The Folio Society is publishing a new edition of Terry Pratchett’s Mort, a classic Discworld tale of Death and his young inept apprentice. For this special edition, award-winning artist Omar Rayyan has provided 7 color illustrations that capture the humor and vibrancy of Pratchett’s remarkable work.
We’re thrilled to share some of Rayyan’s interior art below, as well as a look at the gorgeous slipcase and velveteen cover!
Terry Pratchett wasn’t simply a master of his genre, conjuring one of fiction’s strangest and most beloved fantasy realms in the form of the Discworld; he was also a master storyteller, and one of our greatest modern writers. In her introduction for this edition, A. S. Byatt describes his ‘maddening and delightful’ imagination, and how the core of his work always contained a ‘reflection on the nature and language of things’. Whether following the personification of Death to a curry house or threatening the great city of Ankh-Morpork with a dragon, Pratchett’s focus was always on the humanity of his characters. He knew their passions, failings, hopes and desperations, revealing them with compassion and wisdom – and if the truth bit a little close to home for the reader, a joke would be along at any moment to take away the sting.
Rayyan, a long-time fan of the Discworld series had this to say about the project:
To be asked to tackle Mort was a great honour. The Discworld books while in so many ways their own universe, are very deeply grounded in our reality by Terry Pratchett’s sharp writing. To attempt to capture the richness, humour, and depth of them (without rubbing too many fans and connoisseurs the wrong way) was a daunting task but a most enjoyable one – a dream job for any book illustrator. I can only hope I have contributed a little more colour to the already vivid world of the Disc and still left sufficient room for the reader to immerse themselves in their own personal vision.
