The Color of Magic

by Pratchett, Terry
ISBN: 9780062225672
4.5 (2)
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Overview

The beginning of the hilarious and irreverent series that has more than 80 million copies worldwide, The Color of Magic is where we meet tourist Twoflower and wizard guide Ricewind, and follow them on their always-bizarre journeys.

A writer who has been compared to Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Douglas Adams, Sir Terry Pratchett has created a complex, yet zany world filled with a host of unforgettable characters who navigate around a profound fantasy universe, complete with its own set of cultures and rules.

  • Format: MassMarketPaperback
  • Author: Pratchett, Terry
  • ISBN: 9780062225672
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 7.40 x 0.80
  • Number Of Pages: 288
  • Publication Year: 2013

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  • The first step in a long, worth while journey...

    Tracy S. - 9 months ago

    In the icy darkness of space swims the giant space turtle Great A'Tuin. Upon his back (or her back, scholars aren't sure - but there are several interesting theories) sit four immense elephants. And on their broad, comet-scarred shoulders revolves The Discworld. It's a flat, roundish world where magic is real ("That's what's so stupid about the whole magic thing, you know. You spend twenty years learning the spell that makes nude virgins appear in your bedroom, and then you're so poisoned by quicksilver fumes and half-blind from reading old grimoires that you can't remember what happens next.") and heroes exist ("No, what he didn't like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk"). This is the setting for Terry Pratchett's "The Color of Magic," the first book in the famed Discworld series. Rincewind, professional coward and almost-but-not-quite-a-wizard ("Rincewind could scream for mercy in nineteen languages, and just scream in another forty-four."), meets Twoflower, a strange little man who wants to go to places just to look around ("Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the Discworld. 'Tourist,' Rincewind had decided, meant 'idiot'."). The gods of the Discworld are playing a board game with these two as the main pieces ("The Disc gods themselves, despite the splendor of the world below them, are seldom satisfied. It is embarrassing to know that one is a god of a world that only exists because every improbability curve must have its far end."). It is a game that leads them on an unintentional adventure across the Discworld, the main mode of transport being fleeing from people (and things) that are constantly trying to kill them ("'You don't understand!' screamed the tourist above the terrible noise of the wingbeats. 'All my life I've wanted to see dragons!' 'From the inside?' shouted Rincewind.'"). Thirty-two years ago Terry Pratchett published this, the first volume of the 40 novels (80 million books sold in 37 languages) that make up the Discworld series. Sir Pratchett OBE has created a rich, poignant and painfully funny world full of memorable (and quotable) characters. Think Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," but with swords, trolls and wizards. You could start with any of the Discworld novels and you would be fine, but think of this first book as an instruction book for the rest of the series. Once you read "The Color of Magic" you will have a very good idea of how the Discworld and its inhabitants work. One small warning: You may want to pick up the sequel, "The Light Fantastic," at the same time as the two books comprise one storyline. And, trust me, you'll want to start the sequel just as soon as you finish "The Color of Magic."

    HPB Staff Review

  • The quirkiest of fantasies

    Nicole V. - 2 years 6 months ago

    Published in 1983, The Color of Magic was Terry Pratchett's first Discworld novel. The story features Rincewind the Wizard, a Magic School dropout, who is uptight, cowardly and allergic to adventure. Along comes Twoflower, an atypical tourist looking for frolic in Discworld. Twoflower's carelessness is everything Rincewind wants to avoid, but thanks to an overly protective sentient piece of furniture, Rincewind is obligated to keep Twoflower out of trouble. Terry Pratchett's Discworld series uses traditional elements of fantasy as devices of play rather than devices of drama. Pratchett's main characters move the plot along by tussling their opposing personalities (Rincewind is his own worst enemy, while Twoflower doesn't know a criminal from a friend) and finding themselves deeper in trouble even as they try to work their way out of it. The Color of Magic is lighthearted, fun and a leisurely break from the types of stories that search too hard. From the era when Sci-Fi/Fantasy was no longer golden, but ready to come down from its pedestal.

    HPB Staff Review