The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (Discworld 1)

"It was octarine, the colour of magic. It was alive and glowing and vibrant, and it was the undisputed pigment of the imagination, because wherever it appeared it was a sign that mere matter was a servant of the powers of the magical mind. It was enchantment itself.

"But Rincewind always thought it looked a sort of greenish-purple."

It all begins here. Over forty books and several decades of Pratchett's wondrous creations start with this volume. While often considered not the best place to start, and with some sound reasoning behind that, it's still a joy to read all these years later. Without this book, we'd not have the delight that is Discworld in all its glory to enjoy.

Originally released in 1983, although I wasn't aware of it until I was in college in the late 80s and early 90s, this book introduces us to the marvelous Discworld and its bizarre characters and situations. It's very much a lampoon of other novels and movies as it makes humorous nods to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the Dragonriders of Pern, Elric of Melniboné, Laurel and Hardy, and more.

The book starts with Ankh-Morpork, the great twin cities on the river Ankh, burning down. It does this a lot for various reasons, but this time, the alchemists guild was not actually involved. We quickly discover that this was from Broadman, the owner of the Broken Drum, setting fire to his establishment to collect the 'inn-sewer-ants-polly-sea' he purchased from Twoflower. Twoflower is the Disc's first ever tourist, an idea that takes the people he meets by surprise, "What do you mean that you just look at stuff?" Back home in the Agatean Empire, he's a clerk who works in inn-sewer-ants but wanted to see the lands beyond the empire, and he sold Broadman the policy after the barman took interest in the idea for not the best of reasons. Due to the massive wealth differences between the empire and the lands around Ankh-Morpork, Twoflower has a mass of gold rhinu coins, yet he claims he has a humble salary while all the people he meets gasp at how much money he has, and he overpays for things with some regularity.

There are two main reasons that Twoflower survives despite his naivete and his copious wealth: 1) He's a tourist and therefore believes that nothing can happen to him because he isn't actually involved, and 2) He travels with the Luggage, a large trunk made of sapient pearwood that can not only follow him anywhere with its multitude of legs and can handle carrying his things with ease, it is also at least partially homicidal. The last thing more than one miscreant hears is the pitter patter of dozens of tiny feet coming closer.

Earlier, he had hired Rincewind as his guide. This is partly due to Rincewind understanding several languages, and while neither knows the other's native tongue, they use a language that they can meet in the middle on, but mostly because Twoflower offers him a substantial stipend. Rincewind is of course a wizard, but mostly by default. At this point in time, he can't cast any spells due to him opening the Octavo, the book of the creator, on a bet and one of the eight spells is lodged in his mind, thus frightening away any other spells he'd like to learn.

With Rincewind and Twoflower, we have our main protagonists, but we meet many other characters on the way, with Hrun the barbarian and his magical intelligent sword Kring, the Wyrmbinder siblings, Bravd and the Weasel, several dryads, and so many more. With Rincewind constantly fearing for his life and Twoflower wanting to meet and take pictures of everything with his iconograph, which contains a tiny imp that paints pictures very fast so it's a kind of magic instant camera, they careen from one situation to another, before finally ending with a literal cliffhanger. The iconograph is also made from sapient pearwood but is less dangerous than the luggage.

While some say this book lacks a plot and is instead a series of jokes, as we're simply following the first tourist of the Disc on his (mis)adventures with Rincewind, one could argue that the idea of following the first tourist on the Disc around as he encounters one ludicrous situation after another is in fact a plot, albeit a very simple one, it does allow Sir Terry to bombard us with jokes and humorous situations, while also taking his nascent steps towards world building. One can see the beginnings of what would become the foundations of Discworld forming in this book, and it's so interesting to read this again and see what he changed and what remains core to the experience. The fact that Sir Terry's humor is so good even this early is icing on the cake.

Some standards for the Disc that this book is already setting up for the future include; discovering how important and even dangerous the number eight is, especially in temples to eldritch entities, finding out that unlike our world which is round, sailors may very well fall off the edge of the Disc here, it sets up some characters we are going to see again (especially Rincewind, Twoflower and the Luggage), and it establishes Ankh-Morpork and Unseen University as key points that will also be important to later books as well.

One of the few real negatives I have to say about this book is the character that inspired me to go back to this series after a long absence, and that's Death, but not this initial take on the character. Death in this book is mean-spirited, nasty, and directly contradicts how he acts in later books. Even in the immediate follow-up to this book, The Light Fantastic, he's worlds better than he is here. I can't imagine these books doing anywhere near as well as they have if Death had stayed like this version. There is some discussion about this due to events near the end of the book, but on the whole, he's so much better later on. He is one of the, if not the most, beloved characters in these books, but not this version.

It's difficult for me to rate this book. I can't just give every Discworld book a four, and while there is some disagreement on which book is the ‘worst' with worst among such wonderous tomes being still good fun, I have to consider this the basement of the volumes and give as low as these books are likely to get. Lots of laughs, and it sets the stage, but even better is to come.

3 pieces of sapient pearwood luggage out of 4.

Some fun quotes:

The box said, "It's no good. I've run out of pink."
A hitherto unnoticed door opened in front of his eyes. A small, green and hideously warty humanoid figure leaned out, pointed at a colour-encrusted palette in one clawed hand, and screamed at him.
"No pink, see?" screeched the homunculus. "No good you going on pressing the lever when there's no pink, is there? If you wanted pink, you shouldn't of took all those pictures of young ladies, should you? It's monochrome from now on, friend. Alright?"

"You don't understand!" screamed the tourist above the terrible noise of the wingbeats. "All my life I've wanted to see dragons!"
"From the inside?" shouted Rincewind.

"You say this is a tough place. Frequented, you mean, by heroes and men of adventure?"
Rincewind considered this. "Yes?" he managed.
"Excellent. I would like to meet some."
An explanation occurred to the wizard. "Ah," he said. "You've come to hire mercenaries ('warriors who fight for the tribe with most milknut-meal')?"
"Oh no. I just want to meet them. So that when I get home, I can say that I did it."
Rincewind thought that a meeting with most of the Drum's clientele would mean that Twoflower never went home again, unless he lived downriver and happened to float past.

Morella is a Gen Xer who likes strange things a bit too much.

• Discworld home
• Book Reviews home