Rating: 
Summary: BETTER THAN MOST
Review: Terry Pratchett's Discworld series tend to be about the same level of quality because he follows the same formula throughout (at least as far as the first eight books are concerned, which I have read). This one though is slightly better than most. I think the main character Mort should make return appearances in future books and to my knowledge he hasn't.
Basically Mort becomes Death's apprentice. I don't want to say anymore but I have a feeling that this part of the series contributes significantly to Death's ongoing stories as the most recurring character in teh Discworld series. If you want to get into Discworld but, for some reason don't want to start at the very beginning, this is a good sampler.
Rating: 
Summary: the fourth novel is the best so far
Review: Book 4 of the Discworld series.After hearing so many great things about Discworld and having read the first three novels in the series, I was not quite as impressed as I had hoped to be with this series. When I starting reading Mort, this all changed. Having only read four Discworld books, Mort is by far the best of the first four books. The focus of the Discworld series shifts to different characters in each book. This time the focus is on a young man named Mort (hence the title). Mort is an awkward young man with no interest in the family craft. His father decides to hire Mort out as an apprentice. So, Mort stands in the village square as all the other young men are chosen, but Mort is left standing. He waits until midnight (the end of the choosing) and just as the bell tolls midnight, a rider appears. Mort is chosen to be an apprentice. Death himself takes Mort as an apprentice. Death is a major recurring character throughout the series, and HE ALWAYS SPEAKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS. Mort begins to learn the craft of the Reaper, but Mort manages to cause a major problem in reality when someone who is supposed to die does not die (Mort's fault, naturally). This is the most interesting of the first 4 Discworld novels, and since the series doesn't appear to follow any sort of important chronology (for the most part), Mort may be one of the better books to begin the series with. While I've been working my way through the series, I haven't had a lot of interest in each subsequent book....until now. Mort has me interested in reading more Discworld novels.
Rating: 
Summary: I really liked it
Review: Thsi was a really great book, I was surprised at the level of wit which it attained consistent. i reccommend it as a light read.
Rating:
Summary: MORT
Review: This has to be the best Terry Pratchett book I've read to date. If Death taking on an apprentice isn't wierd enough then just wait, as you read you'll discover the oddest, and funniest, things about the life of Death. I love this book and so have the people I lent it to. If you enjoy light hearted comedy, fantasy, or satyrs then you should READ THIS BOOK! ((well that didn't sound like an infomercial))
~Lupus
Rating:
Summary: "OH, BUGGER". . .
Review: Pratchett thus introduces a new character to the Discworld cast. The utterance reflects the marred midnight entrance of this newcomer when he slips on an ice patch. He is an "anthropomorphic personification" - a traditionally spiritual figure in [almost] human form. The outburst is in all CAPITALS because that's how important he is on the Discworld - he's Death. We've met him briefly in earlier books, but this one brings his personality to view, and reinforces Pratchett's stature as an imaginative writer. Death's job is not to kill, that role belongs to Fate. Death simply harvests the results of Fate's decisions. No Pratchett character, however, is ever "simply" anything. Death is far more sensitive than legend would have us believe. He "GETS REALLY UPSET" at the drowning of kittens, while rejecting any thought of "fairness" - there is no fairness, "THERE'S ONLY ME" he declares. While apparently contradictory, these comments reflect the complicated events surrounding the job. Since the role is complex, Death has decided to take on an apprentice to help sort things out. Mortimer, or Mort, isn't as simple as he first appears, either. Mort, still seeking fairness, is sent out on his first solo. His first "take" will keep you smiling, if not guffawing. Mort's human origins [we don't know Death's] are a pitfall for an apprentice. He fails at completing an assignment, with unforeseen results. What would the cascade of events be if someone who was supposed to die, didn't? Pratchett examines this delicate issue in very human terms - challenging us to examine our traditional values. He provides a laugh at every step along the way - either in how the characters react to the situation or just through his descriptive powers. No matter - the underlying question remains there for us to cope with. Many mainstream critics push Pratchett into a niche, trying to minimalize his value. "Humorous fantacist" is the usual insulting label, one that both misses the mark and reflects the reviewer's superficial reading. His readers, even if only subliminally, recognize there is more in his work. Unlike genre "fantasy" writers, Pratchett doesn't offer a means of escaping reality. Instead, he thrusts it before your eyes, forcing you to consider how you mean to confront it. He manages this without the harsh approach of philosophers or pedants, keeping you smiling as you reflect on his offering. But reflect you will. If you don't, go back and read him again. You've missed something.
Rating:
Summary: As always Pratchett delivers
Review: This is by far the best Discworld novel yet. Death has always been my favorite charechter. He shows over and over again Pratchett's skill in take cliched fairy tale charechters and making them new and hysterical. As always in a Discworld novel this book is filled with wonderful charechters who you'll laugh at and grow to love. Particullary the scenes where Mort goes out on his own or where Death strikes out to find a new job. Mort represents everything Pratchett does right. Let's hope it is a long time before he stops writing.
Rating:
Summary: Great one
Review: This is a great part of the Discworld series and actually the first one that really got onto me. The story is pretty good, about Death needing a break (DEATH, I mean) and his search for a replacement, which is, you'd guessed, Mort. The book is really funny, and the characters are funny and a bit more realistic than most characters from the first two Discworld books (yeah, I know this is number FOUR but I didn't like number three, Equal Rites, very much). Overall one of the better ones in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Meet Death!
Review: As he writes, Pratchett is getting better. This is a pretty good book. Death is always comical - it's hard not be when you always have to speak in uppercase letters. Mort is a decent character, and his adventures in Sto Lat and Sto Helit are very funny. I really liked the young wizard Cutwell, too. He was a riot. Now we know that Death can sometimes bend the rules a bit.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: My favorite Terry Pratchett books are always the ones that feature Death, and the fact that he is one of the main caracters makes this book all the more interesting. I love the way it was written and how everything was detailed, it was not as funny as some of his other books but still, I think, the best of what I have read. This is one of the earilier novels and so it is one of the best, once Death gets divided into a Death for each seperate creature everything changes.
Rating:
Summary: Why is there a cherry on a stick in this drink?
Review: This fourth book in the Discworld series is the first to achieve truly classic status, in my opinion. Its predecessors were great reads, but Mort is a real riot. The skeleton of the plot has a few cracked bones and seems to be missing whatever connects the setup bone with the conclusion bone, but the humor is more than a saving grace for the awkward ending. Poor Mort is a gangly, clumsy lad seemingly made out of all knees; his father is fond of him but decides to apprentice him to someone else. That someone else turns out to be Death himself (although the father sees him as an undertaker). Mort is whisked off to Death's abode to be trained as Death's apprentice. On his first solo mission, he rips a big hole in the fabric of time by saving a princess from assassination. Death is off trying to experience living, so Mort attempts to make things right with the help of Death's adopted daughter Ysabell (who has been sixteen for thirty five years already), the young wizard Cutwell, the princess, and--with great reluctance--Death's manservant Albert. This is a riotously funny novel. I can truly say that Death has never been funnier. Being the reaper of souls for untold years does wear a guy down, and Death goes out into the real world to try and discover what life is all about. We find him dancing in a kind of conga line at a party for the Patrician, asking the guy in front of him why dancing around and kicking things over is fun; we see him getting boozed up at a bar and telling his troubles to the bartender, we find him seeking employment and dealing with a normal human customer, and we ultimately find him happily serving as the cook at Harga's House of Ribs. His questions and comments about human life are simple yet complex, and they basically mimic the same kinds of questions we all ask about the purpose of our time on earth. I personally found the funniest scene to be one in which Death takes Mort to a restaurant just after hiring him and tries to figure out why on earth there is a cherry on a stick in his drink--as he keeps returning to this mental conundrum, the scene just gets funnier and funnier. To some degree, this novel is a bit simplistic compared to later Pratchett writings, but it is a quick, enjoyable read guaranteed to make you laugh out loud at least once. We get a glimpse of some new vistas of the Discworld, and more importantly we gain great understanding and familiarity with Death, his abode, and his way of non-life. The wizard Cutwell is a young, beardless wizard who keeps finding his devotion to wizardry (especially the whole bachelorhood requirement) tested by the beguiling femininity of the princess--his temptation-forced words and actions provide another great source of humor in the book. The cast of important characters if fairly slim in number, but we do meet up with our old friends Rincewind and the librarian momentarily and learn a little more about Unseen University. The ending definitely could have been better, and that is the main weakness of this particular novel. Other Discworld novels will capture your imagination much more forcibly than this one, but few will make you laugh as hard as this one does.
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