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Grim Reaping
The life of Death is never simple, but when little green men are rumoured to be plotting his demise things can get so complicated.
Welcome to the Business of Life, the company responsible for Existence, run exquisitely under the ever watchful, all-seeing-eye of Johnny B God. In the grand scheme of all things Immortal, Grim Alfonzo Reaper has been the collector of souls since the Days of Creation, which followed many millennia of brainstorming and graph analysis, but he has never come across a situation where a soul he collects apparently died while digging his grave.
Who would want to kill Death? Men in green Lycra apparently which would suggest a lack of both common and dress sense. Aided and hindered in equal measure by a verbally-challenged demon, the Devil himself, and a multitude of vapourous but colourful collected souls, Grim finds that his life was much simpler when all humans had to say was "Ug".
A surreal comic fantasy about death, life, love, annoyance, violence, depravity, green Lycra and just a little Grim Reaping.
Welcome to the Business of Life, the company responsible for Existence, run exquisitely under the ever watchful, all-seeing-eye of Johnny B God. In the grand scheme of all things Immortal, Grim Alfonzo Reaper has been the collector of souls since the Days of Creation, which followed many millennia of brainstorming and graph analysis, but he has never come across a situation where a soul he collects apparently died while digging his grave.
Who would want to kill Death? Men in green Lycra apparently which would suggest a lack of both common and dress sense. Aided and hindered in equal measure by a verbally-challenged demon, the Devil himself, and a multitude of vapourous but colourful collected souls, Grim finds that his life was much simpler when all humans had to say was "Ug".
A surreal comic fantasy about death, life, love, annoyance, violence, depravity, green Lycra and just a little Grim Reaping.
342 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 14, 2012
10 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Lund
7 books1 followerAnthony was born in 1982 in the northeast of England and is still there.
At the age of 7 he was told he should see a school psychiatrist to help overcome his irrational need to run around the corridors like a lunatic fruitcase and to quell his overactive imagination. Thankfully it never happened, and was seen to be nothing but bullshit. Every healthy child of 7 should run around corridors like a lunatic fruitcase and should be allowed to enact their youthful fantasies of dragons, chases and intergallactic confrontation. It is when they still do it at the age of 30 that some medical help should be considered - although only lightly.
After leaving school with a large handful of GCSEs, wrapped neatly in an elastic band to be thrown in a box and buried later, Anthony went on to avoid college in favour of doing some "real work".
On becoming employed it turned out that in a good job there is no such thing as "real work". "Real work" consists of playing the game, getting the work done in the shortest time to allow more time for fooling around, and including the word fuck in as many conversations as possible.
At the turn of the millennium, a three year stint of depression gave Anthony ample opportunity to sit down and write for eight or nine hours a day. As he wanted to be an author since the age of 12, this was something of a bonus in the grand scheme of things. After three years and over 200,000 written words, he had two complete pieces of shite under the guise of novels, 165 ideas for other stories, a better understanding of how to write a good novel rather than a bad one, and a serious dose of writers cramp.
In 2003, Anthony began "real work" again. As well as giving him more cash than the 6p a week the government had been paying him for the last 3 years, it led him to encounter the person who would become a best friend, constant source of inspiration, and had the most infectious personality ever seen on the right side of insanity. It also offered some unexected opportunities. There was a monthly article in the company newsletter, which he would years later take over as sole writer for and create something of an abstract piece that stood along site management updates as an "Alternative" News Letter.
Having read the books of Stephen King and James Herbert since the age of 12, a chance encounter with "Cujo" being the first, the horror genre became an immediate subject of choice. Although there were other writers and genres to be explored, they all seemed too mundane and too boring (later, the writer in him would come to realize that apart from every 70th page, horror novels are no different).
Gradually, having exhausted the back catalogue of most popular horror writers, Anthony moved onto the close relative, the Crime novel. Dealing with the dark nature of the human mind rather than that of the supernatural, Crime novels appealed almost as strongly as those of demons and ghosts.
Anthony has a personal library of over 1000 books in every genre from humour to horror to fantasy to thriller.
His hobbies include cinema, rock music, playing guitar (almost) and writing songs and slumping in front of the TV. His true TV loves are every crime drama from "Wire in the Blood" to "Midsommer Murders", every comedy from "Only Fools and Horses" to "The Simpsons", and not so secretly "Eastenders".
His heroes are few and far between, but those given honourable mention are working class hero Bruce Springsteen, rocker Meat Loaf and his long term writer Jim Steinman, and Billy Connolly - no man can make him laugh more.He is also a Sunderland AFC supporter for his sins.
Having avoided the psychologist once, it was only fitting that Anthony should go onto study the subject earning a Diploma in Psychology. The lunatics are truely taking over the asylum.
Anthony also has something of an acquired taste in collectibles. His wide array of oddities include a large collection of Gremlin replicas, eight Grim Reapers, t
At the age of 7 he was told he should see a school psychiatrist to help overcome his irrational need to run around the corridors like a lunatic fruitcase and to quell his overactive imagination. Thankfully it never happened, and was seen to be nothing but bullshit. Every healthy child of 7 should run around corridors like a lunatic fruitcase and should be allowed to enact their youthful fantasies of dragons, chases and intergallactic confrontation. It is when they still do it at the age of 30 that some medical help should be considered - although only lightly.
After leaving school with a large handful of GCSEs, wrapped neatly in an elastic band to be thrown in a box and buried later, Anthony went on to avoid college in favour of doing some "real work".
On becoming employed it turned out that in a good job there is no such thing as "real work". "Real work" consists of playing the game, getting the work done in the shortest time to allow more time for fooling around, and including the word fuck in as many conversations as possible.
At the turn of the millennium, a three year stint of depression gave Anthony ample opportunity to sit down and write for eight or nine hours a day. As he wanted to be an author since the age of 12, this was something of a bonus in the grand scheme of things. After three years and over 200,000 written words, he had two complete pieces of shite under the guise of novels, 165 ideas for other stories, a better understanding of how to write a good novel rather than a bad one, and a serious dose of writers cramp.
In 2003, Anthony began "real work" again. As well as giving him more cash than the 6p a week the government had been paying him for the last 3 years, it led him to encounter the person who would become a best friend, constant source of inspiration, and had the most infectious personality ever seen on the right side of insanity. It also offered some unexected opportunities. There was a monthly article in the company newsletter, which he would years later take over as sole writer for and create something of an abstract piece that stood along site management updates as an "Alternative" News Letter.
Having read the books of Stephen King and James Herbert since the age of 12, a chance encounter with "Cujo" being the first, the horror genre became an immediate subject of choice. Although there were other writers and genres to be explored, they all seemed too mundane and too boring (later, the writer in him would come to realize that apart from every 70th page, horror novels are no different).
Gradually, having exhausted the back catalogue of most popular horror writers, Anthony moved onto the close relative, the Crime novel. Dealing with the dark nature of the human mind rather than that of the supernatural, Crime novels appealed almost as strongly as those of demons and ghosts.
Anthony has a personal library of over 1000 books in every genre from humour to horror to fantasy to thriller.
His hobbies include cinema, rock music, playing guitar (almost) and writing songs and slumping in front of the TV. His true TV loves are every crime drama from "Wire in the Blood" to "Midsommer Murders", every comedy from "Only Fools and Horses" to "The Simpsons", and not so secretly "Eastenders".
His heroes are few and far between, but those given honourable mention are working class hero Bruce Springsteen, rocker Meat Loaf and his long term writer Jim Steinman, and Billy Connolly - no man can make him laugh more.He is also a Sunderland AFC supporter for his sins.
Having avoided the psychologist once, it was only fitting that Anthony should go onto study the subject earning a Diploma in Psychology. The lunatics are truely taking over the asylum.
Anthony also has something of an acquired taste in collectibles. His wide array of oddities include a large collection of Gremlin replicas, eight Grim Reapers, t
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 21, 2013
This is a wonderfully funny story about Grim Alfonso Reaper , who has been in the business of collecting souls since the days of creation. He has always had a pretty steady life in that respect, but just as people in comfortable careers often become aware of knife-sharpeneers behind them, Grim has to start looking behind his back.
He was made aware of the need to do this by Boris, a deceased arthritis-ridden gravedigger. Grim often needs to talk to the Dead you see. It's his job. On this occasion, he probably wished he hadn't. Boris told Grim that he had dug a grave for him. He wasn't very specific as to why, but he did start Grim on a journey of discovery - to discover who was out to get him. Who was trying to kill death itself.
The journey starts when he visits the recently deceased Mr Bones, the ex Boris's ex boss. This is an exceptionally funny passage that shows the extent of Anthony Lund's humour. Mr Bones, having died by way of chainsaw, literally lies in bits when approached by Grim, who asks, "Which part of you would you like me to speak to"? Priceless. And the conversation gets better. Having ascertained from Mr Bones that the gang out to get him are simply called the Wee, Grim has to grapple really hard with this. "How can it just be the Wee? I may not be fluent in the tongue of Scotland, but I have often heard of the wee one, wee Jimmy and the wee Bastard. so what wee are they?" Humour not dissimilar to Terry Pratchett' Disc World here.
The conversational humour in this book is exquisite and you would have to be a pretty miserable reader not to find it 'laugh out loud' funny. I enjoyed it that much that, despite my onerous workload reviewing lots and lots of books, I'm going to read it again very soon. Loved it!
He was made aware of the need to do this by Boris, a deceased arthritis-ridden gravedigger. Grim often needs to talk to the Dead you see. It's his job. On this occasion, he probably wished he hadn't. Boris told Grim that he had dug a grave for him. He wasn't very specific as to why, but he did start Grim on a journey of discovery - to discover who was out to get him. Who was trying to kill death itself.
The journey starts when he visits the recently deceased Mr Bones, the ex Boris's ex boss. This is an exceptionally funny passage that shows the extent of Anthony Lund's humour. Mr Bones, having died by way of chainsaw, literally lies in bits when approached by Grim, who asks, "Which part of you would you like me to speak to"? Priceless. And the conversation gets better. Having ascertained from Mr Bones that the gang out to get him are simply called the Wee, Grim has to grapple really hard with this. "How can it just be the Wee? I may not be fluent in the tongue of Scotland, but I have often heard of the wee one, wee Jimmy and the wee Bastard. so what wee are they?" Humour not dissimilar to Terry Pratchett' Disc World here.
The conversational humour in this book is exquisite and you would have to be a pretty miserable reader not to find it 'laugh out loud' funny. I enjoyed it that much that, despite my onerous workload reviewing lots and lots of books, I'm going to read it again very soon. Loved it!
June 9, 2014
If I had come across this book before I'd read Reaper Man. I might have liked it.
I didn't. 20 years too late, mate, sorry.
It's not without merit; it's just that Pratchett already did this. And the references to Death of Rats, to libraries of histories constantly writing themselves, to collecting the souls of fleas, to the suddenly undead, to the Wee, all of these things tell me that the author knows this too.
It's perfectly competent writing, the humour is amusingly juvenile, and if Star Wars remains popular despite Jar Jar Binks then this can survive Pinkie. It just didn't work for me.
I didn't. 20 years too late, mate, sorry.
It's not without merit; it's just that Pratchett already did this. And the references to Death of Rats, to libraries of histories constantly writing themselves, to collecting the souls of fleas, to the suddenly undead, to the Wee, all of these things tell me that the author knows this too.
It's perfectly competent writing, the humour is amusingly juvenile, and if Star Wars remains popular despite Jar Jar Binks then this can survive Pinkie. It just didn't work for me.
February 15, 2016
This is probably the best book that I have read in along time.
The story line follow The Grim Reaper as he under covers a plot by Fate to destroy him. As Grim works his way through Heaven and Hell and everywhere in between to work out what is going on and to bring a varied collective on board to overcome the threat of Fate.
The story line has lots of twists and turns which can be followed and held my interest throughout and manage to make he laugh through out. This is definitely well worth the read if you want a fun and very good read.
The story line follow The Grim Reaper as he under covers a plot by Fate to destroy him. As Grim works his way through Heaven and Hell and everywhere in between to work out what is going on and to bring a varied collective on board to overcome the threat of Fate.
The story line has lots of twists and turns which can be followed and held my interest throughout and manage to make he laugh through out. This is definitely well worth the read if you want a fun and very good read.
May 17, 2015
I enjoyed this; the characters were a lot of fun and it was very funny but I found the plot a bit disconnected and confusing, there were a few things that weren't particularly well explained. It also borrows heavily from Terry Pratchett's Discworld (Grim is a very similar character to Death). I really enjoyed the mix of insane characters but I'd have enjoyed it more if it had been a bit more edited.
October 31, 2016
Hilarious
I was fortunate to download this book free, and glad I did. Smooth reading, great characters, but the laughs are what I enjoyed most.
I was fortunate to download this book free, and glad I did. Smooth reading, great characters, but the laughs are what I enjoyed most.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews