The Colour of Magic

Terry Pratchett

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There's an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet...

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...

'One of the best, and one of the funniest English authors alive.'

Review by Chrissi (190101) Rating (8/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 8/10
This is the first Discworld novel, and we meet Rincewind for the first time. Rincewind is the failed wizard who carries in his mind one of the eight spells from the Octavio, The Grimoire, left (accidentally) by the Creator after finishing the Discworld.

As a result, he is not a very good wizard, as none of the spells will stay in his mind, he has come to the conclusion that they are too scared to stick around for long.

Rincewind has the gift of languages and meets Twoflower, the first tourist of the Discworld. The adventures that they have together are chronicled here. They start with having to leave Ankh-Morpork because the proprietor of the Broken Drum misunderstood the principle of Inn-sewer-ants and set fire to the Inn, (and had an unexpected meeting with death at that time).

So, all sorts of strange events occur around Twoflower and Rincewind, my personal favourite is when they are swept over the edge of the disc (Rim), and are rescued by Tethis, a sea troll. Tethis is composed entirely of water and as such suffers really badly from the tides - ladies, think of the really bad PMT/water retention, but this poor bloke either shrinks or swells according to the cycle of the moon - this has got to make you fell better, hasn't it? But he is lovely (for a troll), and the last that we see of Rincewind is that he is plummeting off the Disc in what passes for a spacesuit following Twoflower who is inside a giant fish... makes sense, honest...

Brilliant, it is no wonder that we all waited with baited breath for the next instalment, and the one after that, (twenty-five has recently come out… Nigel is reading this one, lying on the bed as we speak.).
Chrissi (19th January 2001)