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Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Mort in Books

Nov 20, 2019  
Mort
Mort
Terry Pratchett | 2012 | Fiction & Poetry
9
8.7 (19 Ratings)
Book Rating
In lots of ways Mort is the first book which feels like a 'proper' Discworld novel, fusing the fantasy setting, humour and allegorical commentary together into a delightful, coherent whole.

The story itself is a good one: Death takes on Mort as an apprentice so he can take a break. When Mort breaks the rules he causes a wound in space/time that needs to be healed. And the more Mort does the job of Death the more the job begins to take its toll on him.

There is so much to like about this book. The humour is spot-on with some great one-liners, characters and footnotes. The exploration of the mechanics of how Death really operates on the Discworld fits perfectly with the logic of how the rather unique world operates and is the first glimpse into just how complex and rich the series of books could be.

The Discworld was still evolving rapidly at this point and Mort represents a real statement of intent for the future.
  
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
H.P. Lovecraft | 2008 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
8.7 (9 Ratings)
Book Rating
Dang-near essential for anyone interested in the 20th century horror story, this volume does what it says on the front and collects the most significant fiction of H.P. Lovecraft's career. Lovecraft has a unique and idiosyncratic writing style (and that's putting it mildly) and he's not afraid to insert his deeply unpleasant racist views into his stories. However, no single figure has been more influential in the development of the fantasy-horror genre in the last century.

Lovecraft's best stories take the scientific discoveries of his time and use them to summon up an extraordinary sense of cosmic dread: the vastness of the universe and the primordial origins of the human race become the stuff of genuine nightmare. All the key stories are here - the famous Call of Cthulhu, of course, along with others that are still massively influential, such as The Colour Out of Space and At the Mountains of Madness. Lovecraft wrote the book on a certain kind of horror, and this volume is pretty much it. Some of the stories are minor works, but the best ones here are epochal.