Death and What Comes Next

Last updated September 03, 2025

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"Death and What Comes Next"
Short story by Terry Pratchett
Language	English
Genre(s)	Fantasy Characters Death
Publication
Series	Discworld 4th short story

"Death and What Comes Next" is a fantasy short story by British writer Terry Pratchett, part of his Discworld series. It tells the story of a discussion between Death and a philosopher, in which the philosopher attempts to use the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics to argue that death is not a certainty.

The story was written in 2002 for the now-defunct online puzzle game TimeHunt and the text contains a hidden word puzzle, also devised by Pratchett, which provided a codeword for the game.

Like "Theatre of Cruelty", another of his short stories, Pratchett allowed it to be put on the L-Space Web.

External links

Death and What Comes Next title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
The "Death and What Comes Next" L-Space page including various translations

Reading order guide
Preceded by Thief of Time	6th Death Story Published in 2001	Succeeded by None

v t e Terry Pratchett 's Discworld
Novels	The Colour of Magic The Light Fantastic Equal Rites Mort Sourcery Wyrd Sisters Pyramids Guards! Guards! Eric Moving Pictures Reaper Man Witches Abroad Small Gods Lords and Ladies Men at Arms Soul Music Interesting Times Maskerade Feet of Clay Hogfather Jingo The Last Continent Carpe Jugulum The Fifth Elephant The Truth Thief of Time The Last Hero The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents Night Watch The Wee Free Men Monstrous Regiment A Hat Full of Sky Going Postal Thud! Wintersmith Making Money Unseen Academicals I Shall Wear Midnight Snuff Raising Steam The Shepherd's Crown
Short stories	"Troll Bridge" "Theatre of Cruelty" "The Sea and Little Fishes" "Death and What Comes Next" "A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices" A Blink of the Screen
Other books	The Discworld Companion The Science of Discworld The Science of Discworld II: The Globe The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day The Pratchett Portfolio The Art of Discworld The Unseen University Challenge The Wyrdest Link The Streets of Ankh-Morpork The Discworld Mapp A Tourist Guide to Lancre Death's Domain Nanny Ogg's Cookbook The Discworld Almanak Where's My Cow? The Unseen University Cut Out Book The Discworld Diaries Once More* with Footnotes The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld The Folklore of Discworld The World of Poo Tiffany Aching's Guide to Being a Witch
Games	The Colour of Magic Discworld MUD Discworld Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? GURPS Discworld Discworld Noir Discworld: Ankh-Morpork
Films and TV series	Soul Music Wyrd Sisters Hogfather The Colour of Magic Going Postal The Watch The Amazing Maurice
Characters	Tiffany Aching Death Moist von Lipwig Nanny Ogg Rincewind Susan Sto Helit Lord Vetinari Sam Vimes Granny Weatherwax
Races and creatures	Nac Mac Feegle
Locations	Discworld Ankh-Morpork
Organisations	City Watch Unseen University The Witches
Other	Boots theory Lie-to-children

Works by Terry Pratchett

Discworld

Novels	The Colour of Magic The Light Fantastic Equal Rites Mort Sourcery Wyrd Sisters Pyramids Guards! Guards! Eric Moving Pictures Reaper Man Witches Abroad Small Gods Lords and Ladies Men at Arms Soul Music Interesting Times Maskerade Feet of Clay Hogfather Jingo The Last Continent Carpe Jugulum The Fifth Elephant The Truth Thief of Time The Last Hero The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents Night Watch The Wee Free Men Monstrous Regiment A Hat Full of Sky Going Postal Thud! Wintersmith Making Money Unseen Academicals I Shall Wear Midnight Snuff Raising Steam The Shepherd's Crown
Short stories	"Troll Bridge" "Theatre of Cruelty" "The Sea and Little Fishes" "Death and What Comes Next" "A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices"
Maps	The Streets of Ankh-Morpork The Discworld Mapp A Tourist Guide to Lancre Death's Domain
Science	The Science of Discworld Lie-to-children The Science of Discworld II: The Globe The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day
Art	The Pratchett Portfolio The Art of Discworld The Unseen University Cut Out Book
Other books	The Discworld Companion Nanny Ogg's Cookbook The Discworld Almanak Where's My Cow? Discworld Diary Wit and Wisdom of Discworld The Folklore of Discworld The World of Poo

Johnny Maxwell

The Long Earth (with Stephen Baxter)

Other novels

Collected shorts and nonfiction

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Death and What Comes Next

See also

External links