The Colour of Magic

This is the first book in the Discworld series, but my 6th Discworld book that Ive read. I started with the Tiffany Aching series (which was a great introduction to Discworld!), and thought Id go back and start at the beginning.

I really loved the Tiffany Aching series, but struggled to get immersed in this book. I found I wasnt nearly attached to any of the characters in this book compared to Wee Free Men where I was immediately invested in Tiffany, her brother, and all the Nac Mac Feegles. The one character in Color of Magic that I somewhat cared about was Twoflowers Luggage. I think what made this challenging to get in to the book was the main storyline was interrupted with snippits of gods controlling movement or position of the characters, and I still dont know what that was about.

I loved all the descriptions of Great ATuin, the giant turtle on which the four elephants that hold up Discworld are standing on. Theres a lot of great stuff in this book, I just found a lot of plot not very interesting.

I am going to keep reading Discworld, because I believe there are more Discworld books out there that I will really love. I am so glad I didnt start with this one, because theres no way I would have continued the series based on this book. I love Pratchetts later writing style and have high hopes for other Discworld books, especially the Witches series.

This is at least second time that I’ve read The Color of Magic. I am a die-hard Terry Pratchett and I absolutely love the Discworld. While I find this first book in the series somewhat less developed than the later books, it’s still a great read. I can really see how far PTerry developed both the world and the characters when I compare this book with the later ones. I understand that most people don’t actually start with this first book, but it really is a great jumping in point because the stories and the characters only get better with each successive novel. I highly recommend this book and the entire series to anyone who loves fantasy and humor. You can’t beat PTerry’s wisdom or wit.

Wow. I don’t know how it is I’ve never read a novel of the Discworld before, but I am tremendously grateful to have rectified this oversight.

A failed wizard. A tourist from an unknown place. Semi-sentient luggage. A somewhat easily thwarted Death. These are the characters we follow across a world that ranges from sort of traditional fantasy to science fantasy. In the course of this tale, they will encounter great heroes, sometimes misunderstood villains, locales that are bigger on the inside than the outside and strange gods that seem to have only moderately more understanding of things than our protagonists.

His comedic presentation is undeniable. The scope of his creativity is as impressive as it is daunting and his perspective is unique and utterly refreshing. Dragons as creatures of pure creation, powered by imagination and an active mind? Death (as a conscious, if somewhat imperfect entity) that becomes petty when unable to collect its due, so instead it collects the life of a nearby cat (leaving it with the magic eight instead of the normal nine lives)? The fact that, on occasion, falling from great heights permits trans-dimensional travel? Genius.

Pratchett’s prose is eminently accessible, which makes this book not only a breeze to read but rather difficult to put down. He may not have the sheer command of language that Vance and Leiber did, but he is every bit their equal in terms of sheer imaginative prowess, wit and tale-telling. Truly, one of the titans of fantasy and an incredible storyteller.

TLDR: A must read for any fan of humorous, ingenious and surreal fantasy. On to the quotes:

“Precisely why all the above should be so is not clear, but goes some way to explain why, on the disc, the Gods are not so much worshipped as blamed.”

“He’s got a box with a demon in it that draws pictures,” said Rincewind shortly. “Do what the madman says and he will give you gold.”

“No, what he didn’t like abut heroes was that they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk. There were too many of them, too.”

“The Disc gods themselves, despite the splendor of the world below them, are seldom satisfied. It is embarrassing to know that one is a god of a world that only exists because every improbability curve must have its far end; especially when one can peer into other dimensions at worlds whose Creators had more mechanical aptitude than imagination. No wonder, then, that the Disc gods spend more time in bickering than in omnicognizance.”

I waited far, far too long to start reading this series, but now that I’ve started, I’m never going to be able to stop. Pratchett earns his title of one of the best fantasy writers in existence, combining large scale, intricate world building with hilarious prose.

The story starts off with telling us what’s so special about Discworld. Disworld is actually a flat plan, a ‘disc’, if you will, resting on the back of four giant elephants, which are themselves standing on the shell of an even more giant turtle crawling through space. Things only get more ridiculous from there. Pratchett introduces us to two great characters. The first, Rincewind, is a washed out drop out of the local wizard college, who a knack for both languages and finding his way to trouble. The second, Twoflower, is a foreigner bored with his life as an insurance salesman, who comes to Rincewinds city as tourist looking for adventure, and willing to pay for it handsomely. Together, the two traipse across the Disc on all sorts of wacky adventures.

I want to compare Pratchetts writing to Douglas Adams, or even Kurt Vonnegut, but that wouldn’t be accurate. Those authors are massively cynical, and while Pratchett can do satire, his humor is much more kind-hearted. You really just need to read the book for yourself to see what I mean.

Normally I would always recommend reading this great series in sequence from start to finish, but when I first read this book it was, fortunately, some time after I had commenced my discworld adventure by accidentally starting haphazardly with Guards Guards, Men at Arms, and Mort. This first novel is Sir Terry finding his feet. Most notable is the way in one major character, found in most of the books, Death, evolves from the rather unlovable personality in This book to the multi faceted and complex character discworld fans know and love. There seem to be various ideas and characterizations that are being tried out and discarded to better effect in later novels….ways of speaking, unpronouncable names, brainless barbarian heroes (the glorious Conan introduced in a later novel is a much more original and interesting personality) , an inferior Patrician etc….even the use of chapter headings. Had I read Colour of Magic before reading some of Sir Terrys subsequent work I probably wouldn’t have bothered with the rest of discworld and what a loss to me that would have been. There’s nothing wrong with the book and by the end of it you can see Rincewinds personality really beginning to take shape. So, it’s certainly worth reading it but not in my opinion, first, as it is inferior in quality of writing to his other books, but it is a great way to consider how from this slightly experimental beginning such a glorious series of novels developed that I have read several times.