The Colour of Magic

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.