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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely readable fun!, 10 Nov 2002
I started this book having only read one other book by Terry Pratchett - I was kind of working my way up to reading the massive Discworld Series, so I started with The Carpet People (also a great book) in the summer, which I loved. So, out of curiosity at all the Discworld hype, I got hold of a copy of The Colour of Magic and started reading (despite various people advising me that reading them in order was not necessary).I'm glad I did - I can't say I was an avid reader of the book straight from the start, but it soon became that way. I loved the characters in this book - Twoflower, Rincewind and Death in particular had me in stitches - and the setting, a flat, disc-shaped world carried on the backs of four giant elephants etc etc, and the amount of creativity with which Pratchett crafted his world, had me captivated. I have now finished The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, the sequel, having read them one after another. Although standing alone they are fantastic books, treating them as one book is probably a good idea, going by the cliffhanger ending of The Colour of Magic. I would recommend this book to any fans of The Carpet People and other books by Terry Pratchett. It's a great book, so anybody else: read it!
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42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Have you forgotten how good it is?, 12 Aug 2004
Having read the entire series of 30-odd Discworld novel's in publication order over the past 16-odd years, I decided it was time to revisit the first novel in the series. Would it really be as good as I remembered, or would it seem inferior compared to those later Discworld novels?The Discworld of The Colour of Magic certainly feels like a different place to Pratchett's more recent offerings, but it's certainly not inferior. Nowadays Pratchett seems to use the Discworld as a distorted mirror of our own world, with allusions to real world politics and problems - in comparison the Discworld of The Colour of Magic is a simple (but effective) satire on the typical post-Tolkien Fantasy genre. This first novel introduces the long-running characters of the inept wizard Rincewind and the oddly anthropomorphic Death (what no Librarian? - my memory must have cheated), and uses the device of Rincewind having to protect gullible tourist Twoflower as a means of providing a brief tour of the Discworld. The novel is set out as four linked short story's: in The Colour of Magic Twoflower manages to burn the city of Ankh-Morpork to the ground by the introduction of insurance; The Sending of Eight adds Conan rip-off Hrun the Barbarian in a typical Dungeons & Dragons quest to destroy a Lovecraftian monster and capture some treasure; The Lure of the Wrym introduces an upside down mountain and dragons who only exist if you believe in them; while Close to the Edge finds Rincewind and Twoflower getting caught up in a mission to voyage over the edge of the Discworld itself (a theme Pratchett would return to years later in The Last Hero). Yes, it's a lot shallower than later Discworld outings, but it's also a lot funnier, and the Discworld is a much more fantastic place. And how could I forget such insanity as Rincewind suddenly finding himself transported onto a terrorist hijacked plane in our reality? If you're a potential new Discworld reader looking at the mass of novels and wondering where on earth to start, then this first novel is still the best introduction. And if you're a long-term Discworld fan - have you forgotten how good it is?
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52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The first Discworld novel!, 29 Jun 2003
The Colour of Magic (this book) is the first in the phenonemonly successful "Discworld" series by humour and fantasy British author Terry Pratchett. Well, this was not the first discworld book I read. The first one I read was "Sourcery". I thought it was far too weird, so I left it for a while, but then tried "Witches Abroad" and loved that. I read some more after that and was hooked on the discworld collection. It's strange, they say "Never Judge A Book By It's Cover", but it was the covers of the books that drew me in on that rainy afternoon in the school library. Sorry, I forgot to mention, I'm only 13. But don't go away! Stay and read this!(and remember to say that this review was helpful!!)
But back to the book. The Colour of Magic begins by explaining what the Discworld actually is. For those of you who don't know, it's actually a huge plate that is supported by 5 elephants that are supported by a huge turtle, known as the Great A'tuin. Yep. That fact that the world (in the book) is a disc is obviously like how our ancestors thought the world was flat.
We are introduced to our main characters, who are Rincewind the inept and cowardly wizard, Twoflower, a short tourist with (judging by the front cover) four eyes, and a chest that has hundreds of little legs and a mind of it's own, known as "the Luggage". There are of course more characters, like Hrun the (don't say this to him) barbarian and the wonderful talking corpse. At first the characters spend time in a bar in the twin city of Ankh Morpork, where Twoflower's money seems to be worth more than he thinks in Ankh. They soon leave Ankh Morpork, find themselves in a magic temple in which you mustn't say "eight", riding on dragons that only exist if you believe in them and of course, talking to a troll made of water at the Edge of the planet.
Believe me, it's ridiculous and unconventional, but you will find yourself chuckling at the brilliant dialogue and zany descriptions that only could come from Terry Pratchett.
How does it compare with the others in the series? Well, I've always liked Rincewind and I think this is one of the best adventures with him in it. I think the Luggage is brilliant also.
The characters are about the most important thing in the Pratchetts, and the witches are my favourite characters along with Death, and so my favourite books are Mort and Witches Abroad, so if you like rincewind, you'll like this. This one I felt had a bit more as far as the plot went, rather than a series of jokes like some of his later ones are like.
Recommended fully, and remember to read "The Light Fantastic" which comes afterwards.
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