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![The Colour Of Magic: The first book in Terry Pratchett’s bestselling Discworld series by [Terry Pratchett]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51gBBR6v0CL._SY346_.jpg)
The Colour Of Magic: The first book in Terry Pratchett’s bestselling Discworld series Kindle Edition
Terry Pratchett (Author) See search results for this author |
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NAMED AS ONE OF THE BBC'S 100 MOST INSPIRING NOVELS
'It was octarine, the colour of magic. It was alive and glowing and vibrant and it was the undisputed pigment of the imagination . . .'
Somewhere between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a magical world not totally unlike our own. Except for the fact that it travels through space on the shoulders of four giant elephants who in turn stand on the shell of an astronomically huge star turtle, of course.
Rincewind is the world's worst wizard who has just been handed a very important job: to look after the world's first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land. Unfortunately, their journey across the Disc includes facing robbers, monsters, mercenaries, and Death himself.
And the whole thing's just a game of the gods that might send them over the edge . . .
'If you've never read a Discworld novel, what's the matter with you?' Guardian
'Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own' The Times
The Colour of Magic is the first book in the Wizards series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTransworld Digital
- Publication date26 Dec. 2008
- File size3518 KB
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From the Publisher
Welcome to the Discworld
Magic is as integral to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld as gravity is to our own. And although some of its inhabitants are witches, dwarfs, wizards and even policemen, their stories are fundamentally about people being people.
The Discworld books can be read in any order, but this is a particularly good place to start.
‘If you've never read a Discworld novel, what's the matter with you?’ Guardian


Discworld novels starring the Wizards:
- The Colour of Magic
- The Light Fantastic
- Sourcery
- Interesting Times
- The Last Continent
- Unseen Academicals
Meet the Wizards
The wizards of Discworld’s Unseen University are famous for spending more time studying the common room biscuit tin than spell-books – although they occasionally stretch to some magic between elevenses and lunch.
Rincewind is the Disc’s most useless wizzard – he can’t even spell 'wizard', and his most notable talent is running away, very fast.
But somehow whenever anyone wants a wizard for a terrifying quest, it is Rincewind they call on...
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The Colour of Magic | The Light Fantastic | Sourcery | Interesting Times | The Last Continent | Unseen Academicals | |
Read more about The Wizards: | In the beginning there was... a turtle. This is where The Discworld begins... | The Discworld is about to collide with a malevolent red star and could really use a hero… | The death of wizardry is nigh. And the end of the world, depending on who you listen to. | There are too many heroes already in the world, but there is only one Rincewind. | The Discworld's most inept wizard has found himself on the Discworld’s last continent. | Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork, but this is not just football. |
Product description
Amazon Review
From the Back Cover
The Color of Magic is Terry Prachett's maiden voyage through the now-legendary land of Discworld. This is where it all begins -- with the tourist Twoflower and his wizard guide, Rincewind.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From the Inside Flap
But just because the Disc is different doesn't mean that some things don't stay the same. Its very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the arrival of the first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land. But if the person charged with maintaining that survival in the face of robbers, mercenaries and, well, Death, is a spectacularly inept wizard, a little logic might turn out to be a very good idea. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Sir Terry Pratchett was the internationally bestselling author of more than thirty books, including his phenomenally successful Discworld series. His young adult novel, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, won the Carnegie Medal, and Where's My Cow?, his Discworld book for "readers of all ages," was a New York Times bestseller. His novels have sold more than seventy five million (give or take a few million) copies worldwide. Named an Officer of the British Empire "for services to literature," Pratchett lived in England. He died in 2015 at the age of sixty-six.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Color of Magic
A Discworld NovelBy Terry PratchettHarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Copyright ©2005 Terry PratchettAll right reserved.
ISBN: 0060855924
THE COLOR OF MAGIC
Fire roared through the bifurcated city of Ankh-Morpork. Where it licked the Wizards' Quarter it burned blue and green and was even laced with strange sparks of the eighth color, octarine; where its outriders found their way into the vats and oil stores all along Merchant Street it progressed in a series of blazing fountains and explosions; in the streets of the perfume blenders it burned with a sweetness; where it touched bundles of rare and dry herbs in the storerooms of the drugmasters it made men go mad and talk to God.
By now the whole of downtown Morpork was alight, and the richer and worthier citizens of Ankh on the far bank were bravely responding to the situation by feverishly demolishing the bridges. But already the ships in the Morpork docks-laden with grain, cotton and timber, and coated with tar-were blazing merrily and, their moorings burnt to ashes, were breasting the river Ankh on the ebb tide, igniting riverside palaces and bowers as they drifted like drowning fireflies toward the sea. In any case, sparks were riding the breeze and touching down far across the river in hidden gardens and remote rickyards.
The smoke from the merry burning rose miles high, in a wind-sculpted black column that could be seen across the whole of the Discworld.
It was certainly impressive from the cool, dark hilltop a few leagues away, where two figures were watching with considerable interest.
The taller of the pair was chewing on a chicken leg and Mugu
"Just go away, will you?" said the rider. "I just haven't got time for you, do you understand?"
He looked around and added: "That goes for your shadow-loving fleabag partner, too, wherever he's hiding."
The Weasel stepped up to the horse and peered at the disheveled figure.
"Why, it's Rincewind the wizard, isn't it?" he said in tones of delight, meanwhile filing the wizard's description of him in his memory for leisurely vengeance. "I thought I recognized the voice."
Bravd spat and sheathed his sword. It was seldom worth tangling with wizards, they so rarely had any treasure worth speaking of.
"He talks pretty big for a gutter wizard," he muttered.
"You don't understand at all," said the wizard wearily. "I'm so scared of you my spine has turned to jelly, it's just that I'm suffering from an overdose of terror right now. I mean, when I've got over that then I'll have time to be decently frightened of you."
The Weasel pointed toward the burning city.
"You've been through that?" he asked.
The wizard rubbed a red-raw hand across his eyes. "I was there when it started. See him? Back there?" He pointed back down the road to where his traveling companion was leaning on a sword that was only marginally shorter than the average man. If it wasn't for the air of wary intelligence about him it might have been supposed that he was a barbarian from the Hubland wastes.
His partner was much shorter and wrapped from head to toe in a brown cloak. Later, when he has occasion to move, it will be seen that he moves lightly, catlike.
The two had barely exchanged a word in the last twenty minutes except for a short and inconclusive argument as to whether a particularly powerful explosion had been the oil bond store or the workshop of Kerible the Enchanter. Money hinged on the fact.
Now the big man finished gnawing at the bone and tossed it into the grass, smiling ruefully.
"There go all those little alleyways," he said. "I liked them."
"All the treasure houses," said the small man. He added thoughtfully, "Do gems bum? I wonder. 'Tis said they're kin to coal."
"All the gold, melting and running down the gutters," said the big one, ignoring him. "And all the wine, boiling in the barrels."
"There were rats," said his brown companion.
"Rats, I'll grant you."
"It was no place to be in high summer."
"That, too. One can't help feeling, though, a-well, a momentary-"
He trailed off, then brightened. "We owed old Fredor at the Crimson Leech eight silver pieces," he added. The little man nodded.
They were silent for a while as a whole new series of explosions carved a red line across a hitherto dark section of the greatest city in the world. Then the big man stirred.
"Weasel?"
"Yes?"
"I wonder who started it."
The small swordsman known as the Weasel said nothing. He was watching the road in the ruddy light. Few had come that way since the Deosil Gate had been one of the first to collapse in a shower of white-hot embers.
But two were coming up it now. The Weasel's eyes, always at their sharpest in gloom and half-light, made out the shapes of two mounted men and some sort of low beast behind them. Doubtless a rich merchant escaping with as much treasure as he could lay frantic hands on. The Weasel said as much to his companion, who sighed.
"The status of footpad ill suits us," said the barbarian, "but, as you say, times are hard and there are no soft beds tonight. "
He shifted his grip on his sword and, as the leading rider drew near, stepped out onto the road with a hand held up and his face set in a grin nicely calculated to reassure yet threaten.
"Your pardon, sit" he began.
The rider reined in his horse and drew back his hood. The big man looked into a face blotched with superficial burns and punctuated by tufts of singed beard. Even the eyebrows had gone.
"Bugger off," said the face. "You're Bravd the Hublander,* aren't you?"
Bravd became aware that he had fumbled the initiative.
"Just go away, will you?" said the rider. "I just haven't got time for you, do you understand?"
He looked around and added: "That goes for your shadow-loving fleabag partner, too, wherever he's hiding."
The Weasel stepped up to the horse and peered at the disheveled figure.
"Why, it's Rincewind the wizard, isn't it?" he said in tones of delight, meanwhile filing the wizard's description of him in his memory for leisurely vengeance. "I thought I recognized the voice."
Bravd spat and sheathed his sword. It was seldom worth tangling with wizards, they so rarely had any treasure worth speaking of.
"He talks pretty big for a gutter wizard," he muttered.
"You don't understand at all," said the wizard wearily. "I'm so scared of you my spine has turned to jelly, it's just that I'm suffering from an overdose of terror right now. I mean, when I've got over that then I'll have time to be decently frightened of you."
The Weasel pointed toward the burning city…
Continues...
Excerpted from The Color of Magicby Terry Pratchett Copyright ©2005 by Terry Pratchett. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Ingenious, brilliant, and hilarious." -- Washington Post
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Synopsis
Since then the "Discworld" has spawned a further thirty-one titles and become one of the most popular and celebrated sequences in English literature.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.Review
-"Independent"
"From the Paperback edition." --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Book Description
Product details
- ASIN : B0031RS69G
- Publisher : Transworld Digital; 1st edition (26 Dec. 2008)
- Language : English
- File size : 3518 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 293 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: 3,030 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 2 in Parodies (Kindle Store)
- 7 in Parodies (Books)
- 14 in Contemporary Fantasy Fiction
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Terry Pratchett sold his first story when he was fifteen, which earned him enough money to buy a second-hand typewriter. His first novel, a humorous fantasy entitled The Carpet People, appeared in 1971 from the publisher Colin Smythe. Terry worked for many years as a journalist and press officer, writing in his spare time and publishing a number of novels, including his first Discworld novel, The Color of Magic, in 1983. In 1987 he turned to writing full time, and has not looked back since. To date there are a total of 36 books in the Discworld series, of which four (so far) are written for children. The first of these children's books, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, won the Carnegie Medal. A non-Discworld book, Good Omens, his 1990 collaboration with Neil Gaiman, has been a longtime bestseller, and was reissued in hardcover by William Morrow in early 2006 (it is also available as a mass market paperback (Harper Torch, 2006) and trade paperback (Harper Paperbacks, 2006). Terry's latest book, Nation, a non-Discworld standalone YA novel was published in October of 2008 and was an instant New York Times and London Times bestseller. Regarded as one of the most significant contemporary English-language satirists, Pratchett has won numerous literary awards, was named an Officer of the British Empire “for services to literature” in 1998, and has received four honorary doctorates from the Universities of Warwick, Portsmouth, Bath, and Bristol. His acclaimed novels have sold more than 55 million copies (give or take a few million) and have been translated into 36 languages. Terry Pratchett lived in England with his family, and spent too much time at his word processor. Some of Terry's accolades include: The Carnegie Medal, Locus Awards, the Mythopoetic Award, ALA Notable Books for Children, ALA Best Books for Young Adults, Book Sense 76 Pick, Prometheus Award and the British Fantasy Award.
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The Colour of Magic will take you out of the grim reality of the year of the pandemic and into multiple fantasy worlds where everything is completely other-worldly and belly-laughingly hilarious.
Twoflower, a tourist who arrives in the city of Ankh-Morpork (on its rougher side) acquires special protection from a (failed) wizard Rincewind, primarily because of his Luggage which is filled with riches the criminal fraternity of the city has never seen before. Like a caterpillar, The Luggage travels of its own accord, using its many busy feet, and that’s not even the most puzzling thing about it . Rincewind and Twoflower meet villains, dragons, trolls and all matter of characters who either assist or obstruct them on their travels. And then they come to the edge of the disc. I can’t say anymore but the story doesn’t end there – not quite, not once, and not in the conventional sense of the word.
I reached for The Colour of Magic to shake off the blues of last year. I remembered reading I Shall Wear Midnight many years ago with my daughter, and I wanted to recapture that old magic. I definitely achieved that.
This is a great book and had reintroduced me to some old favourites... I intend to read in order, not that you have to but knowing some of what's to come makes me want to.
Great standalone story or the start of a long and very enjoyable experience, you decide.
What's Good About This Book:
The Colour of Magic is written with a razor-sharp understanding of humans and their follies, pretensions and overall daftness. It uses a parody version of fantasy, complete with inglorious versions of such tropes as the Barbarian and the Wizard, to throw a sharp light on our own world.
The plot is also great fun. The main protagonists, the feckless, failed wizard Rincewind and childlike Twoflower, bounce between imaginative adventure after imaginative adventure without any loss of pace until the satisfying conclusion.
What's Bad About This Book:
Ultimately, there's not that much philosophical meat on the bones of this story. It's mostly entertainment but with a good dash of parody and philosophy thrown in for interest.
It's also quite short. It came to 278 pages on my Kindle which, for many, might not be a huge amount of bang for your buck, especially in the fantasy genre with its many groaning tomes.
Would I Read The Colour Of Magic Again?
Probably not. It was great fun and I am very happy to have read it but I don't think there is enough depth to bring me back for a second reading.
The Colour of Magic is ultimately a fast-paced, witty adventure bursting with imagination, although anyone looking for deep philosophising might find themselves unsatisfied.