I feel like everybody loves Terry Pratchett. Or at least, the world he’s created. I’ve never before been intrigued about his books, with there being so many, but at the start of this year…some intrigue sparked. And so, I’ve delved into Discworld.

Let’s talk about The Colour of Magic!

Title: The Colour of Magic

Author: Terry Pratchett

Publisher: Corgi Books

Series Status: The 1st Discworld novel

Genre: Fantasy

Number of Pages:  287

(Found on back cover & Goodreads)

In the beginning there was…a turtle.

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. Particularly as it’s carried though space on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown). It plays by different rules.

But then, some things are the same everywhere. The Disc’s very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the world’s first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land. Unfortunately, the person charged with maintaining that survival in the face of robbers, mercenaries and, well, Death, is a spectacularly inept wizard…

Oh look! This is one of those strange series’ that can be read in any order.

While that does sound mightily tempting, what with being able to pick and choose out of so many and simply skip to the most interesting sounding ones…I just can’t do that to myself.

1. I like things being orderly. I can’t have the numbers scattered everywhere. Not to mention the fact that I’d lose track of which numbers I have.
2. Choosing at random would mean reading the synopsis’ of every book, and I believe there’s 41 books in the Discworld universe. Who has time to read that many synopsis’ for the sake of choosing one?!? I don’t. I’ll just go with whatever’s next.

Anyway, my point is: For anyone interested, I will be slowly making my way through Terry Pratchett’s books, in the number they’re ordered.

Now, for the first one.

The first thing I noticed was how wonderful the writing is. It’s just so descriptive, but he manages to use words that you don’t often see. Which makes it sounds like it might be difficult to read and follow, but no. In fact, see for yourself, as I’m so awful at explaining.

Here’s the first paragraph:

“In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part…

See…

Great A’Tuin the Turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf, hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs, his huge and ancient shell pocked with meteor craters. Through sea-sized eyes that are crusted with rheum and asteroid dust He stares fixedly at the Destination.”

Though I soon started to get confused. Not because of the writing, or the plot. But because of the overall feel/atmosphere of this story. To me, this felt like a children’s book. Maybe because of how weirdly wonderful Discworld is, with magic and giant flying space turtles and luggage with legs. But it didn’t take me long to suss that this really isn’t a children’s book. Just little comments slipped in here and there. But still, noticeable.

But anywho. After that initial confuddlement, it didn’t take long to get into the book. While I can’t entirely grasp the world and all it’s curiosities, I gleaned enough to be able to throw myself in headfirst and enjoy the story.

The story, of which, was highly entertaining. Rincewind and Twoflower (oh how I have a soft spot for that innocent li’l cinnamon bun) cause so much havoc without even meaning to, and seeing the events unfold one by one made for a quick read. It’s a fun, adventurous plot, and it didn’t take me long to figure out why people might love Terry Pratchett so much.

The only thing that actually bothered slightly was that for every single female in the plot, it was pointed out how little she was wearing. Because obviously, every female is a naked beauty, no matter what sort of creature they actually are *sigh*. Though I do acknowledge that this was written quite a while ago, and that was just how fantasy tended to be – even in films and games. So what can you do?

But yeah. I did enjoy this book, and will definitely be reading more of Terry Pratchett. I hope they’re all as weird and wonderful as this one is!

Rated 3.5/5 stars

Amazon

Share your thoughts!

Have you read this book? What did you think?

Maybe you’ve read some of Terry Pratchett’s other books?

If you haven’t read any, do you plan to?

Let me know in the comments!

Until next time…

Come and visit me!

Snapchat: frolic_fiction