** spoiler alert ** Major spoilers.

Overall, I didn't really like this book, but there were some good things about it. It's been a little while since I've read this book, so my memory is a little hazy.

One of my main problems is the abundance of characters in this book. There are three separate stories going on here, one of which barely has anything to do with the other two. The first is about 5 (?) wizards from the university going around with little motivation to their actions (for the large middle portion of the book). They are funny characters but I felt there were too many of them, and their personalities were too similar, so I found it hard to become attached to them. I think it would have worked much better if there was two or three of them, with slightly more distinct personalities.

The second story is about an old wizard who is dead but possessing his own body. He's a good character but most of his parts had the same problem: he didn't really know what was going on. This left me without a sense of direction for the plot. It all seemed quite aimless. He has some good scenes and meets interesting characters, though.

The third story is about Death, and how he is coping with becoming mortal. I didn't enjoy these chapters much at all. Very little goes off in these parts; there wasn't much there to keep me interested. Death is a good character, but there was just happening for him to do. The ending starts off pretty cool, but all he seems to do is run away, before getting his status of Death back, because God says so, and basically making all of his story moot. Death's story never interacts with the other two (which I consider the main stories), so it feels like a separate story altogether. I think Mort did a much better job with the separate story lines: merging them together as the plot progresses.

I felt there was very little direction overall to the book. It felt random and disjointed with little structure to it. None of the characters knew what was going on or what to do, for the most part. However, I did have some fun with it. The start was good, with some good laughs, and the five wizard characters are still likeable, despite what I said earlier, so they make their scenes enjoyable even with a lack of direction.

I think I have come off negative about this book, but I did get some enjoyment out of it. While there were a few too many characters in my opinion, they were likeable, keeping my enjoyment up.

I would still recommend it to anyone who is interested, as it seems well liked overall, but, personally, I'm not much of a fan.