The Color of Magic
by Terry Pratchett
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Book Reviews of The Color of Magic
Book Review: Oh magic, how freakishly wonderful are thou...such possibilities!
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been collecting the Discworld books in no particular order for a few years now, mostly because my father always had an affinity for them and recommended them as hilarious and entertaining at the same time. Now that I finally got to read the first in the series I can see what the fuss is all about! There is plenty of humor, dry wit and magic, extremely complex scientific and fantastic themes and myriad of characters brighter than all the rainbows and flowers in the world combined. My head was spinning after few pages but somehow I couldn't stop reading; this incredible journey that Pratchett invites the reader on takes some time to get adjusted to, but once I let my mind go and read it slow, it all melted into a fantasy like no other. I can't really imagine kids reading it unless they are prodigies at understanding language because their little brains might pop from the amount of information given; I know mine was taken for a spin a few times!
So here we are, visiting a world that exists as a flat disc with water walling over the edges, carried by four giant elephants standing on an ancient turtle, covered in meteor holes and all sorts of space debris, swimming who knows where....In one of it's cities, Ankh-Morpork , a failed wizard by the name of Rincewind comes across Twoflower, a traveling little man with magical luggage, carved out of rare sapient pear tree that follows him everywhere on its tiny feet. Yes walking luggage, with teeth too, guarding his master and providing lots of entertainment through out the story. The two men are the only ones in the whole city who speak the same language and thus their zany adventures start. Hastily hired as a guide the magician, who sucks at magic but it awfully funny and likable, gets into all sorts of troubles with trolls, dragons, islands with lunatics chased by Death itself without trying to loose poor Twoflower who thinks the whole adventure as a great sight seeing trip, they escape all sorts of scenarios that take them form the murkiest depths of underwater caves into far away galaxies in deep space.
Seems like a lot and it is, but the novel takes all sorts of turns ad twists and one never knows what awaits our heroes on the next page. When Gods play magic dice and Fate and Death are in talks of getting them, our characters have a lot at stake and loosing such charming little fellows would certainly be horrible so the reader is constantly kept on a tight leash as the beauty of the story and its intricate pattern morphs into more fantastic scenarios. I can't even clearly say what this book is about other than being simply fantastic, albeit very complex. Folklore, mythology, fairy tales, comedy and drama, it's all here exquisitely woven for those who dare.
- Kasia S.
Book Review: OMIGOD
Summary: 5 Stars
What do I think of this book? Look at the review title. What words are there for exactly how much I get into books like this? None. However, letters of contempt to the author concerning the ending. I read the guidelines and am not giving out any details, and I warn you, if you are afraid of things being given away about the plot, don't read any more about this review; move on, but still: drawn to the character or two in many books who is markedly an innocent for some reason or another, I was, well, prepared to rant on and on about it like mad for days upon learning that, in the very last five or so pages of the whole thing, that little Twoflower (omg I luv that little guy!)...er...has ferociously little chances of turning up in any of the other books (mutters this rather quickly). As a writer myself, I can tell that we can only imagine what writing that had to have been like for the author. Believe me, if you've been working with a set of characters for a couple hundred pages, you kinda get attatched to them after a while. But hey: he did it, and at least a couple people in the world totally freaked.However, there is something to be said for it all--it takes one freakishly good author to do something like that to us all. A terrible author would write a book that's so mind-numbingly dull, that the readers aren't interested in anyone in the story, and if someone leaves the plot, let's put it that way, no one really feels much of anything. But there are good authors out there, fortunately. For example, in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Two Towers", one might curiously thumb through the back pages of what we'll call THE SPIDER INCIDENT, and really, really, really get scared by the way it is all described. Think of all the arachnophobics in the world. But he thing is, one gets really into a story by an incredibly good author, and the true test of the author's worth is how the readers react when someone the've seen throughout the whole thing is unexpectedly "let go". The same goes for Douglas Adams's "So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish". I'm not saying a word about what happens there, but throughout the third and fourth book, it is impossible not to wonder what in the world is going to happen to Marvin, my second favorite!! (Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged RULES THE HOUSE!)
So, the only point I'm trying to get to here is that: one-if Twoflower shows up again by whatever means in the other 24 books, I plan to jump for joy despite Lemony Snicket's warnings and do the happy dance or something, and two-Pratchett is an obvious literary genius, and this is indisputably one of the best books I've ever read in my life. Kapeesh.
Book Review: Take the first step
Summary: 5 Stars
Open the door to your mind and let a bizarre vision enter. It's a Discworld, resting on the backs of four elephants, who stand on a massive tortoise swimming through space. There's magic here, symbolised by the eighth colour of the rainbow - octiron. There's little magic done in this story, but the tale itself is more compelling than any stage sleight-of-hand. For while there are trolls, dryads, barbarian heroes, it is the real people who are the focus. Publishers, notorious for lacking a sense of humour, label this book "Fantasy". Don't be fooled. This book is the first step in a journey to face ourselves - a tramp to realms of reality, presented with wit and wisdom.Rincewind, a failed "wizzard" is given the task of guiding, and guarding, the Discworld's first tourist. Originating in the Counterweight Continent, Twoflower is an insurance clerk. He knows about the "reflected sounds of the underground spirits" - echo-gnomics. Introducing the concept to the denizens of Ankh-Morpork, the Disc's greatest city, proves disastrous. Rincewind, who knows the City is experienced in disasters, is more concerned with his own survival, which is threatened at every turn. Yet, like the City, he bounces back to confront the next crisis. He has some help, in the form of one of the Eight Spells, which, if improperly invoked, may distort Time and Space. It's a heavy responsibility, especially for one who's so adept at dodging such burdens.
While the magic is subdued, nothing subdues the gods but each other. Overseeing the Discworld, the panoply of deities idle the days with The Game. The contenders, Blind Io, chief of the gods, Offler the Crocodile God, and Fate, cast dice to guide the movements of the Board's pieces. These, of course, are Rincewind and other denizens of Discworld. Logic says Fate must be the ultimate winner, but The Lady is a strong opponent. She is the one goddess who arrives at her own whim, as Rincewind learns to his distress.
All these deities, characters and events are presented in the most compelling style. Pratchett is a master of language and offers levels of wit, pathos, characterisation and story rarely matched and never excelled. He also adds science to a field usually devoid of real knowledge. The combination is explosive, while demanding reflection. For that is the purpose of his writing - to mirror another world, ours. There's a laugh per page, but when you've wiped your eyes, you'll realize there's far more here than humour. Start with this volume and be prepared to continue the trek. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Book Review: Spellbinding !
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Color of Magic" is the first book in Terry Pratchett's hugely popular Discworld Series. He has gone on to win the Carnegie Medal for "The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents" and was awarded the OBE in 1998.
The Discworld is, of course, flat and rests on the shoulders of four giant elephants. These are, in turn, carried through the cosmos by an even bigger turtle called Great A'Tuin. (The astrozoologists of the land of Krull, in their desire to better understand the universe, shortly hope to determine whether A'Tuin is male or female). The Discworld's Gods and Goddesses live in Dunmanifestin, on top of Cori Celesti. Their favourite pastimes include playing games with the lives of mortals, with Fate and the Lady featuring highly amongst the leading players.
One of the Lady's favourite 'pieces' is Rincewind - a native of the Discworld's oldest city, Ankh-Morpork, and a coward of some renown. He is also an ex-student of the Unseen University, a thoroughly hopeless wizard and the 'hero' of this book. The only spell he knows comes from the Octavo, and is so powerful that no other spell is brave enough to stay in his head. (The Octavo was the Creator's spellbook, and was carelessly left behind after the universe's completion). As the book opens, Rincewind's home city is in flames and he is fleeing in the company of Twoflower - the Discworld's first tourist. Twoflower, who has just introduced the concept of fire insurance to Ankh-Morpork, comes from the Counterweight Continent and has hired Rincewind as his guide. He also has a very loyal and frequently angry Luggage, which is made from sapient pearwood. Twoflower desperately wants to see the very things that Rincewind desperately wants to avoid - heroes (Hrun the barbarian, for example), dragons, fights and such like. As a result, Death has been snapping at Rincewind's heels since he first met Twoflower - that is, of course, the tall and under-fed gentleman who wears a hood, carries a scythe and TALKS LIKE THIS. To avoid meeting his fate, Rincewind is willing to travel to the very ends of the world...
As the first book in the Discworld series, this is probably the most obvious place to start. (It's certainly best to read it before "The Light Fantastic", the series' second instalment - while the pair form a prelude to "Interesting Times", the seventeenth Discworld book). Pratchett's books are always very funny, and Rincewind and the Luggage are two of my favourite characters. Definitely recommended !
Book Review: Out of this world!
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently finished The Color of Magic, the first Discworld book by Terry Pratchett. Although short, it was really a fast read. It's satirical and irreverent without being wordy, poking fun at many fantasy cliches which have dominated the genre for years. Yet, Pratchett uses some of these himself as well as some creative techniques. I'll admit that some things we simply cannot wrap our heads around because they are so fantastic! Often, his style reminds me of the late Douglas Adams whose series The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy has been a favourite of mine since I first discovered it in middle school.
The novel starts quickly with a great city afire (though Pratchett assures us it will rebuild as it always has) which as been accidentally started by one of the main characters, Twoflower who begins the novel by fleeing said city with his newfound companion Rincewind "the Wizard" who has actually flunked out of wizardry school and isn't much of a magic handler at all.
The Colour of Magic
The book flashes back to their acquaintanceship where Rincewind discovers Twoflower (and his mysterious sentient chest of Luggage), a visitor to Rincewind's home city Ankh-Morpork (the first ever tourist on Discworld) and follows them on their coming journey which eventually leads them to the end of the world, literally.
Rincewind and Twoflower live on Discworld, literally a disc sitting on the backs of 4 elephants who themselves sit on the back of a giant turtle (gender unknown which is quite the curiosity to Discworld inhabitants). In such a world, direction is measured in relation to the rim of the disc (rimward) or hub (hubward).
Though they battle the original fire, common thieves, a soul eating monster, imagined dragons who reside in an upside down mountain with their quarreling family of royal imaginers, and eventually end up in Krull at the edge of the world, while avoiding saying the number 8 (which Pratchett also avoids saying by describing it any number of round-about ways) which is closely associated with magic, Octarine (the eighth color, that of magic) and all-things-generally-unpleasant as Rincewind repeatedly eludes the none-too-happy-about-it Death, they remain generally unscathed.
Or do they? I recommend you try this book out and see for yourself (as do countless editors, critics and journalists whose opinions of Pratchett and his works who preface this novel)!