The Grim Reaper: Difference between revisions

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* The Pratchett/[[Neil Gaiman]] novel ''[[Good Omens]]'' concerns Armageddon, so Death features as one of the Four Horsemen (or motorbikers) of the Apocalypse. He doesn't get as much page time as the others because he's always busy, but shares the Death of Discworld's {{smallcaps|accent}} and occasional sense of humor.
** Towards the climax he reveals that, in spite of his position with the Four Horsemen, he is not like the others. Whereas his three companions are more or less manifestations of inherent facets of humanity, Death is the Angel of Death, with wings of darkest blackness.
* In [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[Incarnations of Immortality|On a Pale Horse]]'', the office of Death passes from one holder to the next when [[You Kill It, You Bought It|the new Death kills his predecessor.]]
* [[Robert Burns]]'s poem ''Death and Dr Hornbook'' features a non-skeletal (albeit cloaked) Grim Reaper of the disgruntled civil servant mould, who is apparently ''a'' Grim Reaper specifically responsible for southwestern Scotland. This ingenious double subversion is similar to modern unorthodox portrayals of Death.
* In [[Paul Robinson]]'s book ''[[Instrument of God]]'', the person who is in charge of the Recycling Department (where people who have died decide to go back to earth to be reborn as a baby) is ''The Death Traffic Manager'' but is colloquially known as ''Grim'' or ''The Grim Reaper''.
* ''[[The Book Thief]]'' is narrated by Death (and makes him a sympathetic character to boot!)
{{quote|I do not carry a sickle or scythe
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* The Black Rabbit of Inle from ''[[Watership Down]]'' is involved in the death of every rabbit, but if a rabbit dies without his permission, he will avenge the deed. In rabbit mythology, this explains why ''elil'' (the rabbit word for enemies, including humans) hunt and kill each other.
* Death of Fritz Leiber's ''[[Lankhmar]]'' series is a bald figure in dark clothing, who has a quota of deaths every hour (by profession) and has never missed it.
* The description of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come in [[Charles Dickens]]'s ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' is a clear reference to the Grim Reaper.
* Death is worshipped in many forms in the world of ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', from the Black Goat of Qohor to the Stranger from the Faith of the sevenSeven. However, a cult of assassins known as the Faceless Men believe all of these to be the same being, the Many-Faced God.
* Invoked in [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Gaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''[[Only In Death]]''. Wes Maggs is haunted by a figure of an old woman with a malformed face and a black lace gown. He is convinced that she is Death, come to take Ghosts. In some, dangerous situations, other Ghosts see her as well. When resolving to fight as hard as he could, Maggs defies her. {{spoiler|She proves to be Soric's [[Evil Cripple|handler]] from [[Fate Worse Than Death|the Black Ships]], projected by him. The reason she appeared more when they were in danger was that Soric sensed it, and his desperate desire to help them caused more of his psychic activity to reach them.}}
* The classic Spanish novel ''[[La Dama del Alba]]'' (The Lady of the Dawn), has Death as a beautiful woman who envies the living, as she can never know love because of her role.
* In [[One Hundred Years of Solitude]], Death is a quiet woman clad in an old blue dress who orders {{spoiler|Amaranta [[Buend Ã]]­a}} to sew her own death shroud, promising that she will died peacefully and painlessly at the end of the day she's done.
* Death is a fairly important figure in ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' and is part of the "evil trinity" along with Satan, his father, and Sin, his mother. Satan is also [[Squick|Sin's father]].
* In [[Amber Benson]]'s ''[[Calliope Reaper-Jones]]'' series, Calliope is the daughter of the current Grim Reaper, a man who has held that post since about 1900. Having been in life a businessman during the latter part of the Industrial Revolution, he used those approaches to manage his reaping duties, by forming the afterlife company Death, Inc.
* ''[[Final Destination]]'' spin-off ''Dead Reckoning'' has a [[Eldritch Abomination|Lovecraft -inspired]] version of the usual stereotypical depiction of the Grim Reaper appear in a dream sequence.
* ''[[Death: A Life]]'' by [[George Pendle]] is a humorous look at Death's existence up to the present time. The main story focuses on Death being fascinated with the idea of living after meeting a soul by the name of Maud, whom he falls in love with. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* Yambe-Akka to witches in ''[[His Dark Materials]]''. At one point it reveals that every person has an individual death, ("Well, Lyra, if you ask, sooner or later they will show.)", and they can hide very well to take on [[A Form You Are More Comfortable With]].
* [[Harry Potter]] doesn't have Death himself appear in-story (though so many have died), but in The Tale of the Three Brothers, [http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Death_(The_Tale_of_the_Three_Brothers) Death] did appear to the three Peverell Brothers. He is portrayed here as cunning and disliking to be on the losing side of anything. He was, in the story, the creator of the [[Plot Device|Deathly Hallows]].
* ''[[Silicon Wolfpack]]'' has a traditionally-garbed reaper who seems to merely be one of many, and has a [[Plucky Comic Relief|sense of humor]].
* [[The Demonata]], after several books, reveal that {{spoiler|Death was the main-villain all along.}}
* In the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' series, Death is described poetically as the Shadow-Lover - an attractive member of one's gender of preference - and "embracing the Shadow-Lover" is a metaphor for dying.
* In the [[Stephen King]] novel ''[[The Long Walk]]'', an unnamed dark figure appears at the very end who is theorized to be Death, ushering {{spoiler|Garraty}} into the afterlife.
 
 
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