The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Very Average Joe
5 minutes ago
5 min read

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (b. 28 April 1948 – d. 12 March 2015) was first published in 1983 by Colin Smythe Ltd.

This was not Pratchett’s first novel but it is the first Discworld novel. They can be simplistically described as fantasy comedies. Eventually, there would be 35 novels and 6 YA novels set in Discworld, amongst others such as art books. The last novel, a YA release titled The Shepherd’s Crown, was completed in 2014 and published posthumously in 2015.

Discworld is called that because the world is disc-shaped, resting on four giant elephants that are on the back of a giant turtle “swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf”.

The Discworld novels can be classified into 6 categories: Wizards, Witches, Death, City Watch, Industrial Revolution and Standalones. Although it is not absolutely necessary to read them in order, within each category, some books are sequels or follow chronologically to an earlier story even though there is no substantial connection.

The Colour of Magic is not the first Discworld novel I read but it makes sense to review this first as part of a brief introduction to Discworld. It is a Wizards novel featuring Rincewind, an incompetent wizard. In a way, he is not even a real wizard. The novel does tell that backstory; the short version is that he was expelled from Unseen University. As such, he is introduced with the post-nominal “BMgc, Unseen University [failed]”.

This novel is shorter than the norm at around 280 pages. Typically, Pratchett does not divide his novels into chapters or parts but The Colour of Magic is organized into four parts, each basically a novella.

The first part is “The Colour of Magic” at about 90 pages. It begins with Rincewind and Twoflower escaping the city of Ankh-Morpork on fire. The story of how the city got set on fire is then recounted by Rincewind, in effect a long flashback.

Twoflower is a naive tourist from a distant empire. He sells insurance and is in many ways just an average guy at home but he is extraordinarily wealthy by Ankh-Morpork standards. Thus, he attracts attention on arrival. Also attracting attention is his Luggage: a somewhat sentient wooden chest that has many legs, always tracks and follows its owner, is practically indestructible, and is single-mindedly defensive of its owner to the point of being homicidal. Of course, other people don’t know that until it’s too late.

Threatened by the Patrician, the ruler of Ankh-Morpork, Rincewind is given the assignment to protect Twoflower and the next three parts are their adventures away from the city.

The second part is “The Sending of Eight” at about 45 pages. Rincewind and Twoflower come across an ancient temple that houses a deity, obviously inspired by the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. The story is not as dark as Lovecraft’s work.

The third part is “The Lure of the Wyrm” at about 65 pages. The pair arrive at an upside-down mountain on the top of which is a kingdom with dragons. They find themselves in the middle of a power struggle.

The fourth and last part is “Close to the Edge” at about 70 pages. As the title suggests, the pair gets lost in the ocean and dangerously close to the edge. However, they are in an area controlled by Krull where their astronomers are about to launch a spacecraft.

Pratchett’s style is balanced. Some authors tend to “show” whereas others tend to “tell” but Pratchett does both without being excessive one way or the other, nor is he clumsy. He has a good sense of rhythm in the way he constructs his sentences. His novels are generally easy to read.

He writes in third-person omniscient voice, often telling the characters’ thoughts and history without, as already mentioned, being clumsy. As is common, even in third-person, the main characters are usually the (implied) viewpoint characters. Pratchett does switch viewpoint characters within a given scene or section and he is able to do so without being jarring.

The humor can be sharp. He does not rely on swearing or dirty jokes just for the sake of it. Pratchett’s humor is actually clever and not shallow, often playing on the irony or logic or illogic of the situation. As such, many of his jokes are (also) wordplays. Parody and satire are key components of the comedy, depending on the themes and morals of the story.

Like most decent stories, he employs the classic technique of contrasting characters as part of the conflict and humor. For example, in The Colour of Magic, Rincewind and Twoflower are essentially opposites. The former is a pessimist and considers himself a coward. He is probably not as cowardly as he thinks but he does tend to panic. The latter, however, is the naive optimist who is happy to just go along with almost everything that happens. As expected, the two annoy each other.

As for the fantasy, it is a polytheistic world. Pratchett claimed to be not religious and, in this first novel, seems to hint that with the way the deities are presented. However, in later novels, there seems to be none of this whether the deities are featured or not.

In any case, the deities are on the colorful side with their character flaws, somewhat like ancient paganism. Whilst they are an important part of the plot in The Colour of Magic, they are not featured extensively.

In this and other novels, although I have not read any Witches novels, Pratchett is not heavy on spells when it comes to magic. He thankfully does not glorify the occult or witchcraft. These things are just part of reality; it’s part of the premise and setting and they are sometimes plot devices. That being the case, thematically, words are important and this is the point made in “The Sending of Eight”: one has to be careful what one says.

It is more about energy, and the physics or the mechanics of it. “Magic never dies. It merely fades away.” Sometimes, that is the humor as he plays on the principles such as the conservation of energy.

Setting aside that his writing gets better in his subsequent releases, some of his books come across as less fantastical and more grounded without ceasing to be fantasy. This is a good thing, especially for those who prefer such stories.

For example, “The Colour of Magic” sets up the city of Ankh-Morpork nicely enough but the next three parts are set outside of it. As such, it may be a bit too much of running-around-in-the-middle-of-nowhere for some.

As a comparison, Discworld Novel #25 The Truth (2000) can be classified under the Industrial Revolution category: it is about the printing press and the emergence of Ankh-Morpork’s first newspaper. Set in the city and given the subject matter of media and journalism, the story is much more grounded and Pratchett’s satire is relevant and relatable.

Arguably one of the best characters of Discworld is Death and he makes a few brief appearances in The Colour of Magic. Not much is known about him still, although it is hinted that he is not a simple character. It is in Discworld Novel #4 Mort (1987), Death’s first novel, that he is properly introduced and established.

Even for those who are not fans of fantasy, Pratchett’s easily accessible style and clever comedy make his novels a real pleasure to read.

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