“Tough buns,” snapped Rincewind. “This is a rough universe.”

ColorofMagicThe Color of Magic (Discworld #1)

By Terry Pratchett

1983

288 Pages

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The beginning of the hilarious and irreverent series that has more than 80 million copies worldwide,The Color of Magic is where we meet tourist Twoflower and wizard guide Rincewind, and follow them on their always-bizarre journeys.

I bought this book 3 years ago and it’s been sitting on my bookshelf unread ever since. Well, until yesterday that is, when I picked it up, devoured it overnight, and placed it in my collection of “why the hell didn’t I read this sooner?” titles.

Begun in 1983 with the reviewed title, British author Terry Pratchett crafted the comedic-fantasy series Discworld until his death in 2015. In total, 41 novels and a handful of companion works were published in the collection. Now, I confess I was a little daunted to begin the series- 41 books is a lot of reading after all. Not helping the situation is that the titles were not necessarily published in chronological order. Thankfully there are a numerous guides now available on the internet as to what specific order a reader should progress in.

The Color of Magic is a short read, and is a quick, yet strangely robust introduction to the Discworld and its inhabitants. The narrative guides you through cities, oceans, upside-down mountains, and waterfalls as it follows the pathetic wizard Rincewind and the strange foreign tourist, Twoflower (and his sentient Luggage). The story is told with a humor that is both dry and absurd, but if you aren’t a fan of comedy that is heavily on the witty and sarcastic side, this may not be for you. Many of the jokes are subtle allusions and asides, though I did catch myself laughing audibly several times (like everything having to do with linguistics).

The second book, The Light Fantastic, directly follows the actions of this novel, and I will be sure to pick it up soon. Now I just need to prevent myself from sabotaging all of my other reading plans to binge through 40 more Discworld books instead!