Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!*'s Reviews > Mort

Foremost, this book is hilarious. I mean, all of the Discworld books are very funny, in a very British way, but in Mort I found myself chuckling especially frequently at the dialogue. I wish I had the book in hand at the moment to quote something to support this assertion, but for now I hope you can take my word for it. I don't want to paraphrase from memory because I may not do it proper justice.

I appreciated that the character of Death settled down into the personality and cosmic role that runs throughout the rest of the Discworld series. In The Colour of Magic, Death was portrayed as slightly vindictive and vengeful, actively slaying out of pique and stalking Rincewind when it clearly was not his time to go. That shocked me on a recent re-read of the seminal Discworld book, because the Death that I knew and loved was as presented in Mort; merely a universal force tasked with ensuring balance.

The book overall, though, left a little something to be desired. The main plot, (view spoiler)[of Mort altering history by not killing the princess when she was supposed to die, then history working to reassert itself, (hide spoiler)] just didn't quite gel. It could have used a lot more characterization in places, particularly for Ysabell and Mort himself. There seemed to be something missing in the progression of Death's character as he started to enjoy the mortal world while his apprentice took care of some affairs. I think the book could have used another 100 pages and/or more time going through Pratchett's writing/revising process, which may not have been fully developed yet. This was the last book that Pratchett wrote while still working at his other job (as a press officer for the English Central Electricity Generating Board), which may account for the rough edges.

Still, it's fun, quintessentially Discworld, features a cameo from Rincewind (who, true to form, (view spoiler)[ when instructed by the ancient wizard founder who, if freed from Death's (literal) grip would re-establish Unseen University as a place where wizards work hard, to hand said wizard his staff so he can free himself, responds with "I'm sorry, couldn't hear you, what was that?" (hide spoiler)]), gives a peek at the life of another unkempt street-level wizard, makes increasing use of footnotes, and remains a must-read for any true Discworld fanatic.

Some Discworld tidbits that I noted while I read:
-The Abbot Lobsang... first mentioned on p. 76 in my Corgi paperback edition, at the point in the story when Mort takes an afternoon off. "Lobsang" is a name that Pratchett will use again, in Thief of Time and in his non-discworld The Long Earth series.
-At one point, Cutwell describes how gods gain power if they have more followers and die if no one believes in them. Pratchett will revisit this concept at great length later in Small Gods.