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The Colour of Magic Book Review

The Colour of Magic is a 1983 fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett. It was the first entry in the Discworld series, representing a flawed, but strong beginning.

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“No, what he didn’t like about heroes was that

they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober

and homicidally insane when drunk“

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In a world supported on the back of a giant turtle, a very eccentric group sets out on an adventure to reach the end of the world, which is the very edge of the planet. On their quest, they experience various goofy adventures and they meet many crazy characters. As the very first novel in this series, it’s a solid start because it hooks you right in and never lets go. It makes you intrigued to see what happens next, which is crucial for the first part of any larger narrative. Yes, in that mission the author made the novel rather difficult to understand at times, but it mostly adds up at the end of the day.

Terry Pratchett has a very unique writing style. He uses satire quite a bit, which was a mixed bag for me as I’m not a huge fantasy reader, so I definitely missed some of those reference points. It’s a parody of the fantasy conventions of the seventies and eighties. He also uses humor a lot, which essentially makes this work a comedic one. The humorous elements are so extensive, in fact, that it makes the entire book very goofy, lightweight and silly. And that irreverence actually made it stand out from the rest of this usually overly serious genre.

He is particularly adept at writing strong dialogue and at world building. There were many lines here that were downright hilarious in their very bizarre nature and frank treatment of its themes, characters and world. The said world is deeply imagined with so many different places that we get to visit all being unique and different to each other. The SF astronomical concepts also worked in spite of their silliness as they were so much fun.

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This is the only work of his that is structured into chapters, but they are barely chapters as they are ridiculously long, functioning more as novellas in their own right. Each represents a different adventure and setting, making for an overly episodic story that works individually, but not so much when viewed as a whole. The beginning and the ending were the highlights while the middle parts were inferior.

Thematically, The Colour of Magic explores many different societies and classes that are all richly drawn and memorable. The dissatisfaction of many of these characters is so well explored and is at the crux of each adventure. The importance of language and communication skills is also well explored.

When it comes to the characters, this book doesn’t fully deliver. A couple of them make a prominent impact on the story and on the readers, but most of the side characters go away too quickly, thus having a diminishing impact. Liessa was cool, but hardly developed in a novel that really lacks in memorable female characters. Fate and the Lady are a lot of fun and so is of course Death himself, who stole the show despite having a very limited presence. These more mythological and spiritual elements made the story quite epic in scope.

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Hrun the Barbarian is a very funny parody of all these impossibly perfect fantasy heroes. He was quite amusing. Luggage is a silly and goofy creature that accompanies our heroes. Speaking of the two, they are the only truly well developed characters here. Twoflower is this tourist who has such an innocent and innately optimistic outlook on life that is deftly contrasted with that of his fellow. Rincewind is this grumpy failed wizard who still has a big heart behind all that rough exterior. Some of the best moments in the novel are those focusing on their budding friendship while the funniest center on his lack of wizarding skills.