Making Insanity Appealing (Mort - Terry Pratchett)

Name: Knor

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Product:	Mort - Terry Pratchett
Date:	12/07/01 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny and thought provoking, Orignal and inventive, Extremely well written and put forward.

Disadvantages: Word does not make sense in context.

And now I confess my fanatical obsession with the Discworld (and any other Pratchett fiction, read Good Omens?) For those who don't know (do these people exist anymore?) the Discworld is not only an appropriately named world carried on the back of four celestial sized elephants, which in turn composes themselves ontop of a proportioned Turtle; not only are they a series of extremely funny books with lots of different schools of philosiphy sheltering, it is also an immensely giant commercial success spun across twenty-six novels!

Mort was one of the first Disc books I read. I had endulged in The Colour of Magic and the Light Fantastic (the first two in the series which differ greatly in many ways to the rest of the series) a week before. It took me I think two days to finish the masterpiece. This is truely a testament to the black magic that is performed.

The story tells of a boy called Mortimer (or Mort for short...) who's father tries to get him an apprenticeship. However, the only person who came for him was Death, the Grim Reaper. And so Mort learns from Death. One day, due to plague and famine, Mort is given the task to bring a few souls to their fate. However, the Witch insists on staying on Disc, the Abbot needs to reincarnate and, tthis is the crucial part, when it comes to the assassination of a princess, he sythes the wrong body...

And so starts a bizzare outcome of events as reality and fate wrestle for existance. A demonstartion of deep cutting humour and consise ideas on Time and Fate. It is perhaps the originality of firstly the ideas and secondly the ways the world works and thirdly of course the characters that make Mort and the Discworld stand out from the crowd. Death has a facinating personality, induced by his position in the scheme of things; the way he tries to understand emotion and feel a part of humanity. And the conversations he has with the latterly deseased are never failingly hilarious.

But jus
t details like Death's house being made of different shades of black, there being an eights colour, Ocatarine, the Colour of Magic. And the Light Fantastic is not the absense if light, that is mere darkness, it is the OPPOISTE of light.

It's these quirks spliced with genius narrative that makes this book so appealing. A few pages reveal so much character and lively philosiphy. It's this ability to make you laugh and think at he same time. I often think that Terry Pratchett's status of a thinker is understaed becuase the immediate thought of him as a writer is that of humour and wit, which most think does not go with deep thought.

But it's so refreshing to see the ways that the world is interpareted. That History eternally written and reproduced by a library or self-writing books and how fate heals itslef.

As always Terry manages with seeming no effort to convey a perfect image of his world and ideas, but not through heavy description. There is very little physical description what so ever in fact. Always, he gives you the chance to fill in the fanatsy, shade it with your own colours. And often he only outlines actiojns forcing you to fill in the outcoming detail.

You need an imagination for Mort to come to life. That's what makes the verbal ambiance materialise and evolve. All the eccentric characters, Death's daughter, Ysabell and Butler, Albert for example, are self-running, becuase the dialouge captures the personality of them so well. Another mark of a good book is how well you feel you know the characters. And Mort definitely gets full marks for that. Even Binky, Death's horse you seem to know thoroughly and in depth. Ysabell seems on edge, the Duke of Sto Lat is pompous and self-ritous and Death is inimmitable.

Any fan of fantasy, science-fiction, humourous novels or ANYONE for that matter should not fail to be innitiated into the mass cult world of PTerry. Once you unlock the witchcr
aft within the innocent looking bound pieces of paper, you're spent and will probably end up buying even the Discworld Maps. It is because of the way the books are written, you become so familiar with the recurring characters and evolving world and kingdoms that are epitomised so clearly that makes you want to get as clasoe to the world and the literature as possible. It's the way that Mort throws light on Fate, Death, History and Life from such a strange angle that forces you to question reality (or sanity). A great book, treasure it too.

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