Book Review: Discworld 1: 'The Color of Magic' by Terry Pratchett

“Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. Certainly it refuses to succumb to the quaint notion that universes are ruled by pure logic and the harmony of numbers.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic

For a very long time, I've wanted to read through the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. I read The Color of Magic (or Colour if you have the British spelling) back in high school, and I've read The Light Fantastic and Guards, Guards somewhere in the intervening time since then. But this is hardly scratching the surface of the 41 book saga that is the Discworld series. So, I've started back from the beginning by reading through The Color of Magic once more (since it's been such a long time since I read it originally).

I saw that Nolan Nightingale was setting out to review all 41 books of the Discworld series this year, starting with his review of The Color of Magic, and this made me want to give my own review/thoughts on the books as I go through them (although I highly doubt I'll make it through all 41 books in a year.)

What is Discworld?

The Discworld is a realm that exists on the back of a large disc suspended on the back of four giant elephants which are, themselves, standing on top of a giant turtle sailing through the cosmos. This setting is the backdrop for Terry Prattchet's numerous novels that largely parody common fantasy/storytelling/real life tropes by turning them all on their heads.

Color of Magic: First Impression: Less than the Sum of its Parts

There are a lot of great things about the Color of Magic that I really greatly enjoy, and I'm going to try to break down a lot of them below, but I've got to start by acknowledging that the story as a whole is severely lacking. 

The overall plot of the story involves one character trying to act as a guide for another character (we'll talk about them in a minute), but it doesn't really have any sort of cohesion or rising action or even connection between events. Primarily stuff happens and the characters end up in a situation and eventually end up outside of it and move on to the next completely unrelated situation. The book is divided into four sections, each making fun of a particular type of fantasy story, and each of which could almost be a stand alone story, but which don't really correspond well together. 

Again, this isn't saying that there's not value in the Color of Magic, just that the 'plot' doesn't do a good job of stringing everything together in the fashion that plots typically do.

The Characters: A Failed Wizard and a Tourist

 “'Don't you understand?' snarled Rincewind. 'We are going over the Edge, godsdammit!'
'Can't we do anything about it?'
'No!'
'Then I can't see the sense in panicking,' said Twoflower calmly.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

There are two primary characters in the story. The first is Twoflower. Twoflower is a tourist to the fantasy world. He's optimistic and just pleased to be there. He wants to see the world and all the fantastic things within it, and he doesn't really acknowledge the danger that is posed by...just about everything. Nolan's review said that Twoflower was a parody of Asian tourists. I interpreted him more as a parody of American tourists or just tourists in general. His desire to photograph everything seemed fairly universal to tourists across the board. However, his attempts to communicate with foreign language speakers by speaking in his own language slower and louder seemed like something that I largely associate with Americans. Twoflower also serves as a narrative device to introduce the readers to the Discworld since, even though his home nation is on Discworld, it is a more mundane place than the magical, fantastic, and adventurous lands in which the story takes place.

“I’ve seen excitement, and I’ve seen boredom. And boredom was best.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

The second main character is Rincewind, who is, technically, a wizard. The joke being that he isn't a very good wizard, or much of a wizard at all. He only knows one spell, and no one (not even him) knows what it will do. He avoids using it at all costs. Rincewind is world weary, practical, and just wants to stay out of the way. The fact that he ends up on the adventure that he's on in the book is something that he would rather have avoided altogether. Rincewind is hired, much against his will, to serve as a guide to Twoflower in the tourist's travels through this realm.

The Overall Tone-A Tongue and Cheek Delight

The Color of Magic has a consistent tone throughout the book of wit and humor that a) is highly reminiscent of the tone of Douglas Adams/The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and b) I believe is greatly improved and developed as the Discworld series goes on. The narrator has a distinctive voice that adds levity and faintly humorous commentary to every situation.

But more than that, the individual characters and scenarios used throughout the book all serve as parodies and inversions of common fantasy tropes in ways that often feel (to me) like modern inversions or like things that I haven't seen approached in similar ways before (which is uncommon for something from the 80s, as most of the inversions or things that were done well then have been done many times since then.)

An Observation of Bel-Shammharoth

While I remembered there being a temple with four plus four sides in which you should avoid saying the number that you arrive at if you add three and five, I had forgotten altogether about the dark being that the temple was devoted to. The being is described like this:

“He was not Evil, for even Evil has a certain vitality — Bel-Shamharoth was the flip side of the coin of which Good and Evil are but one side.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

This greatly reminds me of my presentation of the void (and its manifestations) in my Book of Destiny/Books of the Universe audiobook podcast.

A Conclusion

While the overall story of The Color of Magic is lacking, its characters and individual parts all have good merit. Overall, it was an enjoyable ride, and I'm looking forward to continuing the journey in The Light Fantastic.

If You're New to My Blog...

I am an author of books and gamemaster of tabletop RPGs. These topics are the primary subjects of my blog. My primary project for the last several months has been The Book of Destiny which is a book that I've been presenting in audiobook format over a podcast called "The Books of the Universe." The full audiobook has now been posted at this point.

The Book of Destiny takes place in a shattered multiverse and focuses on a scattered group of characters facing many threats to the worlds including a group of world destoryers, monsters, the return of dragons, and the void itself. Check it out from the beginning at: https://anchor.fm/booksoftheuniverse/episodes/Episode-101-An-Allowably-Costly-Bargain-ecat9r or on your podcast service of choice by searching "Books of the Universe."