Buy Book "Reaper" in Ukrainian

“The Reaper is the second book in the Discworld series about the adventures of a creature called Death.

While Death goes about his usual business of keeping the balance between the living and dead inhabitants of the Flat Disk, there is a dispute in Heaven. The Supreme Gods decide that Death should be removed from his duties, given a golden watch, and sent to ordinary mortals. A new Death was to be found instead, of course.

Thus, Death finds himself in the world of the living. In order to blend in, he takes on a human name and gets a job.

At the same time, the consequences of interfering with the functioning of death begin to manifest themselves: an excess of living force is growing, which leads to the fact that the dead are unable to leave peacefully, so they get stuck in the world of the living in the bodies of the undead.

One of these “lucky ones” is Koshil Buk, a thirty-year-old wizard of the Invisible Academy. Imagine what it was like for a man to find out that he could not actually die, at a time when he had prepared in advance for his own funeral and was celebrating it with other wizards.

The characters of the novel join forces to restore balance to the Discworld.

Recommended!

Wow, Death has been fired… He (yes, in the Discworld, Death is him, albeit still a skeleton) no longer needs to keep track of life meters, sharpen his scythe and run around in wars, epidemics, disasters (and let’s not forget personal visits from kings and wizards). Now Death has time… and he will spend it.

Death finds a job and helps with the harvest, as this is what he seems to be perfect at. However, he has a somewhat strange method – one stalk at a time, but nevertheless, no one can compare with him. Death has dreams, is called Bill Door (hello, Gaiman!), walks at a village festival, dances, and gradually begins to understand what life is and why people cling to it so much.

And while Death is resting, something strange will happen in the world (who would have doubted it). A zombie will appear, trying out different ways to die. Compost heaps will come to life, and supermarket trolleys will begin to plan (and carry out) evil things (I have always been wary of them, they are too willful).

Many years ago, my love for Pratchett began with this book. This book was the first brick in the realization that death is not the end. This book also perfectly and humorously describes what true friendship, responsibility for one’s work, support, and, strangely enough, life are. After all, what better way to tell about life than to show death?)

The second book in the series about Death. In the story, the grim reaper… took a leave of absence. The only thing is that people did not stop dying, but there was no one to take their souls. Death finds himself in the role of an ordinary village reaper, but at the same time he also becomes mortal. He himself gets his own remaining time.

In addition, the novel just a huge amount of social satire, mostly on the consumer society. The work touches on many interesting topics, which is inherent in absolutely all of Terry Pratchett’s works. Sparkling humor, a unique in its kind main character, absurdity and complete surrender. Although, no, not complete. The narrative logic and the logic of Flatland itself does exist. It’s just its own, different from anything you’ve encountered.

The Ukrainian translation reads easily and caused no problems. Lots of footnotes, the text is proofread, the language is pleasant. But, to be fair, I have not read the book in the original.

The publication and design is excellent. The cover is pleasant to the touch and the illustration is not just beautiful, but fits into the world.

This is the fifth book I’ve read by Terry Pratchett and by far the best in my subjective opinion. The novel “The Reaper”, which is the second book in the “Death” cycle and is a vivid example when the second part is better than the first (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Aliens, etc.) The scale of events is much larger than in the previous book and other cycles. Wonderful and colorful secondary characters that you remember for a long time, but sometimes you can get a little lost when switching between events that take place in parallel. The plot contains “DRAMA”, despite the genre of humorous fantasy, and some images of this drama will stay in your head for a long time, such as “Death standing in an endless field of wheat swaying in the wind…”.

I also liked the hints in the secondary plot about the “Consumer Society” that kills cities, but the massacre between wizards and shopping carts is a trashy one 🙂

The quality of the translation by Vydavnytstvo Staryi Lev deserves special attention, as this is a case where the adaptation was to the novel’s advantage, so that Ukrainian readers could catch the maximum of the author’s subtle humor. The quality of the printing is also excellent.

We are looking for a candidate for a new job!

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Requirements – your own vehicle (preferably a skeleton horse), a robe woven from pitch black and a scythe that can cut through sound and nerves.

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Something amazing has happened in the Discworld – Death has been fired! Now he has his own timekeeper, his own mortal life, which he plans to live under an assumed name as a reaper.

Meanwhile, on the Disk, 130-year-old wizard Koshil Buk is preparing for a well-deserved retirement. But when the time comes for his death, the wizard does not die. Koshil will have to start his life over and get used to the new world where he will find a new beginning.

And a new trouble is already waiting for the Discworld – it is literally overwhelmed with vital energy, because there is no more Death on the Disc…

I read this novel for the second time, because when I read it for the first time, I could not enjoy the book enough. But this time, I succeeded in doing so to the fullest. “The Reaper, despite its telling wit, raises quite important questions: what is the necessity of death? What is its true purpose? And of course, Pratchett, in his own easy and relaxed way, presents his thoughts on this topic.

After this book, I fell even more in love with the hero of the whole cycle, Death. Naive and sweet to the point of tears, he learns to live and feel. At first glance, it seems like a miracle, because his old dream has come true, but later he realizes that life is not so easy, and death is the only thing to be afraid of.

Of course, the interesting characters don’t end with Death: the introverted babai Trailer, the wolf-man Lupin, and the main star of the book, Death of the Rats, will definitely not leave you indifferent.

This is probably the saddest book in the series. There are so many reflections on life and death, self-sacrifice and the thirst for immortality, simple and unbreakable love for everything around us. Love for life.