Book Review: The Colour of Magic (Discworld #1) by Terry Pratchett

Name:  The Colour of Magic (Discworld #1)
Author:  Terry Pratchett
Number of Pages: 288 (ebook)
Published: December 26th 2008 by Transworld Publishers
Genre:  Fantasy

The Color of Magic is Terry Pratchett’s maiden voyage through the now-legendary land of Discworld. This is where it all begins — with the tourist Twoflower and his wizard guide, Rincewind.
On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There’s an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet…

My Rating:

My Thoughts:

My first journey into the Discworld. After much debate I started at the beginning, and I was pleased I did. What better way to be introduced to this strange and fascinating world than in the company of the Disc’s first tourist and a pretty incapable wizard?

Twoflower arrives in Ankh-Morpork, full of enthusiasm and optimism for all the discoveries he’s about to make, with talk of strange things, such as in-sewer-ants, and a magical box that takes pictures. And there’s the other magical box, but more on the Luggage later…
Through various circumstances he meets Rincewind, the wizard who only really knows one spell, and that one has such power that he’s never used it and doesn’t really know what it will do, and off on their adventures they go…

The book contains four parts, which read like four short stories, all delivering some new place or inhabitant of this marvellous world. In the first there’s general chaos which ends in flames, and that pretty much sets the tone for the adventures these two protagonists enjoy (or maybe endure is a better word) together. They go from one peril to another, Rincewind despairing and worrying, Twoflower endlessly fascinated and excited by it all.
And the Luggage is never far behind. How can a magical chest become a central comic feature in a book? Well, it’s made from sapient pearwood – it’s almost alive! Scurrying on hundreds of little legs after it’s owner Twoflower like a faithful canine companion, the Luggage leaps into danger and quite often saves the travellers. I loved each appearance by the Luggage.

I ended up enjoying The Colour of Magic more than I expected. I wondered at one point whether it was a little too fantastical for me, and there’s a lot contained in quite a small book, but by the end I was engrossed in the antics of Rincewind and Twoflower and the precarious situation they found themselves in. There’s a bit of a cliff-hanger ending so when I choose to visit the Discworld again I’ll probably choose The Light Fantastic, just to see how it all resolves.

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