The Color of Magic: A Discworld Novel (Discworld Novels)
by Terry Pratchett
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Book Summary Information
Author: Terry PratchettEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-09-13
ISBN: 0060855924
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of The Color of Magic: A Discworld Novel (Discworld Novels)
Book Review: "Well, there goes the luggage."
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read The Colour of Magic in 1985 when the Signet paperback came out. Pratchett was still an unknown quantity and I'm not entirely sure why I picked it off the shelves. But pick I did, and so began a long relationship with a writer who has made irreverence and art form. In retrospect, it's easy to see how this first volume presaged the nearly 30 Discworld novels that were to follow. But what is old hat now was brilliant invention back then. The stock opening of a review is something like "picture an immense disc of a world careening through space on the back of four elephants who in turn stand of the back of A'tuin the giant tortoise..." All too true. In fact, A'tuin is to large that, it you look over the edge of the disc, it's tortoise all the way down.
A small dot on the map of the disc is the city of Ankh-Morpork, and an even smaller dot marks the Invisible University, where a very tiny dot marks the place where an incompetent magic student named Rincewind opens the Octavo spellbook and manages to learn one of the eight great spells of the Creator, who apparently left them behind in disgust. Rincewind, his magic storage filled to overflowing with this single spell is promptly expelled. Our hapless magician spends is time sipping small beer in an even smaller tavern until he happens on another tiny mark on the map called Twoflower, who is possibly the world's first tourist, who spends gold like water and is accompanied by a walking luggage with an attitude.
Rincewind believes (for about 15 minutes) that his future is made as a tour guide, until he discovers that Twoflowers has a knack for landing in any number of near death experiences, which early on include burning Ankh-Morpork to the ground. Thinks don't get any better than that. Further adventures include nearly getting eaten (by almost everything) a bad experience with a number of imaginary dragons, and the up close examination of the edge of the world. That Rincewind and Twoflowers manage to survive intact is remarkable. That they also make fools of the known (and unknown) universe is just part of the grand vision that Pratchett opens for our delight.
Terry Pratchett is a genuinely funny author. His tongue in cheek writing picks up on every foible, finds the vaudeville in every scene, and leaves no solemnity untweaked. His humor can be brutal or subtle by you will keep finding things to smile at long after the book is closed. His characters and scenes lampoon reality and develop a life of their own. Pratchett doesn't waste an opportunity or a bit of material and much of what you see here for the first time will echo through the coming volumes of the series. Dig in! Ignore the troll at your own risk.
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