2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion
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The Color of Magic
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The Color of Magic (Discworld #1)
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My first experience of Terry Pratchett's work was reading Good Omens which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman*. However, as they both admitted, it's hard to tell who wrote which part. So, I'm looking forward to trying some of Terry's solo work. I have quite a bit of knowledge of Discworld which I think I must have gained through osmosis. I have also heard that although The Colour of Magic is the first book in the series, it may not necessarily be the best and to not let that put you off from continuing to explore Discworld. Anyway, I can't wait to see what it's like for myself.
* Would highly recommend Good Omens if you haven't read it already. Especially if you like the humour in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Good Omens was not available at my library and I just happened to take out The Colour of Magic instead. Can I join this group read?
Matt wrote: "Good Omens was not available at my library and I just happened to take out The Colour of Magic instead. Can I join this group read?"That depends, can you commit to a 41-month schedule?
I kid, welcome, join in, bring some friends. One book or all of them or somewhere in between. I will be reading all of them whether or not the group read is maintained.
Welcome, Matt!I am only going to read Book One for now but I am interested in returning to Discworld in the future so if we do the series buddy read, you may see me pop up there.
Marc, having read the series before, if you had to pick just one, which Discworld book is your favourite?
Rachael wrote: "...Marc, having read the series before, if you had to pick just one, which Discworld book is your favourite?"Huuuuhhh... I don't have an easy answer to this, since I read them over a 30-year period, most of them only once, and my critical judgment has hopefully evolved over that time. With that said... Small Gods, The Truth and Thief of Time stand out. I was always partial to the early Guard books (Guards, Guards! and Men at Arms). Mort and Reaper Man are also stand-out for featuring the character and cosmology of Discworld's Death.
Marc wrote: "That depends, can you commit to a 41-month schedule?..."Depends on how much I enjoy the first book and when my library has the others available. I mostly read sci-fi and mystery, this is my first proper fantasy read (I don't count the urban fantasy stuff I've read).
I have read this book twice. Rincewind, Twoflowers, and The Luggage...great fun. That said my favorite Discworld character is Granny Weatherwax.
Well, I've finished it now. It was good but I'm not going to continue with the full series buddy read. Full thoughts are in my review and I'll keep popping into this thread to see what you all thought.
I re-read this one a couple years ago. I enjoyed the first couple chapters very much, but the last two I thought were just OK. The Rincewind, Twoflowers and of course The Luggage characters were terrific fun and the setting was very well imagined (Ankh-Morpork is similar to Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar from his Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories - and those characters appear briefly in this book as "Bravd and the Weasel"). For those who don't love this book (or the second book in the series), the series improves quite a bit with the third book. Fans of the series often encourage new readers to start with other books in the series and return to the first two books later but for what it's worth I prefer to read them in chronological order.
hello to you all. so thrilled to join.I wanted to start reding his books in order of publishing for so long
Elena wrote: "hello to you all. so thrilled to join.I wanted to start reding his books in order of publishing for so long"
Welcome over here!
RJ wrote: "...(Ankh-Morpork is similar to Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar from his Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories - and those characters appear briefly in this book as "Bravd and the Weasel")..."
Thanks for that note. I have never read Lankhmar but the first book is in my "read in 2019 or die" list (only 6 books to go in that list). A lot of the humor and fantasy references escaped me when I first read Colour of Magic at age 10 or 11; I only became aware of the Ankh-Morpork name riff fairly recently. I probably was well aware of the origins of Cohen the Barbarian (I think I saw the Arnold Conan movie at age 9). I didn't get "in-sewer-ants" as a kid.
One part of Discworld that never worked well for me was Cut-me-own-throat Dibbler. I am not sure if he first appears in Colour of Magic or later. I was unfamiliar with the idea of selling meat pies on the street or the character concept at all as a young reader. Is it a particularly British construct? I will be curious to see what my take on him will be on this go-around.
Can some help with understanding how this world works. We have a flat disc world being held up by elephants standing on a giant turtle. I get that part but how does day and night & seasons work?
I think you're thinking too hard about it.
Ok I guess the chariots pulling the sun go on vacation mid year or something non sci fi.I finished the first story. Really funny.
Update:: Okay i guess 8 is some magical/good/evil/special number in the story so it makes sense to have 8 seasons, 8 colors, 8....
Scott wrote: "Update:: Okay i guess 8 is some magical/good/evil/special number in the story so it makes sense to have 8 seasons, 8 colors, 8.... "More on that in part two.
Scott wrote: "Can some help with understanding how this world works. We have a flat disc world being held up by elephants standing on a giant turtle. I get that part but how does day and night & seasons work?"Answered in the first footnote (the first of many glorious footnotes that will grace us in this series), on p. 5 or thereabouts.
I am so excited to have started this series re-read. I have not touched a lot of these books since high school,it is going to be a wonderful nostalgic journey, and I am bringing my new adult perspective to it (which tbh has not improved much since high school :P )I previously posted that the first book may be a little rough; I am not finding this to be the case at all now that I have started it. The writing is charming and the humor is spot on. Cosmic sex joke by page 2! The world's cosmology and Ankh Morpork's character are given shape wonderfully. Pratchett's depictions of human nature (both individual and collective) and politics in the first chapter are delighful. In fact, "delightful" is the word for my whole experience with this book right now. I am only on like, page 30 or so. I was very pleased at the explanation of Twoflower's place of origin; that detail must have not sunk in or had escaped me since my last read 30 years ago. I finally get "reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits"
I am excited too to read it in the 1983 hardcover book club edition. The cover art is amazing:
I got it and about 25 more similarly bound Discworld books recently at my local Friends of the Public Library book sale. They put on huge donation-driven sales and I volunteer at them to set up so that I can get first look at the offerings; I walked away with these gems for $1 each. I don't think this edition is worth any $$ but it is precious to me.
I also still have my first paperback copy, the 1985 Corgi edition, with Josh Kirby's madcap grotesque cover art:
In the place in the title block where these books usually read "A Discworld Novel" it says "Jerome K. Jerome meets LORD OF THE RINGS (wih a touch of Peter Pan)". This was the copy that my mother gave me when I was 10 years old. So yeah, loving it.
Ok finished, all the details made this book extremely fun and humorous.
Finished a week or so ago. Good stuff! Much more solid than I remembered. It was still rather sand-boxy compared to later discworld novels (i.e. went all over the place on the Disc) but a fabulous first novel.I was surprised that I misrembered Cohen being in this one. We got a different barbarian instead.
What I especially liked was that it had fun with fantasy conventions without mocking them; making fun with instead of making fun of. I don't really think of it as parody or satire, rather simply good-hearted, humorous fantasy.
Dehydrated water. Omg that's funny at least to me. Like a meatless steak or a living murder victim.
Kristin wrote: "Is everyone besides Rachael (and maybe Matt) continuing on with this series? I admit, I didn't read all of the comments."I'm in for the first four books only.
I'm in for the first few at least. One per month for 2020 would be fine. That's probably as far out as I would like to plan.
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2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge
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I later grew up with every Discworld entry, buying them in paperback throughout my teens (in Canada, they only came out in paperback for many years).
The last time I re-read The Colour of Magic many many years ago, it was kind of rough. While foundational, it might not be up to the quality that the Discworld series achieved over time. Like, it even has chapters. So to my fellow buddy readers, I request that you stick with the series for a few books before passing judgment if this is your first time. If struggling with this, we can always decide to skip ahead to titles that are generally acknowledged as indicative of the quality of the series as a whole.