This is the first book I've read by Christopher Moore and I've got to say it was pretty damn good. His humour is just perfect, punch lines in all the right places. I'm not sold on the ending, and I LOVE endings. They make or break a good book for me. It kind of happened really fast, but Moore makes up for it at the very very end. Will definitely be picking up some more of Moore's books.

I found this book confusing in its premise, amusing but not laugh-out-loud funny as some of his others. Characters are good but Charlie Asher, the main one, thinks he's Death (which he is, kind of) and things go off track in the middle.Wildly unique, but not Moore's best.

I really like Chris Moore. I am not sure where he comes up with these crazy ideas, but his books are so interesting and innovative. This one in particular was funny and fascinating. The idea of souls being captured in everyday objects really makes you laugh and also, think. I wonder now what my soul vessel would be. Please read it! It's fantastic. I will be reading all of his books!!

Charlie Asher’s wife, Rachel, dies shortly after giving birth to their daughter, Sophie. At this time in the hospital, Charlie sees a very large black man wearing a mint green suit; the black man is astonished that Charlie can see him! After this, weird things start happening to Charlie: random objects are glowing red, people are dropping dead around him! What is going on? It took a little bit for the book to get going, I thought, but not too far into it, when we find out what is going on, I thought it really picked up, and I really liked it. There were some great supporting characters in the book: Ray and Lily, who work at Charlie’s second-hand store; Sophie, Charlie’s little girl; Mrs. Ling and Mrs. Korjev, Charlie’s neighbours and frequent babysitters of Sophie… I listened to the audio, and I’m sure people thought I was a little odd, laughing to myself as I listened. I would give the story itself 3.75 stars, but I’m adding an extra quarter star for the really good narrator of the audio.

Not maybe his best book, but pleasurable reading. Moore always seems to find a balance between madcap absurdity and warmth. The humour is constant and should remove any real sense of character, and yet the characters are endearing, The silly plots are creative and convoluted, as well as unpredictable. This one has a recently widowed man and new father thrust into the supernatural when he finds he has been drafted to be a servant of death. There is a quality to his story-telling that is hard to define. You feel happy and good while reading them. Are they a escape? Maybe. But they aren’t cheap. In lesser hands, these kinds of stories could be very cheap and empty. The first book I ever read by Moore was Fluke, which, offered a science fiction type story. It was rollicking and funny as hell and even ribald, and yet it wasn’t til toward the end that I started to realise that the primary genre was not adventure or sci-fi, but humour. He is most similar to James Morrow in that respect--you’re reading a really good, engaging book, that happens to wink and poke fun at everything constantly while you are along for the ride. The silliness should constantly remind you that you are reading a story, that the story itself is simply a frame for amusement, and yet it blooms to three dimensions anyways. The running joke/commentary about beta males never stopped delivering

“So now you’re death…” and you have the daunting task of visiting every dying person in San Francisco and collecting their soul vessels all the while being attacked and followed by death demons in the form of giant birdlike creatures - Sewer Harpies (complete with skulls and chicken legs) - and as if that wasn’t bad enough your only daughter is death’s spawn! For all you desk hoggers out there who think your job is bad, just think of poor Charlie Asher – the quiet, spineless beta male - who, following the death of his wife, found himself to be a death merchant. Charlie Asher was as normal as a man can be, living in San Francisco and married to the beautiful Rachel Asher who was pregnant with her first child. He owned a small used clothing shop which employed a young Gothic girl named Lily and a pornographic obsessed ex-cop named Ray. Aside from his wife there were no shining beacons in his life, until the death of his wife brought him face to face with Death – well actually his minion who in turn somehow initiated him into the death business and opened his eyes to the millions of shining beacons across the city. And all of these beacons shined red. As a newly appointed minion of death along with his death manual, he soon finds out that he must scour the city collecting the left over souls of dead people and ensure that they are given to their new rightful owner. Christopher Moore has written a hilarious and unapologetic tale of good vs evil. You cannot help but fall in love with the world he has created in this novel. Charlie is hilarious and his sidekicks Minty Fresh, Ray and Lily carry the story beyond just a hunt for souls but a quest for survival. Sophie is tres adorable, her killer word was a wacky twist added to the plot and you can’t help but love her even though she is death in the flesh! Her babysitters are stereotyped galore and I didn’t care because it was so damn hilarious. His quirky sister, Jane (the true alpha male in the family) looks better in his pant suits than he does and is portrayed as the butch lesbian she is, which makes the reader, even a conservative one, fall for her. Moore is who he is and plays women as sex objects and plays on stereotypes and yet doesn’t take it to an unhealthy and insulting extreme. Moore uses the subject of death as a focus on the light instead of the darkness of it. He throws in humor, puns and ironic situations that will have you laughing at death and leave you looking forward towards living your life. The throwaway humour and wordplays on life are wonderful and reading this book does in fact challenge you to look at life and death differently, not in a sense of doom but to laugh at death and live your life the way you want too. He takes a simple concept and turns it into an adventure, for that is truly what death is… an adventure.

i saw someone reading this book and the cover intrigued me, they say you can't judge a book by the cover. i say that with this book you can. Christopher Moore has become my new favorite author. i have already started reading other books written by. i need more Moore

Charlie Asher is sweet, overbearing, helpless, hapless, insecure, naive, and a bit of a hypochondriac. He would say that he's just a very careful guy. He runs the secondhand store he inherited from his father. He still can't believe he found a great girl who agreed to marry him and they're having their first child. But his luck is about to change... People around him start dropping dead. It gets weirder when strangers' names start appearing in his datebook and they end up dead. Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job, as Death. I laughed thoughout the whole book. This is one of the best Moore books I've read so far and I'm completely hooked.

this book was the utmost hilarious piece of work i have ever read! each page made me laugh till my cheeks hurt! i really loved it!! and i couldn't stop talking baout it to others! this is a must read!!!!!!!!!!!!

Death has taken on may shapes and sizes. But by far this has to be one of the funnier ones. a slightly slower Moore book but well worth the read....I still think there should be a part two.