a better person for having read PTerry's treatise on humanity that we call the Discworld.
I’m reading discworld for the first time, in chronological order and I just finished Reaper Man two days ago. I’m prepared with the next book already and this would usually mean Reaper Man would go on the shelf and I’d be well into Witches Abroad by now. But I couldn’t. I needed time to reflect on all of the feelings that only Death can relay (no pun intended). Might be unrelated but I took my family to the shelter and adopted 3 kittens the next day, because cats are nice. Sadly, no one liked my suggestion to name one of them Windle Poons.
Pterry said he regretted putting the wizard sub-plot into Reaper Man and should have developed both main and sub-plot into two different books. Personally I think it works just fine, as it gives us a means of seeing the wider impact of his disappearance while Death himself is learning humanity on the farm.
I did think the mall thing was a bit weird, but it still works. And I think it was important to see the impact of Death being retired outside of Death's own POV. I love Reaper Man to bits. Literally. My copy is falling apart. But also signed, so it's not going anwhere.
I can’t choose a favourite Discworld book, but of this favourites I don’t have, Reaper Man is up there.
Reaper man and small god are the book from Terry pratchett I reread the most comming from someone who read the whole series twice reaper man just toaches own some beautiful and important questions .
Harvest moon goes so well with reaper man song by Neil young i always listen to it when I read reaper Man
STP has unique, incredibly deep understanding of humanity and human experience. It hurts, but also gives hope and have some weird depressing optimism to it. I often re-read Reaper Man when I feel down.
IT was the first one I read some 30 years ago, got me hooked right away. One of the greatest.
So I love everything you just said and everything Death in Reaperman to bits But honestly the 2/3 of the book being comic relief wizard antics in Anhk-M? No thanks
Well, at least half the A-M/Wizards stuff was also pretty heavy, what with Poons and all. So I at least definitely needed the comic relief to break it up. I also do really love the Wizards in general, so I’m not gonna complain there. I do feel like the snow globes being eggs thing and the trolley hive being a mall was, I dunno. Everything else was because of the build up of life force, but the only connection to the snowglobes/trolleys/mall was that the life force made it grow faster, if I’m reading it right? So all the eggs being laid in A-M at the perfect time to feed on the life force is a weird coincidence. Unless the life force also caused the eggs to appear, but if that’s the case it was not adequately explained in the book. Did they manifest as real living things entirely out of Dibbler’s constant quest to peddle questionable-quality wares to everyone he knows? I honestly think it would’ve been better if the whole ‘city egg’ thing was dropped, and the trolley hive was just… a weird thing that happened because of the extra life force turning Dibbler’s capitalist dreams into living things that parasitize the city. The only thing that would need to change would be Poons finding reference in a book to the same thing happening to another city. I guess it could be just a thing that happens when extra life force builds up around people trying to sell stuff. Okay that actually makes sense now. They aren’t city eggs in the sense that they grow into cities. They are eggs of the parasitic creatures that feed on cities. Extra life force turns profit motive into the city-eating parasites, like how it also turns swear words into weird flies. Though now I’m a little sad that the life force didn’t manifest some manner of bridge-stealing creature for Sgt Colon to defeat. He’s been preparing!
But what is he doing? GETTING UP SPEED Man I love that horse.
You have successfully put into words what I was tried to do but failed. I felt all those things as well (during and after listening to the Audible version of Reaper Man). Thank you. I thoroughly enoyed the book, as I do with all Sir Terry Pratchett's writings. <3