Rating: 
Summary: Don't read this one first
Review: I don't think that this book should be the first in the series you read, even though it is the first book. Some things in it you don't understand unless you've read other books in the series first
Rating: 
Summary: Great beginning to an equally great series!!
Review: "The Color of Magic" is Terry Pratchett's introduction to the now near-famous-yet-delightfully-bizarre planet of Discworld. While the series is now more than 20, but this is where it all starts--with the tourist Twoflower and his bumbling wizard guide, Rincewind.Discworld is unlike any other place a reader may have visited, even in the wild n' wooly world of science fiction and fantasy. For starters, the entire planet of Discworld is shaped like a LP record (or, for modern readers, a CD or dinner plate): it's flat and round, encircled by the Circle Sea, which flows forever off the edge of the planet. Oh, yes, lest we forget, the whole planet is also carried on the back of four enormous elephants which, in turn are balanced on the back of The Great A'Tuan, the World Turtle who swims slowly through the cosmos on errands of it's own. As an interesting aside, the concept of our Earth being balanced on the back of elephants or turtles is as old as civilization-many creation myths from India had the earth being carried about by these animals. Such an improbable place would, of course by it's very nature, contain a large concentration of magic, wizards, mages, witches, sorcerers and other magical sort of folks. Our incompetent hero and main character, Rincewind, is himself a wizard, though an exceptionally bad one. While at wizard school (called Unseen University), he snuck a peek at the Great Book of Spells on a dare, and one of the Great Spells leapt out of the book and into his head. All other lesser spells, from opening walnuts to changing the weather or your shape, are too scared to stay in the same head as one of the Great Spells, so Rincewind, while technically a wizard, is doomed to wander around doing card tricks for a living. Fortunately, however, Rincewind does have a talent for picking up foreign languages, which allows him to translate for an EXTREMELY RICH tourist who comes to town. Twoflower the tourist is unique in that A) he has four eyes B) he's the first tourist the town has ever had and C) he's got a strange sort of treasure chest that follows him around on little tiny legs and seems to be able to give him anything-a change of underwear, a flask of water, or more bars of solid gold than the entire town has seen in it's whole history. The fun begins when Rincewind, who is street savvy despite being an inacompetent wizard, tries to first steal Twoflower's treasure and then protect the innocent and naïve Twoflower from the danagers of the city (Twoflower, unaware of how much anything costs, offers up a whole bar of gold for a single glass of water, for example). Their adventures take them all over the Disc, from the high mountains at the Hub of the world to the edge of the Circle Sea, all the while as the Great Spell tries to get itself spoken by Rincewind, usually when he's just about ready to die some unusual and terrible death (oh, by the way, since only Death himself may take the soul of a wizard, the hooded figure of Death appears quite a lot in this story, usually when Rincewind is about to die some unusual and terrible death). Pratchett loves to poke fun at the whole genre of science fiction and fantasy as well as himself and his own characters. More than one ridiculous situation will seem oh-so-familiar to those who are much taken with the genre. The book is worth reading just for the absurd situations that Rincewind and Twoflower find themselves in, as well as the cast of lesser characters who make up the patently motley crew of Discworld. While not specifically a young adult novel, teen readers will no doubt enjoy the fast pace of the novel as well as the ridiculous situations almost every character finds itself in (as well as the ridiculous characters themselves, like Cohen the Barbarian). Those readers who have read a lot of fantasy/science fiction will enjoy the way that Pratchett pokes fun at the genre itself and the impossible twists in the plot (indeed, in the second book of the series, Rincewind himself falls off the edge of the planet but, no surprise, manages to get back on his feet...) Highly recommended!! Those who really love this book may want to go onto the second book in the series, "The Light Fantastic" where the futher adventures of Twoflower and Rincewind are documented.
Rating:
Summary: Pratchett-y
Review: The Color of Magic is one of the best fantasy books I have ever read and definitely the best humor-fantasy book I have ever read.
Rincewind is my favorite character because of his battle to keep himself alive and out of all the trouble that seems to follow him everywhere. Twoflower is clueless (like most tourists) and wants to see all of Discworld. Unfortunatly his guide is the failed wiz-(z)ard, Rincewind.
Rating:
Summary: A Excellent Start
Review: I am on my fourth Discworld novel now and I have to say that the first has been the best so far. It is a little hard to follow in the beginning but that's not a problem once you get into it. It has the second best set of characters that I have read so far (I like the characters in Equal Rites more, somehow) and it really does make you laugh outloud at times. If, like me, you appreciate book cover art, then search for the Corgi books edition. The covers are so much nicer than the bland Harper Prism edditions.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to follow at times.
Review: I got started into the diskworld books a few years ago. I decided to start from the beginning and picked up "The Colour of Magic" and while I understood the story, it was like the main characters were in one situation and then Bam!, they are in another with no real explination to how they got there. Don't let my slightly negative remarks turn anyone away from this book. The later books do get better.
Rating:
Summary: The beginning
Review: This was not the first Discworld novel I ever read, which was slightly unfortunate because that way I expected something more from it when I first read it. It is not as good as most of the books later in the series, and aspects of the world are less well developed than in them; also, I felt that it was lacking in plot, being more like just an aimless journey from one place to another. However, I never got that feeling again when I reread it several times. I cannot evaluate this as a work of its own, because I have read (and practically fallen in love with) the whole rest of the series, but as a part of it it works fine. I would say it is propably a good one to start reading from, at least if you know that even if you do not quite like it, the rest are better. (This one is worth five stars, and it is considerably below average level for the series. What does that tell of the series?) It certainly contains some of the best elements of the series already, like ingenious facts about the world and very interesting characters, although both get even better later on.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Start to Discworld
Review: In "The Color of Magic" Terry Pratchett weaves a tale of light fantasy and some humor to make a good read. Being the first in a series of over 25 books, I'm sure that this is probably not one of the best. For one thing, his humor wasn't the greatest. He threw in some dumb punchlines but the really good humor wasn't as easy to find. Things such as his "Big Bang" theory were pretty good compared to some other dry stuff. Despite this Pratchett still did a good job in presenting a comical fantasy adventure. The plot of this novel is pretty simple. Rincewind the Wizard (who graduated from Unseen University knowing no spells because one of the 8 Great spells trapped itself inside of him) meets the tourist Twoflower in a tavern. Twoflower hires Rincewind as his tourguide so he could see Discworld. After Twoflower sets the city of Ankh-Morpork on fire, he and Rincewind make a run for Quirm. Read on to find out the rest. Pratchett's characters are the actual very funny part about the book. Rincewind is just...Rincewind; Twoflower has to see everything even if it means his existence on Discworld will be no more; the talking sword, Kring; Hrun the Barbarian who fights and has basically a dumb mind; and many other characters that we meet throughout thisnovel are just funny. What is interesting about this book is that Terry Pratchett takes issues that have arised on Earth and puts them onto Discworld. These things make the world of Discworld seem even more like the one you and I are on right this very second. In conclusion, "The Color of Magic" is a great read that a fantasy fan or somebody looking for a good book to enjoy. This novel is relatively short and can be read quickly. After reading this I am looking forward to reading more books about Terry Pratchett's Discworld. This is probably the best way to start out this series. Read this, you won't be disappointed. Happy Reading!
Rating:
Summary: Not as funny as terribly intriguing and thrilling
Review: The book "Colour of Magic" is the first book in Terry Pratchetts Discworld book series, a series that just seems to never end.
We're cleverly thrown into the story and learn about the main characters, what, where and why. There are many hillarious books in my book collection, and I must admit that this is not one of them! This book is funny, witty and innovative, but it's not hillarious, strange and at the frontier of madness such as the stories by Douglas Adams. In return, however, it's a lot more thrilling. I just couldn't put it down after I had started reading it! TP writes in a very complicated language, and you have to use your dictionary once in a while, but it's great practise, and soon you'll discover a broadening in your vocabulary, the only downside is that sometimes TP uses very complicated language at the punchline of a joke, causing some of the fun to go out of it.
If you're just looking for a laugh I wouldn't recommend this book to you. But if you're looking for a funny and exciting tale that offers more than just a superficial "haha" this book is just what you've been looking for!
Rating:
Summary: Not as funny as terribly intriguing and thrilling
Review: The book "Colour of Magic" is the first book in Terry Pratchetts Discworld book series, a series that just seems to never end.
We're cleverly thrown into the story and learn about the main characters, what, where and why. There are many hillarious books in my book collection, and I must admit that this is not one of them! This book is funny, witty and innovative, but it's not hillarious, strange and at the frontier of madness such as the stories by Douglas Adams. In return, however, it's a lot more thrilling. I just couldn't put it down after I had started reading it! TP writes in a very complicated language, and you have to use your dictionary once in a while, but it's great practise, and soon you'll discover a broadening in your vocabulary, the only downside is that sometimes TP uses very complicated language at the punchline of a joke, causing some of the fun to go out of it.
If you're just looking for a laugh I wouldn't recommend this book to you. But if you're looking for a funny and exciting tale that offers more than just a superficial "haha" this book is just what you've been looking for! Definitely a 4-star hit. ...
Rating:
Summary: Not quite what I expected after reading Adams.
Review: To many people, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett are nearly synonymous. They're both great humorists and write some terrific satire, so the comparisons between the two seem pretty inevitable. My favorite books of all time are those in the Hitchhiker Trilogy by Douglas Adams, and after hearing so much about Pratchett and his much-praised series, Discworld, I thought I'd give it a shot. While I can see how Adams and Pratchett are parallels in many respects, I just didn't think this book had as much charm as Adams' works. As a twist of originality, the Discworld series doesn't follow one or two characters around... It focuses more on the world, telling the tales of its inhabitants. It's a pretty awkward change for most people, and it's quite a bold move on the part of the author, but I'm afraid it just didn't captivate me like I had hoped. I found myself unable to connect to most of the characters... Possibly because they weren't described well enough, possibly because they didn't express enough character to keep me excited, or maybe because Pratchett spent so much darn time talking about everything BUT the characters. Pratchett's humor isn't quite what I had expected after reading -- and getting used to -- Adams' style. Admittedly, they're both quite similar, but I've found that Pratchett uses a lot of techniques that may be more favorable to English readers, whereas I'm just a lowly American looking for a good laugh. I got the jokes and puns he was making, but I found myself thinking they were pretty dry... Or sometimes I would recognize him trying to throw a punchline in, but it just didn't work on me. I was hoping Pratchett would get me to pause reading because I was laughing so much... But in the end, I wanted to stop reading, period. The book has its flaws, and I'm sorry for spending so much time dwelling on them, but it also has its better points. The cities that are described, the locations that are visited, and the world of Discworld is all made quite clear to the reader. It's abnormal, and usually quite silly, but Discworld really comes alive in your mind. You soon realize that there's certainly no shortage of adventures in this flat universe, and Pratchett obviously saw the same thing or he wouldn't have written 20+ about it. If you can get into it, I'm sure you will enjoy this book heartily. There's a lot to love about it, but unfortunately, most of it didn't appeal to me. The book didn't quite attach itself to me like I had hoped it would, but I'm not letting Pratchett off the hook just yet. I'm currently in the middle of Good Omens, another of his books, and I'm really enjoying it. I also plan on reading another Discworld book in the near future, probably number eight. Here's hoping that Mr. Pratchett can make me eat my words.
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