228 pages
English language
Published Aug. 13, 2005 by Harper.
The Colour of Magic is a 1983 fantasy comedy novel by Terry Pratchett, and is the first book of the Discworld series. The first printing of the British edition consisted of only 506 copies. Pratchett has described it as "an attempt to do for the classical fantasy universe what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns."
I started rereading all the Discworld books before bed this year. There is't a lot to say about them that hasn't already been said.
Its the first Discworld book. Its certainly not the best. And honestly I think that the Wizards books are the ones I like the least. That said its actually kind of amazing how this book seems to have almost everything that the Series is famous for.
Content warning Spoilers about the nature of the ending, no details
...it's not the best place to begin the series.
First of all, if you don't like cliffhangers, don't pick this up without getting The Light Fantastic as well. I read both many years ago, and remembered it ending basically out of nowhere, so it wasn't surprising. Even knowing that, I had to google around to make sure my copy of the book hadn't been damaged in some way.
That said, I know that Pratchett is supposed to be kind of a "journey rather than destination" type writer, especially in the early books, and I thoroughly enjoyed the writing. But I can definitely see what people mean when they say it isn't the greatest book to start the series with (I've read that generally the best place to start is the books about The Guard).
It was funny. The writing was clever. But when I put this book next to it's supposed sci-fi analogue (admittedly my favorite series of all time, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) some of the jokes fall flat, Rincewind in particular comes off rather 2-dimensional, and the best parts all involved The Luggage...which does not speak and is about as single-minded a creature as there ever was.
I'm not saying it's bad, far from it. But I wish I'd started with the books that are said to live up to the hype.
Content warning Lite røpevarsel for Terry Pratchett sin "The Colour of Magic"
Eg ble aldri heilt frelst av denne boka, men då den består av fire ganske sjølvstendige delar ble det lett å halde seg interessert. Konseptet med ei verd si fyrste turist var gøy.
Dette er ikkje ei slik bok kor du får uttelling på alt du ynskjar. Figurae forsvinn ut av historia like fort som dei blir introdusert. Som ein episodisk fjernsynserie.
OK, the plot had enormous confusing holes but it was amusing all the way through on a scene-by-scene level.
First book, not as good as some later ones. Sometimes a little bit confusing.
It is not my favourite discworld book, but it is worth a read and if you want to read all of discworld you gotta read this one. It is funny, there are great characters, fantastic world building, and sets the foundation for pretty much the most fabulous fantasy series ever made...
Dalo by se říci, že je to takový roadtrip. Cesta bez cíle, každý taoista by měl radost. Dva hlavní hrdinové putují napříč Zeměplochou. Jeden, protože chce a ten druhý, protože musí. První díl Zeměplochy mi spíš připadá jako umě spojená sbírka povídek. Ačkoliv se to čte velice dobře a na konci chcete číst dál, neumím se ubránit pocitu, že je to zatím jen takový nedopilovaný úvod. Něco z čeho se v dalších knihách teprve zhmotní ten kult, který kolem Zeměplochy dnes je.
It must be me... I found the tale pointless, muddled, and confused. Maybe it was supposed to be that way. I don't know.
First book in the series. I'd recommend you start with a later one. Wyrd sisters worked for me.
People who know how much I love Douglas Adams have asked if I’ve tried Pratchett, and I’m so glad I finally did. Each is his own singular genius, but there are bits of what I love about Adams and in this, and also Borges, plus plenty of Sir Terry’s own delightfully lunatic perspective.
The color of magic is the first installment of Pratchett's disc world series. It follows Rincewind, a wizard who only knows one spell, and Twoflower, a dangerously curious tourist from the other side of the disc.
I think Pratchett's way of telling the story isn't my style. Too much detail, too much unnecessary information, which would've been suitable for some sort of sequel, but not for the first book of a 40+ book series.
Nonetheless, I did enjoy this book. I think this fantasy series has a lot of potential, and Pratchett's creativity and fantasy is astoundingly surprising, which constantly makes me wonder how in the world he came up with this novel.
His creativity is very entertaining yo read, Nx I thoroughly enjoyed it.
4/5
Mrakoplaše zrovna nemusím, ale tohle byla moje první kniha o Zeměploše a chytlo mě to.
Thoroughly enjoyed this magical romp. The style will take a me a bit to get use to but the humor was superb.
This was just okay. The early parts dragged, in the end it was pretty good but not fantastic. A lot of language was quippy but it just felt off. It was smarmy, showing off how clever it is, but it didn’t have a ton to say beyond its own cleverness. It spent entirely too long hinting at a word or phrase that people weren’t quite understanding, and by the time the word was said in a way that made it discernible, I had spent long enough being annoyed at the running gag that I didn’t care that I got the answer. It’s the very first book published in the series, and it’s probably skippable. It does conclusively establish the pretty cool shape of the world that was explained at the very beginning, and is reiterated throughout the series, so there’s that at least. I like the dragon bits, but also …
While a bit overwhelming and sometimes inconsistent, this was a fun read.
