The Color of Magic

by

228 pages

English language

Published Nov. 3, 2005

ISBN:
978-0-06-085592-5
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Goodreads:
34497

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(4 reviews)

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."

22 editions

reviewed The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

fun intro the discworld series

No rating

This is the first Discworld book but my second, having read Small Gods first, and although supposedly they can be read in any order I prefer, much like Star Wars, to read in the published sequence, as in this case (not Star Wars), it looks like the books get better over time. This one is still fun but doesn't have the sly digs of Small Gods, it's more like a D&D parody. And while I complained about the lack of women with speaking roles in Small Gods, there are a couple of notable female characters here, admittedly with high levels of nudity (it's a miracle HBO didn't adapt this instead of Game of Thrones), but both in leadership positions, one queen and one goddess, so take that DEI and smoke it!

reviewed The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (Discworld, #1)

Torn between 3 and 4 stars

Enjoyed it - a fun read!

Discworld and Sir Terry were a big part of my life growing up, he had a large impact on who I became.

I'm not sure for newcomers to his writing I'd fully recommend The Colour of Magic - I believe Sir Terry himself said to start from book three (Sourcery) - but this is an interesting historical artefact.

I plan to read through the entire Discworld series in the coming months (and years, I guess - I don't plan to only read Discworld non-stop), so starting from the very beginning to experience how Sir Terry's style developed was a key choice for me.

I did enjoy it a lot though! Torn between 3 and 4 stars. It's good! But I feel like 4 stars requires a level of excellence not quite attained here - it does feel a little disjointed at times, and some …