Colour of Magic [Hardcover]

Terry Pratchett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 19, 2008

There was a time when no one knew about the Discworld, a huge disc supported by five elephants standing on the enormous giant turtle known as the Great A'tuin ...Rincewind was a perfectly ordinary failed wizard until he met Twoflower, the Discworld's very first tourist, and before he quite knew what had happened, he found himself employed, at an outrageous salary, as Twoflower's guide to this strange world. They started off in the Disc's oldest conurbation: proud Ankh and pestilent Morpork, the twin city known as Ankh-Morpork. Before too long the irrepressible Twoflower and Rincewind, who is both inept and cowardly, are forced to flee from the city. They meet up with an increasingly colourful cast of characters as they find themselves spending too much of their time being shot at, terrorised, chased, hanging from high places with no hope of salvation, or plunging from high places (likewise, with no hope of salvation) ...THE COLOUR OF MAGIC continues in THE LIGHT FANTASTIC, where an event is happening way overhead, far above the elephants and A'Tuin, where the very fabric of time and space is about to be put through the wringer.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Colour of Magic is Terry Pratchett's maiden voyage through the bizarre land of Discworld. His entertaining and witty series has grown to more than 20 books, and this is where it all starts--with the tourist Twoflower and his hapless wizard guide, Rincewind ("All wizards get like that ... it's the quicksilver fumes. Rots their brains. Mushrooms, too."). Pratchett spoofs fantasy clichés--and everything else he can think of--while marshalling a profusion of characters through a madcap adventure. The Colour of Magic is followed by The Light Fantastic. --Blaise Selby --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

“Ingenious, brilliant, and hilarious.” (Washington Post ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz; Anniversary ed edition (December 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575085096
• ISBN-13: 978-0575085091
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 9.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,196,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Colour of Magic, November 21, 2010

By 

M. Reynard "kairosdreaming" (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Colour of Magic (Hardcover)

I'd heard a lot about these books. The Disc World series is huge and even has a few movies to its name. I decided it had to be good right? Well, to be honest, I was very disappointed in this book. It wasn't near what I expected from all the hype that accompanied Pratchett's books.

The Colour of Magic is the first book in the series, although I've heard that they can mostly be read as stand-alones. Which is probably a good thing since I believe there are over thirty novels in the series. This one involved two main characters of Rincewood the incompetent wizard and Twoflower, a bumbling tourist. They encounter a myriad of characters along the way, including Death. Coerced into keeping Twoflower safe, Rincewood encounters all sorts of hazards and people trying to kill them. Especially since Death himself is interested in Rincewood. They travel and meet dragons, edge-worlders (Discworld is of course a disc, balanced on the backs of four elephants who in turn stand on a turtle), trolls, and other strange beasts, most of whom are not very friendly.

Rincewood and Twoflower are not very exciting characters. They don't have a lot of development and their conversations are not very intriguing. Rincewood especially I just found annoying. There is only so far you can make someone inept and he didn't really seem to have any redeeming qualities. Just a lot of luck. Twoflower is little better, but at least he has some interesting background compared to Rincewood.

The writing was very jumpy. So many characters and and places were introduced in the beginning that I never got them sorted out in my head before having to move on to the next thing in the plot. The story also jumped around a lot. I'd no sooner get to one point in the novel then it seemed that they were already on a new adventure without resolving the last. I just wasn't a big fan of the way it flowed. There were a few funny moments, but it wasn't enough to make up for the majority of the book.

I do hope these books get better. I'm going to try a few more because there's got to be a reason the series is so popular. I have heard that the writing and plots get better so I am somewhat excited to read more. Here's hoping that I can leap into Discworld with further novels.

The Colour of Magic
Copyright 1983
210 pages + extras

Review by M. Reynard 2010

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent english humor, October 2, 2011

By 

Bill Allen (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colour of Magic (Hardcover)

I still find it hard to believe whenever I meet fantasy readers who have never read any Terry Pratchett books. The Colour of Magic, the first of the Discworld series, like all other of the Discworld books, is a wonderfully humorous parody of, well, everything. Much like Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide series, the story itself is secondary to the writing. Pratchett's insightful view on life, the unusual inventive ways that he uses to describe the setting, characters and action, the way he turns a comic phrase--all these things make the reader pore over every page, looking for gems he or she may have missed. The art, in this case in the journey, not the destination. If you want to know what these books are like, don't read reviews. You're missing out. Read the books.

3.0 out of 5 stars Color Is Bright, Fun, Flat, August 8, 2011

By 

Loren Eaton - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Colour of Magic (Hardcover)

THREE-AND-A-HALF STARS

A wise man once said that the ending of a thing is better than the beginning, a cross-disciplinary sort of truism that cuts across matters of business, academics, the arts and life itself. Yet even though conclusions hold the higher place, the start of something still elicits a certain fascination -- especially when it comes to a multi-volume genre series. At least it did for me when I sat down with The Color of Magic, Terry Pratchett's first entry in the inimitable Discworld books. Sure, I knew later installments had a reputation as something special, but how much of that uniqueness translated to the series' earliest iteration?

Even the least judgmental individual on Discworld (the dinnerplate-shaped planet carried through the vastness of space on the backs of four cosmic elephants who are, in their turn, borne by a turtle of star-swallowing size named the Great A'Tuin) would have to confess that Rincewind is a complete failure as a wizard. Booted out of Unseen University after sneaking a peek at a forbidden book, he exhibits not only perpetual cowardice, but also an inability to remember any spells. That is, of course, because the page he glanced at in the forbidden book happened to contain one of the eight basic spells comprising the fabric of reality itself, and it burrowed into his mind the moment he saw it. The mass of all that arcane knowledge simply crowds all other magic out of Rincewind's skull. So he contents himself by whiling away his days with drink in the Broken Drum, one of Ankh-Morpork's seedier pubs. At least he did until Twofeather the tourist came strolling into the establishment, scattering gold coins as though they'd gone out of style and looking for a guide. Seems Twofeather comes from the Counterweight Continent, a land so wealthy that many regard it as mythical. And Rincewind, well, he'd be a fool to ignore all that gold, wouldn't he? So one might think, except that pair will end up on a perilous tour indeed, one that takes them to the eldritch temple of a soul-munching demigod, the lands of bickering dragonriders who soar on semi-imaginary lizards, and the Rim of Discworld where the seas froth over the flat planet's edge into the endless void.

Although I had only a rough exposure to Discworld prior to reading Color, I knew enough to recognize it contained most of the series' trademarks. Baroque fantasy settings, nudge-and-a-wink satire of real-world subjects, ludicrous absurdism and over-the-top silliness -- all make appearances. Only they feel really rough. Though the action is fun, Pratchett resorted to (often literal) deus ex machina resolutions an awful lot, and Color ends with the second-worst cliffhanger I've ever read. Additionally, when the most noble and sympathetic character turns out to be a magical piece of luggage with an indomitable desire to follow its owner and a taste for the appendages of any who would harm him, you know the author has a likeability problem on his hands. Color is bright and fun, but ultimately a bit flat.