The colour of magic

I'm a big fan of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens, so I thought I'd give Pratchett's Discworld series a try. It has a similar voice as Good Omens, but sadly, I didn't find it nearly as entertaining. There were a few moments when I sort of giggled, but I was expecting something along the

Show More

lines of "laugh out loud funny" when what I got was "slightly smirk because it's kind of humorous."

The basic story is this: Rincewind, the unluckiest wizard ever, must escort the strangely ignorant but very rich tourist Twoflower through Discworld. While doing this, he must evade Luggage, Twoflower's living luggage with square teeth a tongue the color of mahogany, dragons that are only real when their creator is conscious, pirates, barbarians, alternate dimensions, Death, Fate, a god that eats souls, a sea troll, slavery, and falling of the edge of the world. Did I mention he's unlucky?

I loved Death, and I admit the story itself was good, but it didn't grab me the way I expected it to and maybe that was my problem. I went in expecting something completely different. I rated it 4 out of 5 rather than 3 out of 5 because for some reason, I really want to read the next book. The story leaves on a big cliffhanger and, while I didn't enjoy the book in the way I thought I would, I want to know how Rincewind and Twoflower's story ends and that's a sign of a good book.

I will continue with the Discworld series, but probably at a very relaxed pace with many other books in between.

Show Less

The first book in the Discworld series, this one is often disparaged as "not my favorite" or "I didn't like it much" or "don't start with this one." It is an adventure of Rincewind the wizard as he strives to outwit Death and every other creature out to get him. Told in four parts, each of which is

Show More

a parody of classic fantasy tropes, I can see why the appeal isn't there for some folks. Broad humour is not for everybody. Also, it is clear that this is a first novel in a series. Several of the recurring characters are not fully formed into the familiar ones we know and love.

I enjoy this book very much. I love Rincewind's refusal to give in to Death, and Death's resignation over his Fate. Only someone who clearly loves fantasy and adventure could write such a parody of it. Having read some H.P. Lovecraft heightened my enjoyment of the second story, as I'm sure reading Fritz Leiber and Anne McCaffrey would increase my enjoyment of the first and third stories. I walk away amazed at how much of the Discworld and its funny characters are fully formed in this, the first novel.

Beware the cliff-hanger at the end.

Show Less

The Color of Magic was the first book published in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, but I do not recommend starting with it. If you’re interested in reading the Discworld books, I would suggest picking up one of the later novels – Guards! Guards!, Going Postal, or maybe Small Gods.

The

Show More

Color of Magic has always been my least favorite book in the series. It is clearly an early book – Pratchett is just getting his feet as a writer and there are many inconsistencies with later books. There is very little plot or drive, and it consists mainly of the main characters careening from one situation to the next.

The Color of Magic is primarily a parody of other fantasy novels. For instance, there’s an entire section parodying the Pern books. While Pratchett retains an element of parody throughout the series, the latter books add to it with better plot and characters and most of all, an intrinsic sense of meaning.

When rereading The Color of Magic, I don’t see much that makes it stand out from other humorous 1980s fantasy novels. Now that I’ve started playing, it actually reminds me a bit of Dungeons and Dragons. However, it is funny and has some good lines, such as:

“I assure you the thought never even crossed my mind, lord.”
“Indeed? Then if I were you I’d sue my face for slander.”

Besides Rincewind, the protagonist and a failed wizard, and Twoflower, a friendly and idealistic tourist, the other characters come off as forgettable and flat. Even these two don’t have the depth they gain in latter books.

I do wonder how I would judge this book if I hadn’t read the others in the series. Would I like it more, not comparing it to the others? Or would I dislike it more, not knowing that this is the seed a great series grows from? Either way, I would not recommend The Color of Magic to anyone looking to start the series. Fans of the series, however, will find it interesting to see how this parody novel grows into the series we all love.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

Show Less

While very different in tone from the later (and arguably, more popular) Discworld novels, this is enjoyable enough and offers a good introduction the the world and character of Rincewind. Arguably a collection of short stories with a linking theme, it is less satisfying as a novel than others.

My Summer Vacation by debnance This summer I traveled to Discworld, a flat planet resting on the back of four elephants that together all rest on the back of a giant turtle. My trip was led by the terribly inept and fearful wizard, Rincewind, and his companion, the eager tourist, Twoflower. I've

Show More

decided that I'm not returning home just yet; apparently there are many more trips available to this world of luggage with feet and semi-transparent dragons and small gods and clever dialogue and I plan to climb aboard the next transport (The Light Fantastic?) headed to the planet.

Show Less

The Color of Magic is the first of Pratchett's acclaimed Discworld series. Having previously read and enjoyed Thief of Time, I was looking forward to this novel. It did not disappoint. In some ways, it was almost better. Thief of Time was much more oriented towards the gags than the story. In The

Show More

Color of Magic, it was the opposite. Pratchett's satire is still strong. But the novel also had a great fantasy story to accompany it. It wasn't all silliness.

What's great about the Discworld books is, as a fan of fantasy fiction, Pratchett isn't attacking the genre, nor is he ignorant of it. He's satirizing our world, and using the fantasy setting to do it. When he prods fantasy, it's out of love, not out of criticism. That's real satire, and what's lacking in the garbage most of modern satire has become.

I don't know if Pratchett's style will ever wear thin for me. But right now, I'm enjoying the ride.

Show Less

Yay! I finally read a Discworld novel. I was introduced when a friend insisted I watch Hogfather, which I did, and I was intrigued (and slightly confused). So I decided to start at the beginning.

The basic premise is that Twoflower, a tourist with perhaps the most dangerous luggage in existence,

Show More

has wandered into the twin cities of Ankh and Morpork. While there, he meets and hires the failed wizard Rincewind as a guide. As a wizard, Rincewind knows only one spell, though he's not sure what spell and it could mean the end of the world if he were to say it (who knows?). Catastrophe ensues, starting with the twin cities burning down. Rincewind can't catch a break, but it seems he's destined to watch out for Twoflower, mostly because the luggage threatens to swallow him whole if he doesn't.

Okay, that's the short version. If you've read other "classic" fantasy series, or played D&D at all, you'll enjoy the pokes and prods Discworld makes in their general direction. I thought the book was slow to start, and a bit dry, but once I got settled in Discworld, I was really enjoying it.

I've got a long way to go in the series....

Show Less

This book launched Pratchett's Discworld series -- a very funny, very engaging parody of the fantasy genre. However, I would agree with the judgment of many Pratchett enthusiasts that it's far from the best of the lot. I decided to begin with it, over the mild objections of the avid discworld

Show More

enthusiast in my life, just in order to begin at, well, the beginning. Though it's a fun read, it is certainly not necessary to begin here. I've since read the second book [The Light Fantastic] and it is much tighter and funnier, and from what I hear, it just keeps getting better.

Show Less

Summary: Twoflower is an insurance salesman and tourist, freshly arrived to the city of Ankh-Morpork from the distant and exotic Agatean empire. Rincewind is a not-very-good wizard (he only knows one spell, but he doesn't dare to use it) who has been tasked with protecting Twoflower by city

Show More

politicians eager to avoid angering the Agateans. Unbeknownst to them, however, they are being used as pawns in a game played by the Gods, and so Rincewind and Twoflower find themselves fleeing the city just ahead of an enormous fire, taking up with a barbarian, destroying a rather nasty temple, running into some invisible dragons, and narrowly avoiding falling over the edge of the Disc, all while being trailed by Twoflower's sentient, loyal, and slightly murderous luggage.

Review: The Color of Magic is by far the roughest of Pratchett's novels that I've read. It's certainly understandable, since it's the first Discworld novel (and one of Pratchett's first novels, full stop.) A lot of time is spent introducing the world of Discworld, its geography, its cosmology, its metaphysics - these are amusing infodumps, but they're still infodumps. The action of the story is also extremely episodic: Rincewind and Twoflower are plunged from one disaster into the next with only the barest connective tissue. But the good news is that each of the individual pieces are enjoyable on their own merits. This book is poking fun at fantasy clichés and conventions (at least as they existed in the early 1980s), much the same as Douglas Adams did with science fiction, and with a similar dry British wit that's a combination of absurdism and snappy sarcastic one-liners. (I was glad that I'd recently read Dragonflight so I could pick up on the references in that episode of the book. Who knows how many allusions I missed elsewhere, though?)

Overall, while this book is pretty rough around the edges, it's also imaginative, light and easy to read, and quite funny. Definitely enjoyable for some non-serious summer reading. And I think it says something good about a book when entire scenes get stolen by a piece of Luggage. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Even though it's ostensibly the first Discworld book, I actually wouldn't recommend this for someone new to Pratchett's writing. (Start with one of the later "intro" books or stand-alones - like Small Gods - instead.) But it's a fun, easy read, particularly for epic fantasy fans who are familiar with the clichés that Pratchett is satirizing.

Show Less

Poor Rincewind the (failed) wizard is forced to play tour guide to a foreigner who is oblivious to the devastation his absurd wealth is liable to inflict upon the hapless inhabitants of the lands he visits. I've heard a couple of later Discworld novels on audio but this was my first hard copy read.

Show More

Established fans will warn you this first book is weak. I thought it was fantastic, especially through its first half. It comes a bit off the rails later and turns episodic, but it's never actually bad. I expected the funny without anticipating that it also very, very smart. The ending leaves you hanging and demands its immediate sequel.

While later books are clearly riffing on things metaphysical, economic, etc., by comparison it's true this one doesn't do much more than spoof some of the fantasy tropes (especially magic and Conan). The story never takes itself seriously but is still solid enough in its world-building, still creative enough in establishing its own sense of place, that I would happily return to it again. This first novel is hardly the only place to start with Discworld but I see nothing wrong with it as a choice, and nothing whatever to apologize for.

Show Less

I'm 38 years late to the party, but have just read my first Discworld novel. It's a fun read - pure entertainment. Enough allusions and puns to turn the fantasy into fun.
I'm not sure I'm an addict yet, but I am sure I'll be back for the second volume soon. Whether I get through to full set of 40+

Show More

books is a little more doubtful.

Show Less

A Discworld book I didn't love. That's a first. It was fine. It had humor, adventure, characters who don't really fit into the world. I just didn't love the characters. Rincewind and Twoflower were both annoying on opposite sides of the spectrum. One too callous, one too earnest. This is the first

Show More

Discworld book, and it does a good job of setting up the world. It explains the geography of Discworld but also throughout the story we get gimpses of all the ways the series can continue. There are just so many scenes that have enough in them to merit a whole book. The Dragon Imaginers. The Heroes. The University. I know lots of things get their own book, and if this book is good for anything its good at introducing the possibilities of Discworld. It made me excited to move on and explore the corners of the Disc.

Show Less

It took me a long time to read this book, both in terms of getting around to cracking the cover and actually reading from beginning to end. Pratchett and Discworld had been on my to-read list for quite some time, because so many of my friends on-line were always mentioning how great his stuff is.

Show More

But my local library never had the first book, I didn't want to deal with an ILL, and I was really set on reading the series in publication order. Then, after a few years of putting it off, I started to question whether or not I was even all that interested in Discworld, since so many of my experiences with the fantasy aisle of bookstores and libraries were pretty crap.

In any event, I did finally buy the book, and I started to read. But it was slow going. I kept getting bored and distracted by other, shinier books. The Colour of Magic just doesn't move very quickly, and though it's quite funny in spots, it is very clearly an early novel without the polish of the later ones.

Twoflower and Rincewind and the Luggage and everything are very good, and if they hadn't been, I wouldn't have continued pushing through - though I did have reassurances that the Discworld series would get better, so maybe I would have. The book did improve somewhere around the midpoint, if only in keeping my attention and moving a bit more quickly.

I'm in agreement with my friends from all those years ago that this isn't likely to be the best Discworld novel to start with if you're not really into Pratchett's kind of novel, but it isn't the worst, either. It has a certain kind of charm that works, even if it's clear that Pratchett hasn't entirely found his feet yet.

Show Less

I have known about Terry Pratchett for a long long time (ok so who doesn't??), and although I knew that I had to read something by him one day I wasn't really in any hurry. A few months ago a new second hand bookstore opened close to me and they had the entire Discworld series at a really cheap

Show More

price, but they closed down before I could decide whether to buy them or not. More recently I started going to the library after discovering that they do have quite a few books that I would like to read, and there I was faced with Terry Pratchett again. Loads of books by Terry Pratchett that is. I knew that The Colour of Magic was the first book in the Discworld series, so I went for it even though I have read that you do not need to read the series in any particular order.

If you have never read any of the Discworld series before, I would say this would be a good start since it describes the concept of Discworld and includes a bit of history on it as well. It is no secret that Discworld is a flat world, supported by four elephants which are standing on a giant turtle called Great A'Tuin. This book starts in the city of Ankh-Morpork where a tourist with the name of Twoflower has just arrived accompanied his suspicious chest referred to as The Luggage. The main protagonist of the book, Rincewind the inept wizard, finds himself a guide for the tourist and from there the journey begins. Due to a series of unfortunate events, the city of Ankh-Morpork is set on fire and the two of them find themselves fleeing for safety. Unknowing to them, their journey is controlled by the Gods, who are playing a board game. On their way, the characters end up in a temple, find themselves on an upside down mountain which is home to imaginary dragons, and finally come close to going over a waterfall at the edge of the disc when they are saved by a sea troll. They are taken to Krull, where the Krullians have built a space capsule and intend to send it to space to find the gender of Great A'Tuin.

When I started this book I wasn't sure where it was going, the strange names and whacky concepts were a little confusing. However once I got used to it I totally loved it! A lot of it is based on reality, just twisted in a way that is barely recognizable. The interesting take on the Big Bang theory, for instance, was the first thing that drew me to the story, but I will let you read the book and find out for yourself what that was about. This book is full of adventure, and with all the bizarre happenings it definitely doesn't get dull. I have also fallen in love with the characters in this book, especially Rincewind and Twoflower, even though they are quite silly. Death is a most interesting character and the same can be said for Hrun the barbarian who is obsessed with himself.

I can't help but think that this series is like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy of fantasy. It is a very enjoyable read, and quite funny at times too. This is great for when you want a light book to immerse yourself in and forget about life's troubles. I do need one of these myself from time to time! I definitely plan to check out other books in this series.

Show Less

This was only OK for me...heresy, I know. However, I can't say that I'm a fan of the Rincewind stories and, if I hadn't picked up one in the Sam Vimes story line one day, I probably would have missed out on all the wonderful stories that came later.

If you want to continue the Rincewind stories,

Show More

this is followed by The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Eric, Interesting Times, and The Last Continent. He makes brief appearances in a few other books.

Show Less

This book is almost unrecognizable from what I've come to see as "The Discworld". Pratchett's style has evolved so much between this and Making Money, and it's wonderful to see where it all began.

Terry Prachett is just a genuis - he has had me rolling up laughing on the tube, and made me fall of my seat on the bus I was laughin so hard. Seriously he is so good he's bad for your health :-)

See this review and more like it on my blog, Written Permission

Actual rating: 3.5 stars.

I have been meaning to read The Colour of Magic for so long. It always seemed like my kind of book. However, my library doesn't have it, and I was trying to curb my new book buying. But, when the annual book

Show More

sale rolled around, I couldn't resist picking it up used for a fantastic price.

I am glad I did.

The Colour of Magic has been compared to The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and I can see why. Both Pratchett and Adams share this way of writing that doesn't take itself too seriously. The prose itself is extremely well written, if deceptively dense for such a little book. The humor is exceptional, light-hearted and fitting the setting perfectly. I found it to be almost an exact replica of the style found in The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy. That said, it is definitely the kind of writing I had to be in the right mood for.

The story is meandering, with bursts of action here and there. The Colour of Magic never felt like it was dragging, though there were periods where I wondered what the point was, and I can't really say I ever got completely sucked into the story.

Rincewind and Twoflower are delightful characters. They have flaws, they are unconventional... just really enjoyable to read about.

It is a short book, so this is a short review.

Bottom Line: Quirky fantasy parody, not unlike The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy is to the science fiction genre. Delightfully written, but sometimes wanders a little too much.

Show Less

This was not an easy book for me to read. Despite it being only 210 pages, it was hard for me to get into. This was the first book by Pratchett that I have read (I have read a co-authored book between him and Neil Gaiman, which I loved). He has his own very distinct writing style...but it wasn't

Show More

one that I will be dying to read again.

Show Less

This was my long-overdue excursion into Discworld, and I loved it! The plot would be impossible to describe, but Terry Pratchett's world is well-developed and fabulous. I can't wait to read the rest!

This was an entertaining little book, just lots of good fun. I enjoyed the tale of Rincewind and Twoflower and am interested to know what happens to them next.

Among the books I've read in this category, which I think of as "zany alternate universes" and which include both the Hitchhiker's Guide to

Show More

the Galaxy series and the Thursday Next series, I enjoy Thursday next the most, maybe because of its literary focus or maybe because it generally stays earthbound. I did not love the Hitchhiker's Guide as much as I expected to, and find that I like the Discworld better. They're all daffy but some keep a better hold on the "rules" of their given universes than others.

Anyway, I'm glad I finally read some Pratchett and will likely look for the next in the series.

Show Less

I am not fond of Pratchett's style of writing. It is just not my taste. Other than that, it is a wonderful book. I fell completely in love with the Luggage (I really want one). The story was good, the world was good and the humour was amusing.

I've had this book for about 7 years now, and it's a signed copy, and everything. I have yet to get more than halfway through. I don't know what it is about it. I have been told that the later Discworld novels are actually much better so I might one day give them a go.

One of the weakest Discworld books in my opinion: Too much just a parody of fantasy clichés - and it did not help that I only found out about several of the specific works being parodied long after reading this book.
NOT a good starting point for the "series".