I feel Pratchett was on a real streak of excellence here – Moving Pictures then Reaper Man, followed by Witches Abroad. Three of my favourite Discworld books one after the other. All taking a good look at Roundworld culture and philosophy.

Reaper Man begins with the Auditors of the universe meeting to discuss the fact that they feel Death has developed too much of a personality and so must be retired. There is some amusement to be had when the Auditors start to think individually and then disappear in a puff of smoke as personality is not allowed. The news is passed on to Death who is given a life timer. He decides to retire in order to see some life before his death. As a result, nothing dies and there is a lot of life force sloshing around.

Pratchett has a lot of fun with this. There is Windle Poons who as a wizard can expect Death to call in person for him. When this doesn’t happen, he tries throwing himself in the Ankh and is buried at a crossroads by his fellow wizards. Eventually he finds the card of one Reg Shoe, death rights activist and zombie where he meets an array of undead known as the Fresh Start Club.

One of my favourite jokes is the swear words of the arch-chancellor becoming weird winged creatures due to the excess life force hanging around. This forces Ridcully to have to use extremely weak words in order not to add to the ranks of flying curse words.

Reaper Man is also the start of the Death of Rats. When Death is retired, all the deaths of other animals broke away and became deaths in their own right. At the end, when Death calls them all back to him, the Death of Rats resists and manages to stay separate. Death allows it perhaps showing his whimsical side.

And then there is Bill Door, Death’s human alter ego, having to get used to life as a human. He is particularly unable to cope with the ticking of clocks, counting down the seconds until death, something I’d never really thought about but do now every time I hear one. There are a number of amusing encounters between Death and the villagers he plays at various sports, making sure to be elaborately bad at each of them. He meets Miss Flitworth when he applies to bring in her harvest. She is an old maid, abandoned by her lover who she believes died in an avalanche but who the village believe abandoned her. She is very much fits the stereotype at first but she and Death both learn some things about themselves.

It’s not all humour though. As ever with Pratchett, there is a serious undertone. Death learns some lessons. When a small girl is trapped in a fire, Death suggests that everyone has to die sometime, earning him a slap in the face from Miss Flitworth. He learns to have some humanity to go with the seconds ticking away in his life timer. He eventually rescues the girl, allowing her to share his life timer so she is literally living on borrowed time.

Pratchett makes some comments about the march of progress as the new Death does not view humanity as separate individuals or have any care about them. He arrives to take Death’s life wearing a crown and showboating at every opportunity which does not impress Death. They fight and Death wins. He then visits Azrael the death of the universe and argues that Death has to care or they are merely killing.

The only thing that didn’t quite work for me was the idea of cities as living creatures. Not such a ridiculous idea but the execution just didn’t hold together for me. Snow globes as the seeds and shopping trolleys as a means to spread – all very clever but for whatever reason, it didn’t hang together for me. This is a minor issue though, over all this is an excellent read which is funny and philosophical in equal measure.