The Colour of Magic: Discworld, Book 1

Terrific story, filled with adventure, great characters and a lot of nonsensical fun. I highly recommend it. I have read Gaimon, and enjoy his books, but had never read Pratchett's solo work before. I didn't know what I was missing!

I've been collecting the Discworld books in no particular order for a few years now, mostly because my father always had an affinity for them and recommended them as hilarious and entertaining at the same time. Now that I finally got to read the first in the series I can see what the fuss is all about! There is plenty of humor, dry wit and magic, extremely complex scientific and fantastic themes and myriad of characters brighter than all the rainbows and flowers in the world combined. My head was spinning after few pages but somehow I couldn't stop reading; this incredible journey that Pratchett invites the reader on takes some time to get adjusted to, but once I let my mind go and read it slow, it all melted into a fantasy like no other. I can't really imagine kids reading it unless they are prodigies at understanding language because their little brains might pop from the amount of information given; I know mine was taken for a spin a few times!So here we are, visiting a world that exists as a flat disc with water walling over the edges, carried by four giant elephants standing on an ancient turtle, covered in meteor holes and all sorts of space debris, swimming who knows where....In one of it's cities, Ankh-Morpork , a failed wizard by the name of Rincewind comes across Twoflower, a traveling little man with magical luggage, carved out of rare sapient pear tree that follows him everywhere on its tiny feet. Yes walking luggage, with teeth too, guarding his master and providing lots of entertainment through out the story. The two men are the only ones in the whole city who speak the same language and thus their zany adventures start. Hastily hired as a guide the magician, who sucks at magic but it awfully funny and likable, gets into all sorts of troubles with trolls, dragons, islands with lunatics chased by Death itself without trying to loose poor Twoflower who thinks the whole adventure as a great sight seeing trip, they escape all sorts of scenarios that take them form the murkiest depths of underwater caves into far away galaxies in deep space.Seems like a lot and it is, but the novel takes all sorts of turns ad twists and one never knows what awaits our heroes on the next page. When Gods play magic dice and Fate and Death are in talks of getting them, our characters have a lot at stake and loosing such charming little fellows would certainly be horrible so the reader is constantly kept on a tight leash as the beauty of the story and its intricate pattern morphs into more fantastic scenarios. I can't even clearly say what this book is about other than being simply fantastic, albeit very complex. Folklore, mythology, fairy tales, comedy and drama, it's all here exquisitely woven for those who dare.- Kasia S.

I had this book in my wish list for several years, finally took some time this summer to read it and it was very enjoyable. It reminds me a bit of Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy meets fantasy. I have read several others in the series and I agree with many of the reviewers, the writing and stories get better as you go along (I think this is true with most writers, I liked the "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" better than the first two Narnia books). But I did enjoy both "The Color of Magic" and "The Light Fantastic" enough to keep going. "Mort" has been my favorite so far . . .I am going to focus on the different editions you can purchase.A+ - the hardback copies by Gollancz, very high quality. The paper is a nice feel, the print is very good, the covers are a soft cotton, they do not have dust-jackets (like all their hardback books), but the covers are designed very uniquely. I hope they have the entire series, looks like they have a lot of them.B+ - the paperback copy by Harper. This was the first copy I obtained, it is also very good, the paper, cover, and print are very high quality. The only down side to these, is there is no uniform editions. I believe they only printed the first three books, then after that another publisher stepped in and so the appearance of the books look very different from the others.C+ - the mass market paperback copy by Harper Collins. This was a very cheaply produced book. The first two books I got, were good quality (all ordered new from amazon, btw), paper was good, cover, and print were all good. Then the third and fourth books were definitely low quality. The print was poorly done, some passages appeared blurry, poor print job. The upside to these are the uniform look. The downside, terrible quality production.If you are looking for an interesting set of fiction, I absolutely love Pratchett's imagination and writing style, I bought all his other story collections, then I would definitely check out this series. I don't have any preference about where you start, some reviewers really are not fans of the first two, I thought they were good enough for me to keep going, but I definitely think they get better. I also like the stand alone nature of the stories, so I can pick the themes I enjoy the most to focus on and read.As far as which edition to buy, you might want to start with the mass market, they are cheaper, then if you like them, go with the other paperbacks. I have enjoyed the first five or so that I have read, I am now buying only the hardback editions.Enjoy! . . .

As an avid SciFi and Fantasy reader, I don't have a problem with strange, imaginative worlds or universes, I did have a problem with visualizing the scenes at times as they were explained in this book. As with many author's first books, I don't doubt that he will get better with later books.The main reason I gave it a 3/5 is that I like my SciFi and Fantasy books to be story driven. This came across more as a series of "Misadventures" by the cast of characters. If you want something light with reasonably good humor, try this. But if you want a more developed story line where you find yourself rooting for the good guys, this may not be for you

Well packed.

I don’t know how many times I have read this story but it always makes me laugh. Thanks again for the memory of Terry

Read it. Thank me later!

Excelente para el viajero constante, :)

Had quite a laugh about the funny adventures of Rincewind, the tourist and its luggage. Very refreshing compared to usual sf or fantasy. It is a do reader if you are young of mind and sharp of wit.