Dunne Hein

Inhoud

Deel 4 in de Schijfwereld-romanserie. Dunne Hein is een onnozele, talentloze bonestaak en zijn vader is blij wanneer hij een baantje voor hem vindt als leerjongen van De Dood. Maar Hein blijkt ook al niet de gave te bezitten om zielen de wereld uit te leiden. Sterker, wanneer de aantrekkelijke prinses Kiela vermoord gaat worden, verknalt hij het volledig. Hij vermoordt de moordenaar en verstoort daarmee de Onafwendbare Werking Van het Noodlot. En De Dood, die veel te veel aan Dunne Hein overlaat, begint verrassend menselijke trekjes te vertonen: drinken, dobbelen en grappen maken. Dunne Hein daarentegen wordt steeds minder vrolijk en is steeds meer geneigd om IN HOLLE HOOFDLETTERS TE SPREKEN...

Bespreking

Does it get any crazier?

Mort, the child of a farmer, did not really show any aspiration to follow in the footsteps of his father. His problem was not that he didn’t have the will, but more that he kept thinking too long before doing anything. Giving up all hope to ever achieve anything useful, his father sent him to a local hiring fair in the hope to land him an apprenticeship. But even that did almost turn out to be a disaster. Almost. Luckily just before the market was about to close, a rather peculiar entity showed up and addressed him in CAPITALS. To the other people this person looked like an undertaker, but Mort saw right through it... literally.

This fourth book of the popular Discworld series was elected as one of the most beloved books in the BBC's 2003 Big Read contest. And that is arguably due to the character of Dead. It’s the first of the Death series, although Death himself already appeared briefly in the previous books, and elaborates on the fantastic world of Death also known as Death’s Domain. It also introduces some strange concepts like the ‘reannual plants’, plants you have to sow one year after you harvest them. It’s these kind of crazy idea’s that make Mort such a wonderful gem of a book. Nevertheless, the actual story tends to get pushed a bit to the background, which sometimes leads to a quite difficult to comprehend story arc. Luckily the denouement gets first price in shedding some light on this chaotic story. At least that is what I thought... or maybe it was not and I got completely transcendental too. Who’s talking there in capitals?