As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- "Binky" is a cuter way of saying "dummy" which is English English for the American "pacifier" because you see, dumb originally meant mute, and that's what you use it for, muting a crying baby. And more fridge horror... Death sits atop it.
- At first the ending of the book seems like a Deus ex Machina, or even a bit of an Ass Pull. However, it makes perfect sense if you're willing to accept Death as a Magnificent Bastard. Ysabell had said earlier in the novel that Death only brought Mort on board to marry her, and never has any need of an apprentice. Having secured Mort, Death gives him just enough responsibility to screw up royally, then moves in to fix the problem by having Mort marry Ysabell. Things turn out suspiciously well for Death despite his apparently laid-back attitude. In fact, once we read Soul Music it turns out this is most definitely the case: remember that Death has a non-linear view of time. When he sees Susan immediately before turning Mort's hourglass and saving him, he winks at her, indicating he is aware of her significance in these events. Death knows what was going to happen the whole time. In fact, it may well be that he decided to spare Mort simply because he knew he was going to, creating a Stable Time Loop.
- Apparently, if Death is sharing his role with someone, it's possible for him to absorb their characteristics. This is one possible explanation for why he was so different in the first and second books — at the time he was sharing a role with Scrofula, a petty, malicious disease bringer.
- Of course, Mort kills the assassin instead of Keli when the Duty takes him there - he is wielding the scythe, not the sword. It's a royal prerogative to have one's thread cut with the sword, so Mort's choice of weapon determines who is hit by his strike.
- When Death tells Mort that he must learn the compassion proper to his trade, Mort asks what that compassion is. Death replies: "a sharp edge". This makes more sense when re-reading, or after reading later books, where we see what happens when Death doesn't come for you. In Keli's case, it causes reality to try to rewrite itself to fix the problem, and she meanwhile suffers because nobody (apart from Mort and Cutwell) realizes she is alive. There's also that one witch worrying about Mort missing his cue. In later books, we have a zombified wizard who just wants to go to his rest, after having lived for centuries. There's the New Death who treats the whole duty as a glorious hunt, taking pleasure in terrifying people. In those moments, you realize the meaning of Death's words to Mort: the sharp edge he refers to are the scythe and sword, ensuring that when people die, and Death comes to take their souls, it is as painless and quick as possible to ensure that they won't suffer. That is the compassion proper to the duty.
- Albert's love for ridiculously unhealthy fried foods. He's effectively immortal: not like it's gonna give him a heart attack.
- The Librarian doesn't attack Albert for calling him a monkey for much the same reason he doesn't see himself as the dominant male and as such have cheek flanges, while mainly an orangutan and librarian, he's also a wizard, and Albert is the legendary founder of the Unseen University, it'd be bad form at the very least.
