Terry Pratchett Read-a-thon: Book 1- The Colour of Magic

Some logistics first:

If you want to participate in the Terry Pratchett Read-a-thon, just give Nicole a shout out for the next book at The Bookwork Drinketh.   Today the focus is on Book 1- The Colour of Magic but I believe there are more to come.

The synopsis:

“Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the Discworld. Tourist, Rincewind decided, meant idiot.

Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. It plays by different rules. Certainly it refuses to succumb to the quaint notion that universes are ruled by pure logic and the harmony of numbers.

But just because the Disc is different doesn’t mean that some things don’t stay the same. Its very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the arrival of the first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land. But if the person charged with maintaining that survival in the face of robbers, mercenaries and, well, Death is a spectacularly inept wizard, a little logic might turn out to be a very good idea…”

The Colour of Magic is a 1983 comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, and is the first book of the Discworld series. The first printing of the British edition consisted of 506 copies. Pratchett has described it as “an attempt to do for the classical fantasy universe what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns.”

 

Next bit… the covers.  I think the cover Amazon gave me for my kindle book version is the lamest one, plus they spelt colour wrong 😜

 

Here are some of the cooler covers I’ve seen:

 

My main issue with the top cover is that they’ve got The Luggage all wrong! You see The Luggage, is a character in its own right.  Actually, it may even be my favourite character.  Nicole describes him perfectly as the “faithful dog that you never wanted.”  He/ It is not a suitcase!  It’s a trunk!  A funny, cumbersome, magically engineered piece of luggage that is incredibly faithful to his owner Twoflower and ends up being the most comical companion to the half-baked wizard, Rincewind, who didn’t really want to end up being his keeper.

All of that said, I have to admit, this book is not a favourite.  I really struggled to read it and was even on the point of giving up at one point.  I felt lost in a sea of unnecessarily convoluted descriptions and wondered exactly what was the point of the story, especially as Rincewind and Twoflower just seem to bumble along from one calamity to the next with no real purpose.  But one of the bright sides of a buddy read is that there is someone to encourage you to stick with it.  Nicole bullied me convinced me that it does get better and that I should keep at it.  I’m almost finished now but wanted to get my post out on time for today.  I’ve been reading bits and pieces in between other books.

Perhaps what makes it a more difficult book to get through is that it is the first one in the Discworld series and it focuses heavily on world building.  And this world is sooo different and sooo topsy turvy that you have got to pay close attention to what’s happening.  To say that Terry Pratchett is brilliant in his creation of this world, would be an understatement.  It’s a differently shaped planet, with various continents, dimensions creatures, plants and even seasons.  Heck there are even different directions such as Hubbard and Rimward.  Rim being the edge of the world, which is actually protected by a circumfence- no auto correct, I did not mean to type circumference!

Plants on the Disc, while including categories known commonly as annuals, which were sown this year to come up later this year, biennials, sown this year to grow next year and perennials, sown this year to grow until further notice, also included a few rare re-annuals which, because of an usually four-dimensional twist in their genes, could be planted this year to come up last year.

In addition to illustrious world building, we get vividly beautiful imagery at times and laugh out loud comedy at others.  Although this was not a book I overly enjoyed, I’m very glad I read it and I certainly appreciate the exceptional talent behind its creation.

Now, go check out some of the other reviews and commentaries on The Colour of Magic to get some more insight.

Meeghan at Meeghan Reads

Kathy at Pages Below the Vaulted Sky

Didi at Didi Oviatt

Alicia at Miss Honeybugs Reads & Crafts

A Storm of Pages

Nicole at The BookWorm Dinketh

Flowangelic

Emma @ The Stride of my Step