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David McK (3422 KP) rated Soul Music (Discworld, #16; Death, #3) in Books

Jul 1, 2024  
Soul Music (Discworld, #16; Death, #3)
Soul Music (Discworld, #16; Death, #3)
Terry Pratchett | 1995 | Fiction & Poetry
9
8.7 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
You gotta love a bit of Terry Pratchett.

Only he could take The Grim Reaper, and turn him into not-so-much a figure of fun, but use him to examine life and mortality and the nature of human existence.

I think there's five such books in which he takes a starring role in the entire Discworld series - those would be (in order) 'Mort', 'Reaper Man', this one, 'Hogfather' and 'Thief of Time'], with all but the first featuring the Death of Rats ("SQUEEK"), and with the latter three also featuring his grand-daughter Susan.

That, thus, makes this the first novel to do so, with plenty of puns and jokes around the music industry here as a new force comes into being on the Discworld: that of "Music with Rocks In".

For my money, this is top-tier Pratchett.
  
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graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, #1) in Books

Feb 15, 2019  
First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, #1)
First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, #1)
Darynda Jones | 2011 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.1 (9 Ratings)
Book Rating
FIRST GRAVE ON THE RIGHT introduces Charley Davidson, the Grim Reaper who also works as a private investigator. She's a smart-ass, chaotic, accident-prone, knows exactly who she is, and has some serious attitude -- she'll never win Miss Congeniality, but Charley also has heart and humanity. I like her, she has enough depth to sympathize with and enough grit to make me root for her, while showing the right amounts of strength and vulnerability to be realistic. If I had to choose a grim reaper and it was between her and Callie Reaper-Jones from Amber Benson's series ([b:Death's Daughter|6354365|Death's Daughter (Calliope Reaper-Jones, #1)|Amber Benson|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lRt2VmaCL._SL75_.jpg|4632897]), I'd definitely pick Charley. And did I mention she names her "unmentionables"? Of which I found hilarious, although maybe not everyone will.

There are two major plot lines involved within the covers: the murder of three lawyers and how it ties into an innocent man and the mysterious entity who steams up Charley's dreams with some hot, hot action (and isn't as stalkerish as it sounds from the description). While the former seems to become an afterthought by the end, it ties up rather nicely, even if it's rather abrupt in comparison to how it's paced at the beginning. Though it is the other plot that is the more intriguing of the two and kept me reading so I could find out what happened next. I'm happy with how it ended and the author did a good job leaving me wanting to know more. The writing is capable, even if there was some redundancy of certain phrases and words, but it got better the further into the story I got. The book is bursting with sarcasm, which I love, and there's rarely a passage that doesn't have one snarky little morsel included. I hope future entries in the series will expand some of the other characters that are glossed over, but overall, this was a blast to read. If you're looking for a fast, fun piece of brain-candy, look no further, pop into this for a sweet treat. Also, kudos to whoever chose the cover, it captures the book perfectly.
3.5 stars