The Colour of Magic
Ratings892
Average rating3.8
Terry Pratchett's discworld series. 30+ books of world-building epicness. I read my first discworld book when I was fourteen. Fifteen years later and I still feel like I'm reading a different book every time I pick it up. It's like peeling the layers off a wahoonie, only funner and less fragrant.
Warning-your inner author will suffer a severe bout if self-consciousness with this series. He got knighted for writing this series. No matter how good you are, getting knighted for writing? That's gonna take a while...
Toch maar eens een paar tenen in Discworld gestoken, eens kijken hoe het bevalt.
“The Discworld offers sights far more impressive than those found in universes built by Creators with less imagination but more mechanical aptitude.“
De serie is zodanig uitgebreid dat er zeer uitgebreide verhandelingen zijn over de beste volgorde waarin ze gelezen moeten worden... Uiteindelijk toch maar gekozen voor de publicatie-volgorde. Na twee delen weet ik nog niet hoeveel ik blijf doorlezen (af en toe eentje als vuller denk ik), en vermoedelijk ook niet in deze volgorde (“Death” is een fascinerend karakter...)
“Look at him. Scrawny, like most wizards, and clad in a dark red robe on which a few mystic sigils were embroidered in tarnished sequins. Some might have taken him for a mere apprentice enchanter who had run away from his master out of defiance, boredom, fear and a lingering taste for heterosexuality.“
Als je de Hitchhikers Guide kon waarderen zeker geen tijdsverspilling!
I have likely listened to this book more than 10 times now, but it doesn't get old. The first book in the Discworld series is everything I ever wanted as a child, shame I got it so late. But this is just the start as progressively the series become more and more interesting with every book.
Compré este libro allá por el año 2018, cuando quería parecer una persona interesante y leído. Y nunca lo leí. Pereza máxima. A ver si 2024 es el año en que me obsesiono de mala manera con Terry Pratchett, recen por mí. He visto también que la gente NO recomienda empezar por El color de la magia , pero qué se le va a hacer. A mi librero de confianza le parecía buena idea decirme que empezara por ahí, y el tío parecía listo. Además de que ya está comprado. Así que... Que alguien me recuerde que quiero leer esto.
The Color of Magic
Lets see now.....how do I review this book? It is certainly special.... and humorous in a strange sort of way. There´s a lot of adventure and you should be sure to strap on some protective gear. Oh, and be ready for a test at the end. You will be expected to remember how to spell all the names of people, places and things (okay, just kidding. There´s a Wiki for that.)
I will tell you a little I suppose. This is the first book in the Disc World series and one of only 8 books to be divided into sections or chapters.
A strange tourist sets off on an adventure to see new things and experience adventure. He has lots of gold but he doesn´t have to pay anyone to carry his luggage since it has it´s own feet. He becomes acquainted with a wizard, a lousy wizard but he´s not a bad guide. Together they see some amazing sights and may or may not live to tell about it.
p.s. I used this book to complete square 13
The first of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic isn't necessarily the best place to start the series.
This novel is a fair introduction, though and centers around the two main characters - Rincewind, a failed wizard and Twofeathers, the Discworld's first tourist. Twofeathers hires Rincewind to be his travel guide. Then they find themselves venturing to the very edge of the world... and beyond.
I'm glad I started the series with Guards Guards because those characters are much more interesting and I think Pratchett's writing was better by the time he wrote that. But The Color of Magic is still a worthwhile and entertaining read. Rincewind and Twofeathers are just kind of blah characters (so far). My hope is that they'll get more interesting as the plot advances in future books.
4 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
Twoflower the accountant, Discworld's first tourist, causes havoc in the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork, due both to his complete misunderstanding of the value of gold and because of his luggage made of sapient pearwood and determined to follow him to (literally) the ends of the earth. Rincewind the failed magician, roped into the whole mess mostly by the luggage, is Twoflower's unhappy guide through a variety of incredible adventures.
Review
I was lucky enough to encounter Discworld just a year or so after this first volume came out, and enjoyed it greatly. I picked up other volumes rather haphazardly after the first five, but now have most of them in e-form, so am setting out for a thorough re-read.
While I liked this book just as much as before, my first surprise was at how disjointed it really is. It's a collection of related stories or novelettes rather than really a novel per se. I remember watching some adaptation a few years back and thinking, ‘I don't remember that!', but apparently they were right. What I mostly remember are characters, concepts, and snippets, rather than plot. Frankly, that's because Pratchett seems more concerned with poking fun at fantasy tropes and having fun along the way than in a classic story arc.
It's still a lot of fun, though. I'd forgotten about his Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser analogues, for example, and there's far less her about things that he likely expounds on in later volumes and that I conflated in this one. But the core of it is still the fun, light-hearted tone I remember and that made much of Discworld a joy.
"Worlds. The whole damn sky full of worlds. Places no one will ever see. Except me."
----------------
Discworld is perhaps one of the most highly acclaimed fantasy series ever written. All I've ever read about this book from other readers has been the highest praise. People constantly rank the books among their all-time favorites. As a longtime lover of fantasy, this of course meant I had to put it on my own list.
But for the longest time, I was so horribly intimidated to actually start reading Discworld.
I am always wary when I gain an interest in consuming any piece of media that is critically acclaimed on the level that Discworld is at because then your standards are set so infinitely high that it's almost an unfair advantage against it. There have been too many times in my life where I've ended up ultimately disappointed in something highly reviewed because reviews for it were glowing and it ended up falling short of my expectations. I mean, when people say something is "incredible," "amazing," or "perfect," it's hard not to go in expecting something to blow your mind. And to be fair, I know with certain pieces of my favorite media, I think of them in the same above-and-beyond terms that I'm sure would turn others off if they were to read it themselves. It's just a part of being passionate about something, but it does dull the experience of some things for someone like me who comes into it at a much later date.
Along with that consideration, Discworld is one of those series that people like to tell you not to start with the actual first book, and everybody has different recommendations on where to start. Full disclosure, this is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to any piece of media. I hate the idea of starting in the middle of something. I like going in order. It just feels good and right to me. Not to mention, nothing frustrates me more than when I feel like I'm missing out on some piece of exposition because I skipped a couple of entries. Even if that isn't an issue, the idea that I could be missing out on the satisfaction of watching how things developed and seeing the natural progression of how both the story and even the authors themselves have changed throughout the series also bums me out. Not to mention...nine out of ten times when someone says "Don't worry, you don't need to see the other ones to understand what's going on," it's a flat-out lie. Experience is a merciless teacher, and this has been one of her lessons to me.
But, I still felt like I was missing out on something by not reading Discworld. It just sounds so...fun and filled with whimsy. Those tend to be my favorite stories. I carefully tempered my expectations; I've heard before that Color of Magic should be considered more of a prologue to the saga of Discworld. I was also intrigued by the fact that Color of Magic looked to be a shorter story with a more fun and casual experience meant for the reader. I feel like those kinds of fantasy stories aren't very popular nowadays.
I'm happy to say it was a very pleasant experience throughout, even with my expectations purposefully lowered!
Color of Magic introduces us to the world of Discworld: a very unique setting where the world is a flat disc balanced atop four giant elephants who are in turn balanced atop a giant turtle swimming throughout the vastness of the cosmos. Like I said, very unique. Within Discworld exists extraordinary locales with equally extraordinary people and their cultures, great and powerful magic of all sorts that is a part of the very fabric of reality itself, and zany characters. The basic premise as introduced in the beginning pages of the book is that a group of scholars want to find a way to lower themselves past the edge of the rim of the world to see what sex the giant turtle is.
...But the focus of the story is on a wizard named Rincewind. What does Rincewind desire in life? He just wants to live a safe, comfortable, normal existence with a respectable amount of coin. Very relatable, but Fate has other plans in store for the wizard. Rincewind runs afoul of a strange man named Twoflower. He likes to travel to different places and capture scenes straight from light with his odd camera box that dangles from his neck. An odd chest filled with odds and ends such as clothes follows him around on many pairs of legs, and he calls himself a word that is unfamiliar to those in Discworld...something called a tourist.
And thus begins their adventure in the magical, whimsical world.
This was a fun book to read. Quite a delightful experience! I loved the mix of flowery, poetic prose grounded with lots of humanistic humor throughout. The premise, as described above, is just so much fun. It almost reads like a Dungeons and Dragon campaign with a group of quirky, fun-to-read-about protagonists going through different encounters and meeting all sorts of zany characters. The humor is written so well into the story and characters. How the situations are described and how the characters react to them is hilariously done. The fact that you have this high fantasy setting but the main characters, Rincewind and Twoflower, react to them in completely different but equally hilarious ways was so fun to read about. In fact, I'd say that Color of Magic is borderline absurdist with how wacky the setting could get but so many of its inhabitants are just so blasé about the whole thing.
The worldbuilding is legitimately very unique and fascinating to read about. There's not another world out there like the one Sir Pratchett has crafted here. And while some of the setting does feel like a tool to highlight the humor of the writing in the contrast it has to its relatively grounded character reactions, it never felt like it crossed that line too much. It never got so ridiculous and the reactions to the settings never got so downplayed that the whole of Discworld feels like a joke. While the initial setup is ludicrous--I mean, it is a flat disc on top of a bunch of elephants on top of a giant turtle--the writing never loses the sense of awe and wonder in the world. There's still some weight to the setting and describing it. With humor, I find it's very easy to go too far in one direction and make everything silly and thus feel kind of pointless, but Discworld has the right amount of balanced seriousness to make things still significant. I loved reading about the reality-warping aspects of magic, the weirdness inherent in it, and the quirks it causes to the world. Discworld has some cool rainbows (or Rimbows, I suppose).
Rincewind and Twoflower have become some of my favorite fictional characters after reading this. Rincewind, despite being a literal wizard, is by far one of the most relatable protagonists I've ever read about. He's down-to-earth. He's got a pessimistic streak. He wants to get through another day without having a near-death experience. The dude is tired of adventuring. Twoflower is his opposite, the epitome of an ignorant tourist. But instead of taking photos with his flash on in Paris, he's doing it in a place where there are literal dragons, trolls, and dryads. He's optimism incarnate, never bothered by anything in life, and always eager to see the next dangerous thing because it's something he needs to take a photo of. The "pessimist versus optimist" dynamic is one of the most common in fiction, but here, it's entertaining and written well and without enough of its own unique quirks to make it stand out with its own identity. They're the perfect kinds of characters you want to put through all sorts of crazy scenarios just to see how they'll react and get out of it.
One thing that gets me about Color of Magic is that it's perfectly balanced in how it executes the premise. It's humorous without being too lighthearted and thus losing any actual weight the story has. The prose switches from beautifully poetic to quipped in a very natural way that doesn't feel jarring. So many times, I see where an author has gone too much on one side and the book loses its effectiveness.
But now that I've done its praises, it's time to go onto what I didn't quite like about the book...Rincewind and Twoflower are the only characters that are really of any significance. Others get introduced that I kept thinking would have some kind of relevance to the story since they take a bit of the spotlight during portions of the book, but then it turns out to not be the case. I guess it is like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign in that way. You'll have temporary party members who look like they're gearing up to be of some value before the DM decides that it's time to move on and whisks the players away.
I don't consider this a spoiler since it happens at the beginning of the book: a meta-feature that occurs within the first few chapters is that there's a random footnote that acts as an add-on to the narrative going on. This happens once in the book to my recollection and just seemed...odd? Where everything else is so well-balanced and crafted, this one felt like a strange outlier to me. Perhaps it's supposed to be some kind of foreshadowing in future books, but I am one of those readers who really does not like it when books feel too much like extensions of each other. Each book in a series should feel self-contained enough that it's a solid piece of work when standing on its own merits. Some narrative tangents also felt too much like they meandered from the story and it left me a bit confused, but I guess it was an excuse to read more of Pratchett's excellent prose.
And then my usual complaint of "abrupt cliffhanger ending." I get it, it's part of a series and it is supposed to drive me to want to purchase the next book in the series (which honestly, I do want to). It's a case of me not liking books that feel like they end in the middle of something or very suddenly of out nowhere. I like books with a more natural-feeling ending. I guess that's just me, though.
If you are looking for a sprawling fantasy epic with story arcs and deep, involved character development, you've come to the wrong place. This is a short and sweet fun adventure in a unique setting with whimsy and wonder weaved into it. It was very refreshing to me for that reason...but also a very expertly crafted story and a fun adventure. I had a good time reading this book, and I do want to continue the series. I don't regret starting here instead of jumping ahead like a lot of people suggest. All-in-all, lots of fun to be had and I look forward to diving deeper into Discworld!
Final note: Rincewind is a bloke who'd I love to have a pint with.
Entiendo por qué recomiendan arrancar Mundo Disco por el tercer libro xD Estaba esperando un poco más de la chispa de Pratchett pero no se dio tanto como querría. También me hubiese gustado que los personajes femeninos fuesen al menos bidimensionales, pero contexto histórico, etc. La historia en sí me pareció entretenida y disparatada, con algunas vueltas que te dejan doliendo el cuello xD El worldbuilding me pareció muy interesante y tiene un potencial tremendo. No sé si voy a seguir leyendo libros de la saga porque son una banda (dice la que está al día con el Cosmere) y aunque son lindos, no son algo por lo que me muera por saber qué pasa después.
4:
If this is the quality of the book that Terry Pratchett himself recommended not to start your Discworld journey with, due to him feeling his writing style hadn't been properly developed here yet, then I'm vibrating with excitement about what's coming in the rest of the series. This was so much FUN!!!
I thought he writes humor but I didn't laugh a single time in this book. I've heard it's one of his worst books but wow
Ha sido un libro bastante entretenido, el concepto es muy interesante y aquellos guiños a culturas me han encantado... Si, quiero ver más.
it was a wird read tbh , i was switching between audiobook and the book itself , not the best to start getting to know about discworld
This book took me a while to get into. There were so many characters introduced so quickly, and the world was so unique that I had no idea what the rules would be. But once I figured out who the main characters were and accepted that instead of a quest, they only wanted to see the world and stay alive, I started to enjoy the book. I had read reviews before I started it, and people seemed to really think the authors writing style was hilarious. I saw a few moments, but I may not have the right sense of humor for it. I think I would really enjoy it if I reread it.
Age range: 15+
Younger readers would probably just be confused.
My first Discworld book, but more importantly the book that finally ended my run of constantly DNFing books. This is the first novel I've read in its entirety in over a year. And it's good to be back in a reading mode. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a beautiful reading streak.
Ignoring all advices of not starting from the first chronologically released book, I picked up The Colour of Magic for my first experience of Sir Terry Pratchett's world, and to be honest, I was not disappointed. It was a fun, exciting story. I loved the characters and the relationship between Rincewind and Twoflower. Their contrasting personalities was a lot of fun. While I enjoyed all sections of the book, I did feel the book losing its steam the more it went on – each succeeding section being a bit less engaging than the one before.
I thoroughly enjoyed the ingenious setting of the book. The Discworld is such a cool world with seemingly limitless possibilities and is ideal for a fantasy series. If the books keep getting better as the series go on, I can't wait.
There could be an argument to be made about how as a standalone story, this book isnt really that strong. I disagree with this notion, and I ask that anyone who happens upon this review considers what I have to say. The first entry in the Discworld series has a very strong and fast paced opening, a pretty decent middle section, and a pretty great closing section. It ends on a cliffhanger, and there are a lot of questions that are left unanswered, but why should this matter? Art is a constantly evolving thing, and whether you lame death of the author nerds like it or not, art is and will always will be inextricably linked to its artist. In the same way that the Discworld grows, so does Pratchett, and so treating this as a standalone story makes no sense to me. That being said, I had a lot of fun with this book and it got me excited to learn all about the world inside it.
This was another book I read on a recommendation and wound up enjoying more than I thought I would. Discworld has always been a bit of an intimidating series to me so I was a little hesitant to pick this up on my own. First of all, it's sprawling, there are 41 entries, something like 5 or 6 different storylines, and a reading order that gives me a headache. More importantly, it's foundational, this is a series that apparently everyone but me has read and loved, it parodies and has been parodied in a million other works- and here I was, worried it might read a little dated, and then I'd be the only person I know that doesn't like Discworld.
Thankfully my worries were unfounded; The Color of Magic is like reading a rollercoaster. This book was only 228 pages but I had to take my time with it because almost every page had something insanely interesting and imaginative on it. Rincewind and Twoflower are a whirlwind that tears through the Discworld, at such a breakneck pace that I had to take a moment to remind myself of the setting and context with every new development. I can safely say that I was never once bored reading this, and if I find out that someone was, I would strongly recommend they donate their body to science. That said, the pacing is definitely a double-edged sword, I could totally see some readers being put off by the sheer volume of insane developments and the sudden changes in setting/plot/narration/universe.
Every time this series has come up in conversation (usually they're Brits) it's always been something along the lines of, “This is such a killer series, I absolutely devoured it as a kid.” I'm jealous! I wish so desperately that someone had plopped this book down in front of me as a wee lad, I think that I would have dropped everything and finished the series given the chance. As an adult, the humor agrees with me, and I really enjoyed the non-conformity of the story structure. For a young and impressionable mind, it's books like this that are the kind to really open a door, and for me in particular this could have been something akin to The Animorphs or Harry Potter.
I'll definitely work my way through the rest of the Rincewind storylines, and I am keen to read Mort as well!
The first 30% of this book is pretty good, and might perhaps deserve four stars on its own. The rest of it is a bit better than I remembered from previous readings: it's at least inventive and readable. But the plot is rather aimless.
The whole book suffers somewhat from being a story about Rincewind the failed wizard, and all stories about Rincewind seem to consist of him endlessly running from one predicament to another. Some readers may enjoy this, but I find it rather tedious. Perhaps because this is the first Discworld book and everything is new, at least to the author, this is not the most tedious of the various Rincewind stories.
A disadvantage of being the first book is that various aspects of the Discworld haven't yet settled down into their final form. In particular, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork doesn't yet have a name, and doesn't seem quite the same as the man we later come to know as Havelock Vetinari—although Pratchett is said to have stated that this Patrician is indeed Vetinari. He just doesn't seem quite himself.
First appearances of Rincewind the incompetent wizard, Twoflower the tourist, the Luggage, and Death.
The version of the audio book I had was, at worst, terrible... at best, inconsistent... audio quality. But the story was very good and generally engaging.
Very happy I finally got round to reading Terry Pratchett and look forward to making progress through the rest of the Discworld series.
I missed so much when I listened to the book the first time around. Now that I have read it I really really loved it. I haven't read much books that read quite like Terry Pratchett's and I love his style so much. The only reason this isn't 5 stars is because of the lack of clothes on 2 of the 3 female characters introduced in this book. I wanna read all of Discworld. The world building is amazing, though it is sometimes hard to understand what is going on.