★★★☆☆ Introducing Rincewind and Twoflower and The Luggage

The Color of Magic

Terry Pratchett

I have an ambiguous relationship with Terry Pratchett and the Discworld. On the one hand, I have enjoyed everything I've ever read by Pratchett, some more than others. On the other hand, Pratchett is so relentlessly and extravagantly hyped by his supporters that it always put my back up. (Pratchett himself is innocent of the hype, claiming that "his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.")

The Discworld is equally daunting in a different way. It consists (according to Amazon) of 41 books. I didn't want to commit to a 41-book series. Pratchett, no fool, understands the reluctance of readers to embark on such a journey, and claims that "The Discworld novels can be read in any order." I will not say that he's lying, because it is certainly physically POSSIBLE to read the series in any order, but he is definitely indulging in some heavy-grade misdirection. I know because I tried taking the "in any order" seriously, and I found that if you just start with a random book from the middle, e.g., Hogfather, without reading any previous books, you can expect to be totally baffled by a blizzard of unexplained characters and world-building that, to a good first approximation, makes zero sense.

A week or so ago, finding myself suddenly with no audiobook to listen to, I decided to start the first Discworld book, The Color of Magic. It is not bad, but it is not awesome. The three-star rating was made for books like this. But I will say this for it: it makes sense. It has two main characters, the wizard Rincewind and the tourist Twoflower, who are introduced with the care and skill one expects of an experienced author. The story is told in a mostly linear way. There are jokes, and the jokes are not bad, although they did not have me rolling on the floor or even laughing out loud.

As a standalone, I would not strongly recommend The Color of Magic to anyone. However, as the opening of Discworld, well, perhaps time will tell.

The Color of Magic on Amazon

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