Lotus666
06-08-09, 10:42 PM
The beginning of my Pratchett series of reviews - this from 2007...
Billed as Jerome K. Jerome meets Lord of the Rings (with a touch of Peter Pan) - "The Colour of Magic" is Terry Pratchett's first book.
With a distinct lack of reading material - I delved into our loft and dipped into TB's vast collection of nearly all the Terry Pratchett books written, and decided to start at the very beginning, a very good place to start! (No, I am not going to sing now. )
"TCoM" introduces the concept of The Discworld, a series that Pratchett follows through in all his major books. Consisting of a "the Great A'Tuin, a giant stellar turtle that swims slowly through the interstellar gulf". On his back rests four giant elephants (obviously smaller than the turtle though) with the Discworld resting atop the elephants.
The story is a madcap collection of escapades of an inept and bungling wizard who always seems to manage to elude Death (who SPEAKS IN CAPITALS)...a naive tourist who bumbles and stumbles into the most awful dangers, but ALSO manages to avoid Death... "The Luggage", that moves on hundreds of legs (and the most malevolent piece of sapient pearwood baggage you have ever seen which is a main CAUSE of Death!)...and various other assassins, trolls, wizards, dragons, barbarians and Gods.
Twoflower is a wanderer who has journeyed from his own city to see the wonders of Ankh-Morpork (the Discworld capital) and beyond. He is followed everywhere by "The Luggage", which at once protects its owner, and does his laundry. Rincewind is a cowardly and bungling wizard for whom nothing ever goes right, and who always ends up in the most incredibly dangerous situations, who has the misfortune of bumping into Twoflower, and saving him...only to find he has made a friend for life!
The adventures they go through follow on into Pratchett's 2nd novel, which will be my next review. Bluntly - this is not Pratchett's best work, and I must admit to struggling at first to "connect" with the characters. If not for the fact I have read and vastly enjoyed some later novels of his - "The Wee Free Men" and "Wintersmith" - I must admit I may not have been so keen to persevere. It takes a bit to get into this book, but it is well worth the effort as it sets things up nicely for the following novel which, IMO, is the superior novel.
It IS a very funny novel (guess it depends on your mood when reading it too), and I have to say I really enjoyed it towards the end, and could not wait to get into the 2nd book (which I picked up straight away and started reading).
But for this outing - out of 10 - I would rate this an Octarine 7 out of 10!
Billed as Jerome K. Jerome meets Lord of the Rings (with a touch of Peter Pan) - "The Colour of Magic" is Terry Pratchett's first book.
With a distinct lack of reading material - I delved into our loft and dipped into TB's vast collection of nearly all the Terry Pratchett books written, and decided to start at the very beginning, a very good place to start! (No, I am not going to sing now. )
"TCoM" introduces the concept of The Discworld, a series that Pratchett follows through in all his major books. Consisting of a "the Great A'Tuin, a giant stellar turtle that swims slowly through the interstellar gulf". On his back rests four giant elephants (obviously smaller than the turtle though) with the Discworld resting atop the elephants.
The story is a madcap collection of escapades of an inept and bungling wizard who always seems to manage to elude Death (who SPEAKS IN CAPITALS)...a naive tourist who bumbles and stumbles into the most awful dangers, but ALSO manages to avoid Death... "The Luggage", that moves on hundreds of legs (and the most malevolent piece of sapient pearwood baggage you have ever seen which is a main CAUSE of Death!)...and various other assassins, trolls, wizards, dragons, barbarians and Gods.
Twoflower is a wanderer who has journeyed from his own city to see the wonders of Ankh-Morpork (the Discworld capital) and beyond. He is followed everywhere by "The Luggage", which at once protects its owner, and does his laundry. Rincewind is a cowardly and bungling wizard for whom nothing ever goes right, and who always ends up in the most incredibly dangerous situations, who has the misfortune of bumping into Twoflower, and saving him...only to find he has made a friend for life!
The adventures they go through follow on into Pratchett's 2nd novel, which will be my next review. Bluntly - this is not Pratchett's best work, and I must admit to struggling at first to "connect" with the characters. If not for the fact I have read and vastly enjoyed some later novels of his - "The Wee Free Men" and "Wintersmith" - I must admit I may not have been so keen to persevere. It takes a bit to get into this book, but it is well worth the effort as it sets things up nicely for the following novel which, IMO, is the superior novel.
It IS a very funny novel (guess it depends on your mood when reading it too), and I have to say I really enjoyed it towards the end, and could not wait to get into the 2nd book (which I picked up straight away and started reading).
But for this outing - out of 10 - I would rate this an Octarine 7 out of 10!