The first Discworld title and a bit of a whirlwind introduction. There have probably been lots of reviews of this book made that compare Terry Prachett’s style to other writers but I wont do that I will just give you my impression of the book. I am writing this review after having reread the book again as I read the first few books some years ago. The first thing to note is that having read these books before I know that you should read the first two Discworld books as though they were one.
The setting of this book and the others in this series is the Discworld which seems to be our earth as described by someone from pre Columbus Europe with a large flat disc with all the continents and sea’s laid out like Sunday lunch with the atmosphere a bubble above the disc like one of those snow shaker things you get at Christmas under the disc and holding it up are four gigantic elephants and they are standing on an enormous turtle which is swimming through space. The social structure and the basic technological level of the inhabitants of this world are similar to that of someone in pre Columbus Europe. Most of the humour in the books plays on the juxtaposition of modern concepts.
The basic plot of The Colour of Magic is that Two Flower has landed at Ank Morpork and has become officially the first ever “tourist” on the disc after landing his first stop on his tour is at the Drum Billet where he meets up with the main character of the book Rincewind: failed wizard and professional coward. Not long after this fateful meeting the madness commences and doesn’t stop till the last page. Along the way they are followed by Two Flowers Luggage a kind of mute third main character. The story takes the form of a road movie however with out an obvious conclusion which is provided by the second book in the Discworld series The Light Fantastic.
My opinion of this book is that it is good but by no means perfect. Its good as an introduction to the Discworld as a hole giving you as much information about the various eccentricities of the Discworld universe and its people and throw’s in some good laughs along the way. The main gripe which is a small one at that is the ha, ha jokes in the book the ones which make you say ha, ha as opposed to actually laughing. One other thing about the book is that about two thirds of the way through the book you start to wonder if there is a plot to the story. The good thing about the book is that you don’t realise that there isn’t a plot until you are two thirds of the way the book!
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