Customer Reviews

Colour of Magic

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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

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.

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.

I managed to get through the whole book, although I was tempted to drop it half way through, from boredom.
It's occasionally lively and humorous, but there are too many dull passages, in my opinion.
After reading about 200 pages, I skipped to the end. It has a funny ending, so I have ordered one
of the author's later books - from the library.