Terry Pratchett’s ‘The Colour of Magic’

It is has been a little while since a book has literally made me laugh out loud, so I was surprised when I picked up Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic, which is book one of the Discworld series. The Colour of Magic is, in many ways, a spoof of everything fantasy nerds love, be it heroic quests or boardgames. The story follows Rincewind, an incompetent wizard, and Twoflower, a tourist in the city of Ankh-Morpork. The two are forced to flee the city to escape a raging fire and begin a journey across the Disc. Did I mention that the characters are pieces in a massive board game being played by gods? The Lady, who presides over Rincewind and Twoflower, pits them against the forces of Zephyrus, Fate, and Offler the Crocodile God.

I just have to say, this book is great. There is action, character development, and a memorable journey, but the real attraction is, of course, how wacky the humor is. Pratchett does for fantasy what Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy did for sci-fi. A lot of the humor can be compared in tone to the work of Neil Gaiman, as everything is serious in the universe of Discworld. Pratchett hits a note similar to Gaiman’s American Gods with his own cast of deities: Zephyrus, for example, is the notorious god of slight breezes. Pratchett’s writing is on par with many of the fantasy greats, and readers will likely come to adore Rincewind and Twoflower. The jokes are woven expertly into the plot progression of the book, and Pratchett manages to avoid going off on tangents for too long. The humor is found in just how strange Discworld is, and why none of the inhabitants seem to notice. All in all, if you like comic fantasy/sci-fi along the lines of American Gods or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, then Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic is a book you will want to add to your collection. Even if you haven’t read a comic fantasy book before, if you like fantasy and/or are an unashamed nerd then you will probably find yourself falling in love with this little book. I hope you all have as much fun with the book as I did, and I know I will be picking up book two, The Light Fantastic, as soon as possible.