As a teenager, Mort's personality and temperament made him rather unsuited to the family farming business. In his father's opinion he thought too much, which prevented him from achieving anything practical. Thus, Lezek took him to a local hiring fair, hoping he'd be picked up as an apprentice by someone; not only would this provide a job for his son, but it would also make his son's ability to think a lot become someone else's problem.  Mort stubbornly holds out to the end of the job fair, refusing to leave until midnight has passed or he gets hired. Just before the clock-bell rings for the 12th time, a man concealed in a black cloak arrives on a white horse. He says he is looking for a young man to assist him in his work and picks up Mort. The man turns out to be Death, and gives Mort an apprenticeship to his "job" of ushering souls into the next world (though his father thinks he's been apprenticed to an undertaker).  It is believed that Death chose Mort partly because Death himself has the nickname Mort (he is called this by the other members of the four horsemen), as well as Mort being the French word for death and the origin of several English words (for example mortal and post mortem).  The pressure of the job (and a crush on a princess who is due to die) forces Mort to make a few mistakes, but like all good heroes, he grows some spine, gains some self control, challenges Death to a duel and waltzes away with the girl in the end, but not the correct girl by normal fantasy standards.  He marries Death's adopted daughter Ysabell and they live relatively happily ever after as the duke and duchess of Sto Helit, due to the small error of the real duke of Sto Helit being killed during the duel.  Their storyline (and that of their daughter Susan) is continued in the later Discworld novel Soul Music.

aka Death takes a Holiday. A rather good story, much better than the last 3 and much more imaginative too. Mort is picked to be Death's apprentice and he is our way into Death's previously glimpsed private life. Ysabelle is back, after her cameo in The Light Fantastic, and we're also introduced to Albert, Death's personal servant who fries almost everything and his porridge eats spoons apparently! We also have cameos by Rincewind and the Librarian, both of which are very welcome indeed. The main plot is about Mort's slow transformation into a human version of Death, while Death on the otherhand slowly becomes more and more humanised. It's no small claim to say that without this book later novels such as Reaper Man, Soul Music and Hogfather might never have happened, as they are all reflections of this book in many ways. The sub story about trying to save the Princess from assassination and then reality is mainly padding, but very well written and populated padding at that. I also liked the Sun Emperor cameo, although it might have been nicer to see Two Flower and his boss Nine Reeds imho.