Reaper Man is
Terry Pratchett's 11th
Discworld novel. It is set mostly in
Ankh-Morpork with the
wizards of
Unseen University and
Windle Poons, but also in the farmlands where
Death (a.k.a. Bill Door) is living out his retirement. You see,
Death is gone, for now. He has a
life timer of his own; he is beginning to realise why time is so precious to
humans, and why they bother with living at all. With no one to replace him just yet, people aren't dying. Oh, sure they
die, but they just come right back to life again. Such is the unfortunate
predicament of
Windle Poons, then
wizard, now
zombie.
The plot follows along Windle's path, and the strange happenings of Ankh-Morpork (strange little globes, frequent poltergeist activity, trolleys that wheel themselves around, and living compost heaps to mention a few), though most anything that happens in Ankh-Morpork can hardly be considered strange at all.
As our friends in Ankh-Morpork try to figure out what's going on, Death is living it up. He is staying (incognito as Bill Door) with Miss Flitworth as a hired hand to help with the harvest. He learns much in his life on Discworld, as does Windle Poons in his death on Discworld.