Mort

Mort (Discworld, Number 4, Death, Number 1), Terry Pratchett. Harper Paperbacks (ISBN: 9780063393233) 2025 (first published in 1987)

Summary: Mort is apprenticed to Death, who collects dying souls. Mort messes up the timeline when he saves a princess, killing her assassin.

In Discworld, you do not want to meet Death. As you may recall from earlier installments, Rincewind spent much of his time eluding Death. Because Death comes to collect souls of people when they die and to set them onto their destiny in the afterworld. He has bit parts in previous Discworlds. This is his first as a significant character, and this is the first of several of the Death series within Discworld.

But the title character is really the main character here, even if he must constantly remind people of his name. Mort is the teenage son of a farmer who doesn’t want to farm. So, his father takes him to town on the day various tradesmen choose apprentices. But no one wants him. That is, no one wants him except for Death, who comes just shy of closing. The irony, if you know any French, is that mort is the French word for death.

He goes to the home of Death. Two others live there. Ysabell is Death’s daughter by adoption. The other is Death’s ancient manservant, Albert. Ysabell takes a decided disliking to Mort, despite Death’s efforts to promote their companionship

Part of his apprenticeship is to accompany Death to collect souls. He quickly learns he is not to meddle with the fatal destinies of people when he attempts to prevent the assassination of the king of Sto Lat. He learns that theirs is not to decide the time of death or prevent it, but to assist the deceased. But he does not learn this well-enough, and Death, tired of the work and wanting a change, quickly turns over collecting duties to Mort.

One of those he is assigned to collect is the daughter of the assassinated king. A rival Duke is going to kill her. Instead of allowing Princess Keli’s death, he kills the Duke. But he doesn’t reckon with altered timelines. People act as if the Princess is dead, even when she tries to interact with them. She hires the wizard Igneous Cutwell, who can see her, to promote her existence and arrange her coronation. She wants to live and wants to be Queen.

But there is another problem. The real timeline is swallowing up the alternate one. Cutwell can’t stop it but is trying to get her crowned, even if briefly. Meanwhile Mort, as he seeks a solution discovers there may be more to Albert than meets the eye. And he and Ysabell team up. Meanwhile, Death is AWOL, enjoying life as a short order cook.

If you’ve not read this, I will leave it to you to discover how this all works out, as well as if anyone learns to remember Mort’s name. What is most interesting to me is that by and large, the figure of the Grim Reaper is a character without character. Pratchett gives him one, and even gives him a midlife crisis! And since Mort is such an interesting character, I hope he turns up again!