Terry Pratchett
The Colour of Magic
Harper Collins 2000
ISBN 0-06-102071-0
Monika says:
THE COLOUR OF MAGIC is the first book of Terry Pratchett’s disc world
series, sending the reader on a journey to explore the strange world that
rests on the back of a turtle.
During a fire in the capital Ankh-Morpork wizard Rincewind meets the
slightly odd Twoflower who came to the Unnamed Continent as a tourist.
Since Twoflower is not familiar with the manners and customs of this part
of disc world he hires Rincewind as a guide and pays him an exorbitant
fee, not knowing that Rincewind is a complete failure as a wizard and can
hardly remember any spells. Actually, he only knows one single spell that
crawled into his head when he read the holy book, the Oktavo. From this
book said spell is now missing.
THE COLOUR OF MAGIC is a good place to start reading the disc world
series. Here you find out how it all began. Together with Twoflower the
reader explores Morpork’s underworld full of shady figures and meets a
number of bizarre creatures like trolls and talking trees outside the
city. In this potentially dangerous environment Twoflower’s very special
piece of luggage comes in handy: a chest made from intelligent birch wood
that is loyal to its owner and doesn’t take kindly to being stolen. This
is especially important if your guide is as incompetent as Rincewind.
First time readers of Pratchett should be warned that in his books
nothing works like it does in the known universe. Not even dragons act
like they are supposed to. They only exist if you have enough imagination
to picture them. Disc world keeps surprising the reader and it’s
Pratchett’s rather black humor that makes the book so special. The most
important rule is never to expect anything to be what you expect it to be. |
