Reaper Man (1991)
Reaper Man is a 1991 fiction, humorous book written by Terry Pratchett.
Death gets made redundant. Stripped of his job by higher powers, the Discworld's Grim Reaper takes the name Bill Door and hires himself out on a country farm, where scything the harvest is honest work and Miss Flitworth keeps a wary eye on him. Meanwhile, with no one to collect them, the recently deceased pile up. Windle Poons, the oldest wizard at Unseen University, wakes up as a reluctant zombie and joins Ankh-Morpork's other undead in sorting out the mess. Pratchett's second Death novel is his warmest, a comedy about mortality that genuinely means it.
Quick answers
What is Reaper Man about?
Death gets made redundant. Stripped of his job by higher powers, the Discworld's Grim Reaper takes the name Bill Door and hires himself out on a country farm, where scything the harvest is honest work and Miss Flitworth keeps a wary eye on him. Meanwhile, with no one to collect them, the recently deceased pile up. Windle Poons, the oldest wizard at Unseen University, wakes up as a reluctant zombie and joins Ankh-Morpork's other undead in sorting out the mess. Pratchett's second Death novel is his warmest, a comedy about mortality that genuinely means it.
When was Reaper Man published?
Reaper Man was published in 1991.
Who made Reaper Man?
Reaper Man was written by Terry Pratchett.
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Reaper Man in our writing
- Companion guide: Discworld: The Complete Guide to Terry Pratchett's Flat Planet
- Companion guide: Heaven, Hell & the Afterlife
A few thoughts on Reaper Man
Grim Fandango sends its own skeletal civil servant of death on a strange, tender journey, and Alex Cox's Repo Man, which gave this book its title, shares the deadpan absurdity. For a gentler angle, Meet Joe Black watches Death try on an ordinary life.
Death takes a leave of absence, and dying stops working right
In Reaper Man, the Discworld's Grim Reaper gets fired and takes work as a farmhand while the dead pile up with nowhere to go. Meet Joe Black plays the same premise straight, Death walking among the living under a borrowed name, and Grim Fandango's afterlife runs on the same fond, funny spirit. The Witcher 3's Wild Hunt and Elden Ring both know what happens when death stops behaving properly.