Rating: 
Summary: Funny, Fresh, & Irreverent
Review: The Colour of Magic is not your standard fantasy fare. True, it contains many of the elements that one expects to see in a run-of-the-mill fantasy novel - wizards, muscle-bound heroes, dragons, trolls, etc., but there is a not so subtle difference. First of all, this is a funny, funny book - intentionally, not accidentally so. Secondly, all the tired old elements from pulp fantasy that you find here are being used as a send-up, both of those fantasy cliches, and of the lives that we, the readers, live.
The book's protagonist, Rincewind, is a pathetically failed wizard, who knows but one spell, and that one he cannot use, for it may destroy the world. He manages to survive, barely, in the dive taverns of the great city of Ankh-Morpork on his desperately clever street smarts, and a penchant for languages. Against his better judgement, Rincewind hires himself out as a guide to a hopelessly naïve tourist, Twoflower. Soon, Rincewind, Twoflower, and Twoflower's fierce, animated, magical luggage are swept from one incredibly dangerous adventure to another, from the fiery destruction of Ankh-Morpork, through near annihilation in the temple of an unspeakable Abomination, a deadly power struggle in a kingdom of magical dragon-riders, to being nearly swept right over and off the rim of the world. Along the way, Pratchett manages to lampoon Fritz Leiber, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Howard, and other fantasy standards, even including a throwaway Star Trek joke.
The Colour of Magic is the first of Pratchett's Discworld novels, a long series of books set in an impossibly clever and humorous alternative world. It is fantasy at its freshest and most irreverent. Mr. Pratchett should have to include warning labels on his books that they may become addictive, for it may be nearly impossible to read just one.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting start to fabulous series
Review: The great city of Ankh-Morpork has seen many tourists, but this one--Twoflower, from the mysterious counterweight continent, a continent reported to consist largely of gold--is different. His gullible appearance attracts an army of thieves but Twoflower is too innocent to even notice--and his walking luggage is dangerous enough to offer some protection. One of the men hoping to take advantage of Twoflower is Ankh-Morpork's worst mage. Rincewind knows only one spell. Unfortunately, he doesn't know what the spell will actually do if he uses it. When Twoflower pays Rincewind, in advance, to show him around the city, Rincewind decides to get out while he still can. Unfortunately, he's misjudged his timing. The Patrician wants Twoflower alive and decides to task Rincewind with the assignment. No one can escape the Patrician so Rincewind gets caught up in a series of inprobable adventures.
THE COLOR OF MAGIC is the first in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series--and it shows. Pratchett hasn't quite decided whether Discworld is pure farce--with its counterparts for Robert E. Howard's Conan and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and his choice of a purely cowardly and incapable wizzard for protagonist with the most frightening monster being a many-legged travelling trunk--or something unique and wonderful. Over time, Pratchett has developed Discworld to be a compelling universe of its own, with complex characters, interesting situations, but keeping its tongue-in-cheek attitude. COLOR is essential reading for a full understanding of Discworld and fans of the series (like me) won't want to miss it. Still, although COLOR is the first Discworld novel, I don't recommend you read it first. Read some of the later stories, get hooked, then pick up COLOR to see where it came from and to get more of the details on how, exactly, a disc-shaped world travels on the backs of four elephants--each of whom, in turn, stands on a single huge turtle swimming toward--well, that is the question, isn't it?
Rating:
Summary: first installment in the discworld series
Review: This is the fisrt installemnt in the discworld series, and introduces the reader to the city of anhk morpork (a analogy of early london, during the industrial revolution), rincewind, the inept wizzard, who has one of the eight great spells in him, plus two flower the orginal tourist probably based on an american tourist. The book flows well, for first readers of pratchet, dont expect chapters, and read the footnotes, they help explain the book as you go along. The humour is mainly british. overall a good book. But a note of merit, some people if like or hate pratchett, if you are feeling a bit indifferent perservere, or read another of his titles.
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