The Color of Magic
by Terry Pratchett
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Book Reviews of The Color of Magic
Book Review: The book that started it all
Summary: 3 Stars
This is the Big Bang of Terry Pratchett's massive Discworld series. The book that gave birth to the craze.Those who have read the other Discworld books first before reading 'Colour of Magic' may find this book not as funny and the writing not as smooth. That is to be understood. It is the first book after all.
Well known characters may also seem different. Death is potrayed as Death should be; dark and sinister. It is a contrast from his later appearances, especially in his own books 'Mort' and 'Reaper Man', where he (it?) is more...well, funnier. Other Discworld regulars also make their first appearances here such as the Patrician and the City Watch officers. Oh, the famous Mended Drum (Ankh Morpork's hippest hangout) is featured as well in the early part of the book...but something happens to it.
In fact, something happens to at least half the city. It catches fire. Then it floods. The inept wizard Rincewind swears its not his fault. Nor is it Twoflower's. It just so happens that trouble is attracted to them like pubescent boys are to Britney Spears.
Rincewind is a failed wizard with only one spell in his head. A spell so powerful other spells run away. Twoflower is a tourist from a faraway land who wants to see the fabled city of Ankh Morpork. Rincewind has to look after him and make sure he's not hurt by order of the Patrician...or else. Of course this being Rincewind and the world being the Disc, a nice leisurely stroll through the sights and sounds of Ankh Morpock are well nigh impossible. Its more like a gallop.
'Colour of Magic' reads like a typical fantasy novel like 'The Hobbit' albeit with more jokes. The reader is roller-coastered from one mishap to the next with a permanent grin on his/her face.
And that's all your face will probably make. A grin. Not a chuckle. Nor a guffaw. Read the other Discworld books if you want to laugh out loud. Especially the ones that feature Death or the City Watch. Saying that though, 'Colour of Magic' is still a good book from the fertile mind of Terry Pratchett. After all, if it wasnt good enough there wouldn't be a Discworld series.
3 stars.
Book Review: Comic Fantasy Well Told in an Audio edition
Summary: 5 Stars
I listened to this book on unabridged MP3 through Audible and my review pertains to the audio edition.
I've meant to tackle Terry Pratchett's massive Discworld series for years, ever since reading and loving Good Omens, his collaboration with Neil Gaiman. I finally began with the unabridged audio edition of the first novel in the series, The Color of Magic.
The Discworld is a strange flat world perched on the back of four elephants and the great space turtle Atuan, who slowly makes his way through space with his burden. The opening of the book provides a good orientation to the Disc, where directions are hubward and edgeward and with or against the spin of the disc, and magic works, and the world is surrounded by a sea that spills over the edge. Within this world is the potential for dozens of stories, as the 30+ books in the series attest.
This first book centers around the barely-a-wizard Rincewind and his adventures shepherding the eager tourist Twoflower around the wonders of Discworld. Pratchett plays happily with all the cliches of fantasy, sometimes stopping the plot for a discourse on magic or the background of a city or being, sometimes resolving a tight spot by the blatant intervention of gods in the characters' lives, none of which is met with complete surprise by the characters themselves.
The reader on this audio edition was absolutely wonderful. In a plummy British accent and a semi-serious tone reminiscent of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, he tells the story and uses a variety of voices in the dialogue. Even so it was occasionally difficult to keep the many characters straight, but I never got too lost. I very much enjoyed listening to this book and hope to continue to listen to the series on audio. I believe that Audible.com has most or all of the series available in unabridged editions, and Audible books can often be purchased through Amazon.com
I will definitely continue reading this series, and plan next to divert to the young adult novel The Wee Free Men before going back to the main series.
Book Review: Interesting start to fabulous series
Summary: 4 Stars
The great city of Ankh-Morpork has seen many tourists, but this one--Twoflower, from the mysterious counterweight continent, a continent reported to consist largely of gold--is different. His gullible appearance attracts an army of thieves but Twoflower is too innocent to even notice--and his walking luggage is dangerous enough to offer some protection. One of the men hoping to take advantage of Twoflower is Ankh-Morpork's worst mage. Rincewind knows only one spell. Unfortunately, he doesn't know what the spell will actually do if he uses it. When Twoflower pays Rincewind, in advance, to show him around the city, Rincewind decides to get out while he still can. Unfortunately, he's misjudged his timing. The Patrician wants Twoflower alive and decides to task Rincewind with the assignment. No one can escape the Patrician so Rincewind gets caught up in a series of inprobable adventures.
THE COLOR OF MAGIC is the first in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series--and it shows. Pratchett hasn't quite decided whether Discworld is pure farce--with its counterparts for Robert E. Howard's Conan and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and his choice of a purely cowardly and incapable wizzard for protagonist with the most frightening monster being a many-legged travelling trunk--or something unique and wonderful. Over time, Pratchett has developed Discworld to be a compelling universe of its own, with complex characters, interesting situations, but keeping its tongue-in-cheek attitude. COLOR is essential reading for a full understanding of Discworld and fans of the series (like me) won't want to miss it. Still, although COLOR is the first Discworld novel, I don't recommend you read it first. Read some of the later stories, get hooked, then pick up COLOR to see where it came from and to get more of the details on how, exactly, a disc-shaped world travels on the backs of four elephants--each of whom, in turn, stands on a single huge turtle swimming toward--well, that is the question, isn't it?
Book Review: Excellent imagination and writing skill!
Summary: 5 Stars
Pratchett creates a world, a planet, which is a disc, unlike our globe. And a disc, as we know, has an end, an Edge. So what happens when you reach this Rim? The universe continues, but this planet ends--in a Rimfall (a waterfall) that falls over the edge of the planet into space. Obviously few have ventured over the Edge. This discworld, then, has to be supported somehow, it doesn't just float; it is held up by four gigantic elephants, who in turn stand on Great A'Tuin the Turtle, with sea-sized eyes and a brain as big as a city, who swims slowly through the interstellar gulf, to where, many intelligent people on the disc are trying to find out. And one of the biggest puzzles about this turtle is its gender--nobody yet knows. But they're trying to discover this by sending out spaceships over the Edge.If all that sounds too absurd to stomach, the story isn't. As you read, you discover this world, and learn the rules (which are rather few in number), for example, that Death Himself comes to claim a wizard, instead of sending one of his subordinates like He does for other lower people. And our main character is a wizard, 'sort of,' since he was chucked out his school of magic for stealing one of the great spells. His name is Rincewind. And there's the tourist, Twoflower from a different world, with his Luggage which follows him anywhere and everywhere with its 'hundreds of legs.'
This first book is the adventure of Twoflower with poor Rincewind taking him around for a daily wage of 1 Rhinu (an unimaginably big sum for anyone in Ankh-Morpork, leave alone an expelled wizard). Of course, not even many more Rhinus a day would have tempted the wizard to this adventure had he known the dangers and close shaves with Death that it involved!
The book opens up your brain to new ways of thinking and makes you laugh out loud with Pratchett's terrific sense of humour. It seems there are twenty-five more books in the series. I think I'm going to read quite a few of those.
Book Review: A Fun Discworld Romp
Summary: 3 Stars
Here is where it all began, the birth of the Discworld series, and the introduction of perhaps the most incompetent wizzard (yes, that is wizzard with a double z) in all of literature: Rincewind. In this book we find the first mention of the fascinating twin cities of Ankh and Morpork, and of course we are able to observe the benefits of owning luggage made from sapient pearwood.
You might be wondering, why would I possible only give this book a 3 star rating? I first read The Color of Magic almost 10 years ago, when I stumbled upon it while browsing in the University of Utah bookstore during a break between my graduate school classes. I was looking for something entertaining and light, something that would take my mind off the boring business text books that required so much of my time. The book delivered. I was immediately hooked, and over the last 1o years I've read all 36 of the Discworld novels. So, why 3 stars? Who, or what, has outshone this Discworld classic? The answer is easy, it's Terry Pratchett himself.
The Discworld novels have only gotten better as Pratchett keeps writing, both in complexity and execution. After reading Thud! (number 34), my favorite Discworld novel of all time, The Color of Magic feels a little less polished, and I realize how spoiled I've become. I'm trying to remember how I felt the first time I read this book, but I can't. I've lost the remembrance in the haze of too many books over too many years, but it must have really blown me away. I remember buying the next four books in the series at the same time, so it must have impressed me. That isn't to say that this book isn't good. It is! It just can't compare to later Discworld novels. So, if you haven't ever visited Discworld before, start at the beginning, so you can appreciate this book for yourself, in the way it should be. One caveat, it does end with a bit of a cliff hanger, so have The Light Fantastic handy.