What is that, you might ask? Well, in Moore's words:



"When Alpha Males set out to conquer neighboring tribes, to count coups and take heads, Beta Males could see in advance that in the event of victory, the influx of female slaves was going to leave a surplus of mateless women cast out for younger trophy models, with nothing to do but salt down the heads and file the uncounted coups, and some would find solace in the arms of any Beta Male smart enough to survive.... The world is led by Alpha Male

What is that, you might ask? Well, in Moore's words:



"When Alpha Males set out to conquer neighboring tribes, to count coups and take heads, Beta Males could see in advance that in the event of victory, the influx of female slaves was going to leave a surplus of mateless women cast out for younger trophy models, with nothing to do but salt down the heads and file the uncounted coups, and some would find solace in the arms of any Beta Male smart enough to survive.... The world is led by Alpha Males, but the machinery of the world turns on the bearings of the Beta Male....



When Charlie finds himself a widower with an infant daughter, his Beta Male imagination can't find any way to cope. Until he finds that he's been chosen for a new avocation - a Merchant of Death. His job is to collect souls, bound to objects owned by the dying, and to make sure they get into the right hands. People come to his shop, Asher's Secondhand, and buy what they need. And occasionally, they need a soul.



For such a funny book, Moore has put a really interesting metaphysical idea in this book. That idea is kind of creepy - not everybody has a soul. At least, not all the time. Souls need to learn and develop. Unfortunately, one person's life is not always enough time in which to learn those important lessons. So when the body dies, the soul moves on. But not necessarily into another person. Sometimes it might go into an object - a CD, a pair of sneakers, an umbrella - to await their next body. Charlie Asher's job - his and the other Merchants of Death - is to make sure those souls are kept safe until their next owners come by to collect them.



Of course, it's never quite that easy. While being a Merchant of Death certainly helps Charlie in the years following his wife's death, there are Dark Forces out there who want those souls. With human souls, the Dark Forces will become stronger, strong enough to decide who will be the Luminatus - the new, true Death.



This book packs a lot into nearly 400 pages. There's the humor, of course, the absurdist fantasy humor that Christopher Moore does so very well. But there's also the philosophy of souls that I hadn't come across before, and - most central to the book - a good hard look at death.



This book is dedicated in part to hospice workers, the people who volunteer to help people out of this life and into the next, the people who have the strength to deal with one of the most frightening aspects of human existence. While Moore's presentation of death and dying certainly isn't pretty, or necessarily reassuring, it isn't scary. It's purposeful and important and, more importantly, bigger than the person who is doing the dying. From time to time, we all need to look at this inevitability and resolve to meet it with the same dignity and reverence that we would meet any other great moment in our lives. For a guy who makes a living writing funny fantasy/horror, Moore has done a very nice job at making his point.



Oh, and I mentioned before the subject of his endings, how they usually seem to be kind of forced and too fast. This is better than his earlier works, although you do kind of see the ending coming from really far away. Not a bad thing, necessarily, but perhaps a bit like death itself - you know what the ending will be, but you try to make yourself forget so that it'll be a surprise when you get there.... Or something.