Rating: 
Summary: A nice little change...
Review: This is the first Discworld novel there is, and coincidently, the first one i have read. I was a little put off by the strange names for many things, but after getting used to them, i quite enjoyed this book. Rincewind and Death were pretty amusing. I think i will scour the used book shops for a few more discworld books as i am not sure that i want to commit to reading all 25 just yet. I am going to try to find some of the more popular ones, and then i will be able to make a more informed decision. I read this because the series is so famous, but i am not sure that i can make a judgement just yet as top if i am hooked or not. That being said about my long term feelings, i definatly thought that this book was worth reading, even for a person not likely to read the series. It was a nice change to have characters in a fantasy world who were not too serious about portraying the world as dark and dreary...find a copy of this book and read it on a rainy day...
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Summary: Spellbinding !
Review: "The Color of Magic" is the first book in Terry Pratchett's hugely popular Discworld Series. He has gone on to win the Carnegie Medal for "The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents" and was awarded the OBE in 1998.
The Discworld is, of course, flat and rests on the shoulders of four giant elephants. These are, in turn, carried through the cosmos by an even bigger turtle called Great A'Tuin. (The astrozoologists of the land of Krull, in their desire to better understand the universe, shortly hope to determine whether A'Tuin is male or female). The Discworld's Gods and Goddesses live in Dunmanifestin, on top of Cori Celesti. Their favourite pastimes include playing games with the lives of mortals, with Fate and the Lady featuring highly amongst the leading players.
One of the Lady's favourite 'pieces' is Rincewind - a native of the Discworld's oldest city, Ankh-Morpork, and a coward of some renown. He is also an ex-student of the Unseen University, a thoroughly hopeless wizard and the 'hero' of this book. The only spell he knows comes from the Octavo, and is so powerful that no other spell is brave enough to stay in his head. (The Octavo was the Creator's spellbook, and was carelessly left behind after the universe's completion). As the book opens, Rincewind's home city is in flames and he is fleeing in the company of Twoflower - the Discworld's first tourist. Twoflower, who has just introduced the concept of fire insurance to Ankh-Morpork, comes from the Counterweight Continent and has hired Rincewind as his guide. He also has a very loyal and frequently angry Luggage, which is made from sapient pearwood. Twoflower desperately wants to see the very things that Rincewind desperately wants to avoid - heroes (Hrun the barbarian, for example), dragons, fights and such like. As a result, Death has been snapping at Rincewind's heels since he first met Twoflower - that is, of course, the tall and under-fed gentleman who wears a hood, carries a scythe and TALKS LIKE THIS. To avoid meeting his fate, Rincewind is willing to travel to the very ends of the world...
As the first book in the Discworld series, this is probably the most obvious place to start. (It's certainly best to read it before "The Light Fantastic", the series' second instalment - while the pair form a prelude to "Interesting Times", the seventeenth Discworld book). Pratchett's books are always very funny, and Rincewind and the Luggage are two of my favourite characters. Definitely recommended !
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Summary: The freshest fantasy author in years. Simply brilliant!
Review: "The Colour of Magic" is the first, and obviously the oldest, of the now infamous "Discworld" series. More than ten years since originally published, the book is still attracting new readers - me among them - who have gone on to purchase each and every one of the series. High praise indeed? Read on...The general plot of Pratchett's novel is a romp around a fantasy world. A place where the world is flat, and people who tried to show it was round were proven wrong years ago. It's carried through the cosmos on the back of four giant elephants, the magnitude of whom is so great that simply trying to imagine it makes your head spin. Even more mind-boggling, these elephants stand atop Great A'Tuin, the star turtle, who moves with extreme deliberance over tens of thousands of years, and has thoughts so vast that time itself pales into insignificance. Our heroes? Well there's Rincewind, the dropout wizard who failed Unseen University, the Wizard's universal school in all dimensions including ours, and TwoFlower, the tourist with the living luggage (and what stroppy luggage it is too). Happening upon each other in a pub, Rincewind finds the odd fellow strangely endearing; mainly because he is paying for a pint of ale with three times the value of the pub in solid gold. Their quest leads to run-ins with goblins, the local malitia, an entire array of very scary trees, demons with a penchant for the number eight, the local barbarian (who is usually for hire) and a crackpot set of scientists determined to travel to the edge of the world, and beyond... Pratchett's writing style is both warm and intoxicating. He involves the reader from the very first page with such wild fantasy that it simply must be true! His wacky, irreverent humour is simply so fresh that I have not encountered such entertaining and strongly visual prose since Douglas Adam's and his series of books including "The Hitch Hiker Guide to the Galaxy." If you're a little mad at heart, love a new perspective on things and want to be thoroughly engaged in a genuinely fun read that you won't want to put down till it's finished (and the fact that it isn't written in chapters aids to this end) then this book is an absolute must. Thoroughly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: The start of a long, wonderful friendship
Review: An oft-quoted statistic claims that 10% of all the novels sold in England are fantasy, and 10% of them are written by Terry Pratchett, thus making Pratchett the author of 1% of all the novels sold in Britain. It doesn't matter of this is accurate and up-to-date, what is true is that Terry Pratchett and his DiscWorld novels are a major phenomenon in the UK and they are popular among American readers as well for their satirical wit, amusing reversals of old clichés, and hilarious characters.
As the first in a long series, COLOR OF MAGIC pales next to some of the other novels (especially MORT) because the story devotes itself to exposition of the fabulous world in which these stories take place; the plotline wanders so as to take us to as many different parts of the world as possible. We also make our first acquaintance with characters such as Rincewind, a second-rate wizard, an underachiever some of us might identify with more than a whiz-kid like Harry Potter. The most unforgettable character here, no doubt, is the suitcase that walks around on its own legs - watch out, it bites, too.
The DiscWorld's laws and geography are not consistent, since as Pratchett says, one cannot really map a sense of humor. (That hasn't stopped someone from publishing a concurrence, but I'm sure it's all in fun.) This is a wildly imaginative, intelligent, and hilarious introduction to a long, wonderful series of stories; the kind of reading that is great fun for adults and bright younger readers alike.
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Summary: Light Romp into the World of Discworld
Review: Discworld is Terry Pratchett's brainchild. A world shaped like a CD on which due to the powerful magic, the light moves slowly and poets are not allowed to used unrealistic similes. The farther you get into the world of Discworld, the more well written and humorous Terry's books become. The Color of Magic is an interesting tale introducing Rincewind (About whom 6 Discworld Novels are written) and Twoflower and the entire world. This book has a decent plot and moves along fairly quickly. The sequel to this book is the Light Fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: Light Romp into the World of Discworld
Review: Discworld is Terry Pratchett's brainchild. A world shaped like a CD on which due to the powerful magic, the light moves slowly and poets are not allowed to used unrealistic similes. The farther you get into the world of Discworld, the more well written and humorous Terry's books become. The Color of Magic is an interesting tale introducing Rincewind (About whom 6 Discworld Novels are written) and Twoflower and the entire world. This book has a decent plot and moves along fairly quickly. The sequel to this book is the Light Fantastic.
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Summary: Classic silliness
Review: If you haven't travelled Pratchett's Discworld yet, you're not alone. Mr. Twoflowers hasn't travelled it yet, and he lives there. Feel free to join him and his reluctant guide, Rincewind, as they sample Discworld's dives, tavern brawls, dragons, assassins, pirates, and a charming assortment of near-death experiences.
Twoflowers has the tourist's implacable confidence that every demonic temple, every hero with a magic sword, every brigand, and every catastrophe of nature was placed and scheduled for his amusement - and will hold still for a picture. He's also quite convinced that, as a tourist, he's immune to any possible harm.
That premise give Pratchett's comic genius plenty to work with. Even Death - the Reaper himself - is just a straight man in this world. (There's also The Luggage, but I'll let you discover that for yourself.)
This is the first book in a long-lived series, and gets it off to a great start. I have to warn you, though, there's no such thing as one Pratchett book. Even one is enough to cause addiction.
//wiredweird
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Summary: How Did I Miss This???
Review: Note: since I HATE them myself, not one spoiler is included below...
I have been an evangelizing fan of both Kurt Vonnegut (best American dark humorist) and Douglas Adams (best sci-fi humorist) since I was in high school. I have read most of their works twice. After having taken a couple of years off, I was about to swoop in for a third reading of their classics -- starting with KW's "Cat's Cradle" and "Deadeye Dick", then moving on to DA's "Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency" -- when Terry Pratchett's name popped up on a list of recommendations from Amazon.
After reading Pratchett's "The Color of Magic" (the first in the long Discworld series), I am absolutely bewildered by the fact that I have never even heard of this guy. For me, it was like being a twenty years long fan of Hemingway, only to wake up one day to discover that there's this other guy named Fitzgerald writing about the disaffected youth of the Lost Generation as well.
I am afraid that Pratchett has flown under the RADAR screen of others, so I'm here, trying to get the word out. He's got funny, funny, stuff packed in relatively short but highly inventive packages -- ready made for those like me who spend several hours a week on public transportation.
Net/net: if your sense of humor is a little twisted (think Monty Python or Dr. Who) and your sense of literary adventure strays towards the Hitchhiker series, or any of Vonnegut's novels, or even Mark Twain, then I guarantee you'll enjoy Pratchett's escapist, whirling, g-rated, and frolicing Discworld series.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing and above average, but not stellar
Review: Rincewind the (mostly) failed wizard is forced into a series of adventures with an insurance risk assessor "tourist" named Twoflower. Along for the ride is Twoflower's sentient, mobile, and ferocious luggage. I'd heard many good things about the Pratchett's Discworld books, and so decided to start the series with the first published book. It wasn't quite what I expected. Don't get me wrong, Pratchett is a very good writer, but this book didn't reach out and grab me like I thought it would. Perhaps I'd read too much about how funny the Discworld books are. This one had a number of chuckles (some laugh out loud) but generally read more as consistently amusing than roll-on-the floor funny. Most of the fun comes from the interaction between Rincewind's pathetic, survivalist instincts, and Twoflower's tourist mindset. Pratchett also pokes fun at various fantasy clichés -- the magic sword, the brave hero, and the gods, to name a few. The main problem with "The Color of Magic" is that much of the story wasn't funny or unique enough to push it above the level of ordinary good fantasy. I can see lots of potential in Pratchett's writing so I'll definitely read more of the Discworld series. It often takes authors a few books before they hit their stride and I suspect that this is the case for Pratchett.
Rating: 
Summary: Starting off small
Review: Terry Pratchett is now a publishing superstar, thanks to his witty, wonky Discworld series. But the Discworld series didn't start off on such good ground. In first Discworld novel "The Colour of Magic," Pratchett lets his plot get away from him and meander over the edge of the Disc.
Discworld is a flat planet, balanced atop four elephants that stand on a giant turtle's back. And somewhere on that vast Disc is Rincewind the wizard -- cowardly, greedy, unlucky, a dropout and not very good at what he does. Enter Twoflower, a rather clueless tourist, and the Luggage, which walks around on hundreds of tiny legs.
Despite the fact that he doesn't want to, Rincewind is required to help the Discworld's first tourist ever (it's Twoflower, in case you're wondering). They're attacked by thieves, gamble with gods, encounter Death (who speaks ALL IN CAPITALS), and bumble through magical spells that can cause some major problems. But that isn't the biggest problem, when they encounter the very edge of the Disc...
"Colour of Magic" doesn't have much of a plot -- it basically has a long string of confusing, unhappy incidents that plague Rincewind, and it ends on an unsatisfying note. But at least the ride is fairly fun -- Pratchett spoofs the fantasy cliches with wink-nudge fervor.
Pratchett peppers his satirical little novel with lots of fun ideas, such as the quirky gods of Discworld and the dragon that vanishes if you stop believing in it. Unfortunately, the dialogue and writing aren't quite up to par. At times it's the delicious tone of British comedy, and sometimes it's so serious that it seems like Pratchett is writing an entirely different novel.
Rincewind isn't a very engaging character in this volume -- we laugh at him, not with him. His constant efforts to keep himself alive are especially funny, since his luck is a mixture of bad (he always gets into trouble) and good (he always gets out of it). Twoflower is an amusing character, but the Luggage steals the show despite not being able to speak.
Fans of comic fantasy might enjoy "Colour of Magic," but it's by far the weakest of Pratchett's many Discworld books. If you're looking for something insanely funny and well-written, go further in the series.
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