Death has become redundant. The grey auditors of the Universe have decided that the Death of Discworld has become too much a personality and must be replaced, so Death gets his own hourglass measuring the limited time he has left. He fetches up working as a farmhand for an elderly spinster, Miss Flitworth.

This has a lot of unintended consequences throughout Discworld. The aged wizard Windle Poons dies, but Death does not show up to usher him into the afterlife so Windle returns to his body to lurch around as a zombie. This causes consternation in the Unseen University as this disrupts the "tenure track" for the rest of the faculty. With an abundance of lifeforce building up, the wizards are soon battling an invasion of shopping carts as a living mall springs up to suck the life out of the city.

Death, hiding under the alias of "Bill Door", strikes up an acquaintance with his employer, the elderly and unmarried Renata Flitworth. The cluelessness of Death about human feelings combined with all he knows from his professional endeavors makes this both funny and poignant, as well as romantic and rollicking. It is the story of Miss Flitworth that brings to mind the Emily Dickinson quote that titles this review, but since I don't want to spoil the fun, I have to stop here.

What can I really say about this? I re-read it because my older son's been reading them, and when he finishes one, I stick it in my TBR pile to re-read, the TBR pile being so huge that I need an excuse to re-read anything.

DEATH's got too much of a personality, so The Powers That Be fire him. While he's off finding a new job and a new identity as farm hand Bill Door, his job is being left undone on the Discworld, leading to all kinds of problems.

One of those problems is Wizard Windle Poons. Wizards know when their time is up, and DEATH comes personally to collect them. The wizards at the Unseen University have thrown a farewell party for old Windle, but the time comes and goes, and, well, Windle doesn't.

To say that hilarity ensues would be putting it mildly. It would also be missing a good part of the point. There is incredible hilarity; there's also a large dollop of existentialism and pathos--much about the meaning of life and death, and there's even the poignancy of a relationship between Bill Door and his employer, aged spinster Miss Flitwick.

Reaper Man is one of the earlier books in the Discworld series--the 2nd in the DEATH sub-series, and, I believe, the 11th overall, so it's somewhat less complex than the later books. It's still an amazing, deceptively simple story.

After having read a significant portion of Pratchett's work, my only regret was waiting so long to have read this specific piece. The book as a whole is extremely funny and, barring a few sections, moves very well.

Terry Pratchett was born in 1948 and is one of the most popular authors writing today. He lives behind a keyboard in Wiltshire and says he 'doesn't want to get a life, because it feels as though he's trying to lead three already'. He was appointed OBE in 1998. He is the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series

There is just no other author about who writes like Terry Pratchett. His humour is second to none. There are one or two writers who are trying to get close to him, but failing miserably.

When the dustbin men or the bus driver's go on strike you know what chaos is caused to the infrastructure of society, so imagine what it must be like when Death goes missing, after all he is probably the Number One Public Service. For all his rough manner, Death is a likeable guy who will be sadly missed.

Death's disappearance is the key to all sort of mayhem and laughter on the Discworld as Terry Pratchett weaves his magic yet again. (Perhaps he went to the Unseen University as well). Anyone who has read a Discworld book will know what to expect in spades. Anyone who hasn't, you don't know what you are missing.

My second foray into Pratchett's nearly 40-some book Discworld series was just as satisfying as the first. Whereas the first time I read one of the author's more recent offerings "Going Postal" this time I tried something a little older with "Reaper Man." The tagline on the cover read "It's no fun when Death takes a holiday" which could be amended to add "--except for readers of this book."

As the title suggests, "Reaper Man" is about Death, both with a capital and lower-case D. Two stories run throughout the book, finally intersecting at the end. The first is about Death--the Grim Reaper in popular parlance--who is being retired by his masters because Death seems to be developing a personality. With typical bureaucratic foresight, Death's masters have no replacement lined up.

The impact of this is told through the story of 130-year-old wizard Windle Poons. After living a long, dull life at Unseen University, Windle is finally ready to go into the Great Beyond. He finally passes away at his retirement party, but soon finds one hitch: no one is there to collect his spirit. With nowhere else to go, Windle returns to his body and becomes a zombie. Not the mindless, shambling, brain-eating zombies of horror movie fame. Instead, Windle finds true mastery of his body for the first time, giving him super strength and super senses and probably a super odor from decay as well.

Meanwhile, Death decides to see the world and ends up in an out of the way mountain village where he goes to work for the ancient spinster Miss Flitworth doing--what else--harvesting with a scythe. For the first time Death discovers what it means to be alive, experiencing both the triumphs and tragedies of mortality.

Back in the metropolis of Ankh-Morpork, strange events are afoot. Without a Death, many other people are having the same trouble as Windle Poon, leading to disastrous consequences. Windle makes friends with a group of the undead that include a vampire, werewolf, and Bogeyman and finds himself at the epicenter of an invasion of snow globes that are the prelude to a far more dangerous enemy.

"Reaper Man" features more of Pratchett's wit and topical humor that make for an easy and fun read even if you're not really into fantasy--like myself. Really, if this book can't make you laugh then you need a funny bone transplant. Yet while it is humorous and fun, there's also a deepness and meaning to it all, which makes it a great book to read on multiple levels. If you can laugh and learn something that's the best of both worlds, right?

The last thirty pages or so of the book I thought were really excellent. It's the kind of ending that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time. Finding an ending that powerful is pretty rare for me and so makes this book well worth reading.

Next up is "Guards! Guards!" The bar has been raised pretty high here.

That is all.