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Jul 29, 2009

Brad rated it:

Before picking it up, I'd heard that The Colour of Magic was funny. Now that can mean just about anything because, let's face it, comedy is the most subjective of arts.

Funny is a deeply personal thing. The "funny peculiar" and the "funny ha-ha" might not be the same from person to person or even to the same person depending on their mood or their place in life. So knowing something is funny ahead of reading it really doesn't tell me much.

I'd read Terry Pratchett More...

18 comments like (33 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2011

Qt rated it:

Before starting this one, I knew very little about the Discworld books, except that they were popular, were supposed to be funny, and involved a world that is carried through space on the back of a turtle. I wasn't sure they would be my type of book, but I wanted to try Terry Pratchett, so....

I am only a quarter of the way through this book, and so far, I am really glad I did try it! I am finding it highly entertaining and quite funny. It has become one of those that I think of even More...

7 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2008

Jamie rated it:

I'm pretty sure people have told me about Pratchett and his Diskworld series before, usually working in the phrase "He's the Douglas Adams of fantasy" into the description. But the problem was that I always felt that I had had enough of Adams after the third Hithiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, and whenever I scanned Pratchett's section in the bookstore I was immediately put off by not knowing where to start reading among the approximately five hundred thousand Diskworld books. I'm gla More...

0 comments like (14 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2008

Jon rated it:

Why did I wait 25 years to read this book? Of course, until recently, I wasn't even aware of it's existence. I have to thank the online book club here for introducing me to Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series.

It was a wild ride keeping up with the mad cap adventures of an improbable tourist, his indestructible over-protective luggage and his cowardly, incompetent wizard of a guide.

If you're looking for wit, humor and head-spinning antics, this is the novel for

2 comments like (13 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2008

Belarius rated it:

Author Terry Pratchett may be the modern day Mark Twain, one of the most prolific satirical authors in genre fiction. The world he spins his elaborate metaphors is that of Discworld, a setting in which he has successfully parodied everything from opera to religion, from currency to war, from morris dancing to mall proliferation. But before Discworld was a template upon which all things modern could be parodied, it was simply a parody, and a mediocre one at best.

Pratchett's humor is More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2010

Keely rated it:

Tried to start him at the beginning, as many of my dear friends love him. However, this book showed no particular charm nor skill of construction. It is an early piece, so this unpractised work is to be expected. The jokes were more worthy of groans than guffaws, and I was left feeling rather let down, since he's been compared to the superlatively funny Douglas Adams.

After finding this one dull, a friend suggested I try one of his later books, so I started Moving Pictures, which was More...

8 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jun 24, 2010

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

Ahh, the story of Twoflower and the "failed" wizard Rincewind. Although calling Rincewind a "failed" wizard is possibly not really fair to him as he's only a "failed" wizard because having sneaked a look at a forbidden spell book one the 8 Great Spells has taken up the room in his brain that would be needed for other spells and he can't get it out, at least not without casting it, and since neither he nor the other wizards know what it will do...destroy the world, t More...

9 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2009

Werner rated it:

Having recently read Swords of Lankhmar, I was able to recognize a marked influence of Leiber on this opening volume of Pratchett's popular Discworld series. Like Nehwon, the Discworld is a swords-and-sorcery flavored fantasy realm where the social environment is generally not a benevolent one; Pratchett's corrupt and decadent city of Ankh-Morpork has certain similarities to Lankhmar, and Bravd and the Weasel here are very reminiscent of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Potentates on the Discworld More...

8 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2008

Rob rated it:

I've never really been a fan of British comedy. I see the attraction to stuff like Monty Python, Faulty Towers, et al, but the humor's vastly different then what I enjoy. I think it's the propriety or formality that throws me off. People compare Terry Pratchett's work to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide series and that seems pretty approriate. Both are outlandish and filled with silly inanity. That being said, it's not my cup of tea. There always seems to be those scenes where characters More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 06, 2007

Karen rated it:

First book in the excellent Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Satire at its finest, this is not strictly a sci-fi/fantasy series. Yes, it is set in a world that is not Earth and there are werewolves, vampires, dwarfs and golems, but the stories revolve around things that are parallel to our modern world (or England's modern world). Discworld is like the end of the Dark Ages and the beginning of the Rennaisance, but is also like today.

I just love the details that Pratchett has c More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2009

Izlinda rated it:

Pretty funny, though sometimes it dragged or seemed too hard to be funny.

Unfortunately now I'm curious what that spell is that Rincewind has stuck in his brain. :-S I might check out some of the other Discworld bookss. I bought this one on a whim in the Chicago O'Hare Airport.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2007

Bethany rated it:

Terry Pratchett is to fantasy what Douglas Adams is to Science Fiction. The Colour of Magic (I read it in England, thus the added u in colour) is a comedic introduction to the Discworld series in which we follow the inept wizard, Rincewind as he is unwantingly roped into guiding the clueless tourist Twoflower along with the ever faithful Luggage around the flat, disc-shaped world. This is a world where the gods gamble to decide the fates of the world and the ever-present Death, efficiently " More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2008

Shannon rated it:

Read this years ago but had forgotten all about it until I was looked at it in the bookshop and recognised the cover. It's next month's book for the science fiction and fantasy group, so it'll be interesting to read it again after all these years. It's the very first Discworld book and I originally read it to see if I liked it, but I didn't so I never read any of the other Discworld novels. Then again, I really can't remember anything about it! (Don't worry, I'll write a fresh review when I've r More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 11, 2011

Hannah rated it:

When the Disc’s first tourist, Twoflower, arrives at Ankh Morpork’s docks, failed wizard Rincewind, is ordered to look after the naive visitor. Determined to see all the local sights, Twoflower unknowingly leads the pair into pub brawls, dragon lairs and a dryad realm.

I never read The Disc World series when I was younger, because shamefully I thought the books were more for boys. Maybe that was down to their covers? But, how very wrong I was. In The Colour of Magic you are not just t More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 20, 2008

Kristjan rated it:

This is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ... only for Fantasy. The two main, hapless characters lurch from scene to scene (or storyline to storyline) in what might be considered a classic epic ... If the scenes actually had anything in common other then the main characters. Along the way, Prachett humorously substitutes magic for science, frequently with the intent to play with our perceptions and fantasy stereotypes, while we explore the Disk World in his first novel of the series. It wa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 08, 2008

Dhendlowitch rated it:

I feel I found Discworld Very late in the game. There are like 30 books in the series now and the is a shit load to catch up on. I figured the best place to start in this epic series was with book 1, although I have been told that you can really pick up any of them and understand where you are in the series. Most of them have little if nothing to do with each other other then being in the same fantasy world, with the same impractical physics, and same greater beings such as Luck (the lady), Deat More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 31, 2008

Michael rated it:

Like Douglas Adams did with science-fiction, Terry Pratchett takes the typical conventions of fantasy and turns them on their head for comic effect with his popular DiscWorld series.

By having a slightly skewed view of fantasy conventions, Pratchett points out the strengths and the fallacies of the genre. And he always does it with a story that has more than its share of laugh out loud moments. Pratchett is also a master of construction language to come together in interesting way More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 26, 2007

Bonnie Gayle rated it:

This was a really funny beginning to the Discworld series. It's the funniest book that I've read in quite awhile, and I'm now looking forward to the rest of the series.

The book tells the tale of Twoflower and Rincewind. Twoflower is a care-free tourist from a rich land, and Rincewind is a wizard who Twoflower hires to be his tour guide, since Rincewind is the only one who he can communicate with.
Each character has issues. Twoflower came from his land with a magical walking che More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 22, 2007

Adrienne rated it:

I have to take breaks between reading Terry Pratchett books. My friend summed it up the best, I think, when he asked “Do you ever get the feeling that Terry is sitting in a room, writing and laughing to himself?” Yes, I do get that feeling. It’s kind of like one of those long-running jokes between friends that’s really funny when you forget about it for awhile then bring it up at a dinner sometime. But if you keep harping on it without giving it a break, it just loses the humor it once had. For More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 24, 2009

Beth F. rated it:

I admit it. I am probably not the intended audience for this book. I don't like elf and sword fantasies and have not read many. Regardless, I thought a parody of that sort of fantasy would be a laugh for me and I've had countless people recommend Terry Pratchett to me over the years. Unfortunately this book fell flat for me and many of the references were beyond my realm of giving a shit.

The introduction of a cast of forgettable characters from forgettable places was rushed and More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2008

bup rated it:

More like a two-and-a-half stars...I'm not a big fan of fantasy, but I read the 3 Tiffany Aching books (also Discworld) and liked them, so I thought I'd start at the beginning.

Well, it was his first try at Discworld. Entertaining. Kind of. I would have found this funnier in high school, like when I read "Hitchhiker's Guide." All the self-aware writing, and cheats to get through plot points (even if the excuse is the self-awareness and cheats are in the name of humor) hurt t More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2008

Danger rated it:

I've always hated fantasy, and I still do. This book was disorganized to the point that reading it made my soul hurt. I guess part of that could have been trying to read it while sick, but even then, I didn't see that it really helped me any to put this in my brain. From what I understand, the books do get better as the series meanders along, but I'm not going to buy more. I might read them if I run out of anything else to read and happen to be in the “P” section of the library. Still, the More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2008

TeraD rated it:

This story followed the misadventures of Twoflower and Rincewind, but never really pulled me in. Although I consider myself a sci-fi fan, I like sci-fi that is somewhat believeable. It can involve strange races of people and alien planets, but I could just never reconcile the idea of a discworld riding on the backs of elephants riding on the back of a giant turtle. A little too unreal for me. The characters were weak, I was never compelled to care about them or what happened to them. The book wa More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 30, 2007

Jono rated it:

This is your ticket to a goofy, lifelong attachment. Pratchett is criminally overlooked in the US. In the UK, he's neck & neck w/ Dickens for scale of popularity. Hilarious stuff, sure, but once you get past the puns & the fabulous use of all things English, there's quite a bit of sharp satire. Here, he's just getting started, and you'll grow to appreciate Rincewind & Twoflower. The Luggage is the sort of inspired madness that takes on a life of its own on the Disc. Later, Small Gods, Guards! Gu More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 13, 2011

Niall rated it:

the first of the Discworld novels is a good read, but not the best as this is where we find Pratchett finding his feet, for a Kindle book it's not overly expensive.
I always start this book knowing its a good read, but by the end, so many memories of the book appear with each page that by the end I remember its a great book.
If you have watched the TV adaptation (which I really enjoyed), this is so much better.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 06, 2012

Dami rated it:

This book has received mixed reviews, some praise it as the best of the Discworld series, some say it's the worst. Personally I am one of those who didn't like it, but that's okay. It had its funny moments, but if your not a fan of the main character of an individual Discworld book, you won't enjoy the book so much. In other words, if you like Rincewind, you will love this book too and will want to reread the whole series of his books so that everything stays in context. if you don't like the fa More...

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Dec 19, 2011

Maurizio rated it:

Da: http://www.mauriziovicedomini.heliohost.org/2011/09/recensione-il-colore-della-magia-terry-pratchett/

Ho finalmente messo mano ai romanzi di Pratchett che ho preso in vacanza, e ho deciso di cominciare dal ciclo di Scuotivento, di cui ho i primi due volumi. Ho sentito parlare molto bene sia dell’autore che del ciclo in sé, e forse questo mi ha fatto partire con aspettative più alte del necessario. Forse, chissà. Vedremo durante la recensione il risultato di questa lettura.

Come sempre, partiam More...

0 comments like

Feb 18, 2009

Phillip rated it:

This is my second time through this book. The ending left me so unimpressed upon the first read through that I had no inclination to read any more Terry Pratchett until my daughter Denice recommended "Guards! Guards!" which I thoroughly loved. This second read through of “The Color of Magic” was to see if having a better toehold on the mentality of Pratchett's Discworld would affect a better appreciation for the first novel in the series. Surprisingly this second time through was ve More...

1 comment like

Feb 16, 2009

Carrie rated it:

Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are some of my favorite comfort reads. They're funny, they're short, I can read them quickly, and they are smarter than they seem, so I usually end up having thought a little bit about something more important that the fluorescent orange cover with a broomstick (or troll, or DEATH, or what have you) would imply. The Color of Magic is the very first Discworld book. I had been warned (by, um, the internet, since NO ONE I know reads these but me!) that the very fi More...

0 comments like

Jan 05, 2009

Laura rated it:

This was my first Discworld book and at the time I thought it was possibly the most hilarious thing I'd ever read; rereading it now, after I've made my way through most of the series, I can see that it lacks a lot of the subtlety and human insight of the later books. In The Colour of Magic Pratchett is still clearly trying to satirize fantasy, whereas he later uses fantasy to satirize a more broad base of targets - including other genres, other books, and ultimately human nature in general.
More...

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