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The Colour Of Magic by Terry Pratchett
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The Colour Of Magic (original 1983; edition 1987)

by Terry Pratchett

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21,965438179 (3.76)683
Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent, bestselling novels have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody next to the likes of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen. The Color of Magic is Terry Pratchett's maiden voyage through the now-legendary land of Discworld. This is where it all begins -- with the tourist Twoflower and his wizard guide, Rincewind.… (more)
Member:olivejuice442
Title:The Colour Of Magic
Authors:Terry Pratchett
Info:Corgi (1987), Edition: paperback / softback, Paperback
Collections:Your library
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Work Information

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (1983)

  1. 240
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (mcenroeucsb)
  2. 122
    Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (derelicious)
  3. 80
    The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (glade1)
    glade1: Another "zany alternate universe," set on earth in a slightly different version of history and with forays into BookWorld, or the actual events of books.
  4. 60
    Ill Met in Lankhmar [collection] by Fritz Leiber (ehines)
    ehines: Pratchett, of course, is far more contemporary, but aside from the obvious parody/homage, the tone and atmosphere of Pratchett's early Discworld books are clearly inpsired by the Lankhmar stories. Well worth reading either Leiber's or Pratchett's take on ironic fantasy heroism.… (more)
  5. 40
    Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw (electronicmemory)
  6. 41
    The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers (Tjarda)
    Tjarda: Walter Moers created the fantastic continent of Zamonia, with a great number of colourful characters. You may think it's for kids, but it is certainly not!
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    Skylles: Fun, often silly, very creative, action fantasy
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    The Toyminator by Robert Rankin (ShelfMonkey)
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    Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher (humouress)
    humouress: Really, it's because the style of humour in 'Clockwork Boys' is very reminiscent of Pratchett's irreverent style in the 'Discworld' (amongst others) books
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» See also 683 mentions

English (410)  Spanish (7)  French (7)  Dutch (3)  German (2)  Italian (1)  Norwegian (1)  Swedish (1)  Hungarian (1)  Romanian (1)  Polish (1)  Danish (1)  All languages (436)
Showing 1-5 of 410 (next | show all)
This was a re-read for me, though aside from knowing Rincewind the wizard finds himself acting as escort to the tourist Twoflower, and his enigmatic Luggage, I'd forgotten basically every detail. It was fun being back in a world that felt vaguely familiar and also new.

This is a goofy collection of short stories, though they are told in a linear fashion. You've got to be prepared to encounter the absurd and just roll with it. Though there are also a lot of ways Pratchett parodies our everyday lives through his fantasy, which I appreciated. I'm looking forward to actually moving through the series (following Rincewind for now) at a pace where I won't just forget everything that happened by the time I read the next book. ( )
  MillieHennessy | Feb 3, 2024 |
The Colour of Magic is to Fantasy what The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is to Science Fiction (theoretically). In actuality, this book is not at all good. Similar to Hitchhiker's Guide, if you do not enjoy the humour, then it can be an extremely unpleasant experience. I laughed once on the first page. What's even worse is that I saw the film beforehand. ( )
  MXMLLN | Jan 12, 2024 |
I'm not saying I wasn't overwhelmed at first, being thrown into this world full of unfamiliar beings, places, ways things worked, but I started feeling the ground under my feet soon enough when the focus narrowed down a bit on main characters I got familiar with. Then it was easier to get acquainted with new characters, events and places having them by my side. It wasn't overwhelming anymore, or let's say Rincewind took the weight off my shoulders and I was able to happily plunge into this wonderful world of wild imagination and a sense of humour I utterly loved. I'm glad to see there are 40 more books in this series. (All right, I was aware, but haven't started getting to know this series before, and now I'm happy I have so many more to look forward to.) I really hope to see these old friends again in some of them. ( )
  blueisthenewpink | Jan 3, 2024 |
My first Discworld book, but am now determined to read all gazillion of them. Inventive and funny. How could I have not discovered this series before?? ( )
  Doodlebug34 | Jan 1, 2024 |
It has been wild returning to this series after twenty odd years and the fact that escaping into Pratchett's imagination genuinely kept a very undiagnosed, neurodivergent, extremely repressed, neglected, and denigrated Queer Genderqueer ten year old alive. I have been scared, both of being disappointed and triggered with past associations, but I have been pleasantly surprised! I still love the Discworld and Pratchett was a stand up bloke, which can never be taken from any of us.

What is there to say? It's a very silly, but impressively built world with characters that enter as tropes, only to show more depth or be a wonderful punchline. It's weird fantasy with anachronistic gadjits and strange science and magic. It's utterly irreverent, but in a caring, loving, serious, unserious kind of way.

A bizarre, naive tourist and a grumpy, selfish failed wizard being in the burning of a great twin city and galavant across the disc getting into various scrapes and misadventures with thieves, assassins, imaginary dragons, heroes, an old god, a bunch of less old gods, learning that the real treasure was the dogged sentient pearwood chest with hundreds of legs that followed them all the way.

I'm beyond excited to be reading this series with my partner who is reading them for the first time. I loved reading this and I am only restraining myself from giving it the full five star treatment because I think the back half of the book is a little scattershot with some peaks and troughs, which lost my attention at times. The whole thing is bloody brilliant nonetheless! ( )
  RatGrrrl | Dec 20, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 410 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (21 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Pratchett, Terryprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Brandhorst, AndreasTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Callori, NataliaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hartman, DagmarTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hildebrandt, GregCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kantůrek, JanTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kirby, JoshCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Macía, CristinaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
McLaren, JoeCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Planer, NigelNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Player, StephenCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Robinson, TonyNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rockwell, Scottsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sahlin, OlleTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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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...
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Tourist, Rincewind decided, meant "idiot".
Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting 'All gods are bastards'.
Rincewind sighed again. It was all very well going on about pure logic and how the universe was ruled by logic and the harmony of numbers, but the plain fact of the matter was that the Disc was manifestly traversing space on the back of a giant turtle and the gods had a habit of going around to atheists' houses and smashing their windows.
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent, bestselling novels have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody next to the likes of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen. The Color of Magic is Terry Pratchett's maiden voyage through the now-legendary land of Discworld. This is where it all begins -- with the tourist Twoflower and his wizard guide, Rincewind.

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Terry Pratchett has invented a phantasmagorical universe in which a blissfully naive interplanetary tourist called Two-flower joins up with a drop-out wizard whose spells only seem to work half of the time.

Together they undertake a chaotic voyage through a crazy world filled with monsters and dragons, heroes and knaves. Pratchett has taken the sword and sorcery fantasy tradition and turned it in its ear to create an entertaining and bizarre spoof.
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