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I felt surprisingly lukewarm about this book, given that it's written by one of my favorite authors of all time.

Part of this was the fact that it's some of his earlier work. (It's odd to think of an author's 9th book in a series as "early" work) In my opinion his later stuff was much, much stronger.

Also, I feel I should mention here that this isn't my first time reading Eric. Not my second time, either. It was, however, my first time reading this particular version, the illustrated version.

And honestly, I think that's the large part of my lukewarm reaction. Not only is this book much shorter than usual, because it's illustrated. But it's illustrated by Josh Kirby, Pratchett's first illustrator.

While Kirby's illustrations were on the cover of the first Pratchett book I ever picked up (Sourcerey, back around 1990) I don't feel much nostalgia for them. Instead, I've grown amazingly attached to Paul Kidby, the illustrator who worked with him on The Last Hero, and countless other projects.

Is this book worth your time? Yeah. But honestly, I wouldn't go out of your way to find the illustrated version. The simple text version is just as good, if not even better, as there's nothing to distract from the story. And I did find Kirby's illustrations (again, not to be confused with *Kidby's*) to be distracting.

That's just my opinion though. I don't claim to be unbiased.