Mort

Enjoyable read. Not my favourite of the first five, but had plenty of good moments.

Story revolves around Death taking on a (human) apprentice.

Of course, humans feel compassion and love and so on - so are not especially well-suited to the job of Death. Which is where the drama for the story comes.

But Sir Terry does a good job of 'humanising' Death - yes, he does not really experience life, and he seems to be trying to learn by copying what he sees - but he comes across as a very lonely creature indeed who cares greatly for those entrusted into his care, and it is quite poignant to read this after he took Sir Terry in the end.

#GNUTerryPratchett

This is such an amazing book (my first Terry Pratchett book), would have given it a 5/5, but the last 20-30 pages just falls apart pacing wise and depends on some rushed exposition crammed into the last 2-3 pages that I had to open up the plot of the book on Wikipedia to understand it, the end also just feels out of place with the rest of the book. The first like 90% however has to be one of the most enjoyable reads I've ever had, every page (up to those last few) a pure joy.

This is YA Pratchett in a lot of ways, but it's the first book in the Discworld that seems to be what I remember it being. The A plot is strong, the side characters are fun, the main characters get a lot of room to grow, and it builds to a finale that actually means more than just "how do I beat up this demon". The dialogue is on point too - "I hate ---ing wizards." "You shouldn't --- them, then." Pratchett drops the cosmology almost completely and starts to realise that lives of all the people of the Discworld are the story here. Well, and their deaths, obviously.