Review: Reaper Man

Spoilers

I started and devoured this basically immediately after finishing Moving Pictures, and it was very enlightening as to what makes what I consider the best of Discworld so good; while all the books in the series (so far) have fun word play, ridiculous world building, and the Librarian, the greatest amongst them also have tons of humanity and gravitas to them, and this is never better displayed than when Death is involved. Whether it's pulling a sopping bag out of a well, discovering a person's true self upon death, exploring what it means to be human, righteous rage at the Death humanity conjures for itself, or Windle Poons self-reflections on life, I love when Pratchett is dead (pun intended) serious. Of course, when it's not serious, then it's peak Discworld humour, with Death being Death, Mrs. Cake being a tyrant, the Librarian having a new flurry of exotic descriptions, a self-conscious banshee, and the all-adorable Death of Rats. This book is very Lord of the Rings-esque for me, because I found myself hoping for all the non-Death sequences to end so I could get back to him (sorry Frodo/Sam, but the rest of the Fellowship was doing more interesting stuff); for some reason, the Unseen University just doesn'et grab my attention like the Witches, City Guard, or Death do.