Product Description

On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out.    There's an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1364 in Books
• Published on: 1985-01-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 283 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Colour of Magic is Terry Pratchett's maiden voyage through the bizarre land of Discworld. His entertaining and witty series has grown to more than 20 books, and this is where it all starts--with the tourist Twoflower and his hapless wizard guide, Rincewind ("All wizards get like that... it's the quicksilver fumes. Rots their brains. Mushrooms, too."). Pratchett spoofs fantasy clichés--and everything else he can think of--while marshalling a profusion of characters through a madcap adventure. The Colour of Magic is followed by The Light Fantastic. --Blaise Selby, Amazon.com

Review
Pratchett borrows from Babylonian cosmology for his second, wacky flat-Earth yarn - set on an Earth.disk that rests on the backs of four elephants, who themselves stand on the shell of an enormous turtle. (And only Pratchett's characters would think of lowering themselves over the edge of the disk-in order to determine the sex of the turtle!) This time failed wizard Rincewind runs into problems when he encounters rich, bumbling circum - disk tourist Twoflower - whose luggage consists of a sapient pearwood box that trots around after him on hundreds of tiny legs. . . and snaps its lid at anyone it doesn't like. The innocent Twoflower sells some fire insurance to a shifty innkeeper, who proceeds to burn down his inn and the entire city of Ankh-Morpork. And what follows is madcap travelogue, involving: the disk's zany, often magical inhabitants; the Gods (atheists are liable to get their windows broken); a watery being who splashed down in the ocean, having fallen off a different Earth-disk; and Death with his scythe (whose timing is so poor that Rincewind keeps evading him). Not quite the gleefully insane parody Strata (1981) was, but frothy, inventive, and fun. (Kirkus Reviews)

From the Back Cover
It is fantasy? No - it's a different and more eccentric reality, where the world is flat and moves through space on the back of a giant turtle, Death stalks glumly about his duties, and dragons only exist if you believe in them. And your luggage follows you around on hundreds of little legs...

Follow Twoflower the naïve tourist and his inept guide Rincewind in their hilarious search for thrills, adventure and opportunities to not get killed. Follow them all the way to the Edge - and beyond...

THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE NOW LEGENDARY DISCWORLD SERIES

Tony Robinson, successful writer, actor and documentary-maker. Star of radio, TV and theatre. Well-known for the popular TV series Time Team and his roles as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Maid Marion and Her Merry Men and Baldrick in Blackadder.

Abridged, running time approximately 3 hours

Customer Reviews

Don't start with this one if you're new to the series
This is certainly not one to start the series with if you are new to Terry Pratchett - it is thematically quite different (which is understandable considering that it's the first of his Discworld books) and rather rough in parts. It's certainly one to read once you're familiar with the world, but you'd be better off starting with something like Mort or Soul Music to get a better flavour of what Discworld is all about.

Discworld Begins.
Ok you dont need to read every discworls novel, nor do you need to start here but I think it helps. This is one of the best, Rincewind has always been my favourite Pratchett Character anyway.

I loved it
I loved the book and all its characters down to the tiniest atom. Rincewind and Death are now official favourite characters of mine and I am now a Discworld fan. I have read through 13-14 books so far and hope to read more, but this one I always come back to.
People may have thought It wasn't that great, but it was better than [[The Last Continent]]!