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Whilst overall enjoyable, I found this book a little disappointing when compared to its reputation. Both the plot and the characters didn't feel as developed as I'd hoped, especially coming into it straight from Equal Rites. I'd hoped the series would continue to progress, but to me this felt like a little bit of a step backward.

Perhaps I'm a little too familiar with the idea of Death as a character to appreciate how this novel was quite surprising and unique at the time that it was originally released. I think some of the later volumes, which I read in my teens, just do the whole concept rather better. Mort ultimately only hints at what is to come, and it felt a bit stodgy in the middle, with a meandering plot which didn't grip me.

After the two previous books were largely a parody of the state of the fantasy genre in the 1980s, I think this book is where Pratchett hits his own stride.

I think the book still isn't quite five stars because it ultimately feels slightly under-baked, not landing a great conclusion from its promising opening, but it's still a big step up on the previous two entries, and feels like the first true Discworld novel in many respects.

This is a very good ending to The Colour of Magic, injecting some plot and a lot of energy. I feel focusing the parody of other fantasy novels on the character of Cohen the Barbarian gives this second part a lot more focus and I'm tempted to rate it a little higher. It's a solid book and good fun but you do have to trek through some of the less exciting bits of The Colour of Magic and this book to get there.

As others have no doubt long since covered, this isn't the best introduction to the Discworld - but at the same time, I think it's solid, and does some things well.

The book is reliant on satirising a type of fantasy novel which has become less popular in the decades since. Without that context and indeed even understanding it but looking back all these years later, I think it's solidly "OK", with a few germs of ideas that will become something stronger later but not itself really hitting the heights.