Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - The Colour of Magic

I haven't read Color of Magic since 2009. Having read other Discworld in between, I really understand now why Pratchett called it and The Light Fantastic "essays in the craft." This is a chaotic whirlwind of a book and not exactly good, compared to later books in the series. And that's part of what makes in awesome. What a gift we were given, to watch Discworld's (and Pratchett's) progress across the decades. Don't read it for what it is; read it for what it's building the foundation for.

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sockandkey's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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theirgracegrace's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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bluejayreads's review

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adventurous lighthearted

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

I can definitely tell this is the first Discworld book. Most of the Discworld books I’ve read have been from way later in the series and focus mostly on the characters and their adventures in their own corner of the disc. This one did have a plot, sort of, and main characters, but it seemed mostly designed to introduce the reader to this weird new world of a disc on the backs of four elephants on the back of a giant turtle flying through space.

That need to explain the Discworld seemed to inform most of the content of this book. The protagonists are Rincewind, a wizard who got expelled from magic school and who only knows one spell, and Twoflower, the Disc’s first tourist who wants to see all the interesting things. And that’s mostly what the plot consists of – there isn’t really one, Rincewind and Twoflower just bounce around between interesting things. Twoflower delights in the excitement and newness of meeting eldritch monstrosities and nearly falling off the edge of the world, while Rincewind has plenty of near heart attacks while trying his best to get them both through it alive.

This book is pretty short, as most of the Discworld books seem to be. There’s quite a bit of adventure and exploring the world and such, but not much in the way of characterization. Rincewind was anxious and a little cowardly, but understandably so considering all the deadly nonsense he has to deal with in this book. Twoflower is obnoxiously blasé about the danger and seems incapable of realizing that this is real life and not just some grand fantasy jaunt and he could get himself or other people killed. There was none of the depth and poignancy I found in later books (especially the Tiffany Aching books).

That’s not to say I disliked it. It was a fairly fun read, lighthearted despite the frequent mortal danger, and serves as a solid introduction to the physics and basic terminology of living on a flat world. But that seemed to be the main purpose of the book – story and characters secondary to introducing this fantasy world. It absolutely isn’t a bad book, but I’m looking forward to the rest of the books being more character- and story-focused now that this groundwork has been established.

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

This was just okay. The early parts dragged, in the end it was pretty good but not fantastic. A lot of language was quippy but it just felt off. It was smarmy, showing off how clever it is, but it didn’t have a ton to say beyond its own cleverness. It spent entirely too long hinting at a word or phrase that people weren’t quite understanding, and by the time the word was said in a way that made it discernible, I had spent long enough being annoyed at the running gag that I didn’t care that I got the answer. It’s the very first book published in the series, and it’s probably skippable. It does conclusively establish the pretty cool shape of the world that was explained at the very beginning, and is reiterated throughout the series, so there’s that at least. I like the dragon bits, but also I just like dragons.

I've read other books in the series so I know I like where they end up, but this definitely isn't up to that level since it's the first one.

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