The Colour of Magic

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Terry Pratchett
A number of questions form in my head when I hear this name.


How can he be this funny, book after book?
Where does he find the inspiration for these hilarious stories?
How does he keep from repeating himself?
Where can the official Orang-utan-dictionary be bought?
What IS the colour of magic?
How does the fastest animal on the discworld (faster than light) breed?
How come Rincewind is such a lousy wizard?
Is Rincewind the eighth son of an eighth son?
In the other column you can find a lot of his books (possibly all). The ones
that I own a copy of there are a short review of the books story and my
thoughts on its qualities. But they are below, in this column.

The Colour of Magic

This is the first book in the Discworld series. The Discworld is a large round
plate, on top of which people and gods live. The plate is situated on the backs
of four elephants, standing on the back of a gigantic turtle, that slowly
crawls through space. This seems like an unlikely setup for a world, and as
such a lot of unlikely things happen here. Some say this universe was a mistake.

In this world there are a lot of important people, some unwillingly so. Among
these unlikely and unwilling heroes are Rincewind, the worst magician ever to
come out of the Unseen University. The first few books in Pratchetts Discworld
series is about him.

In this, the first book, rincewind is forced, because he is offered too much
money to turn him down, to guide the discworlds first tourist on his travels in
the plentiful, and certainly dangerous, twin city of Ankh-Morpork. Much chaos
and mayhem ensues as the unwilling adventurer, his tourist, Twoflower and his
luggage, burn down Ankh-Morpork and are forced to flee.

It is a good book, but it lacks some of the style that he (Pratchett) adopts
later on. Very impressive, nontheless.

The Light Fantastic

In this book, our frightened hero continues his flight from Ankh-Morpork, still
with the Eighth spell in his head. Without it, the world can not be saved by
the Wizards at the Unseen University. But Rincewind does not know that. By the
way, he is as far away from Ank-Morpork and the Unseen University as he could
possibly get. In fact, he is not even on the Disc anymore.

Too long since I read this to remember its quality. But I expect I liked it :)

Equal Rites

It is time for women's liberation on the Discworld and the wizards at the
Unseen University are not happy about it, because they where the first ones to
have to deal with it. It is not that they could not imagine there being female
magicians, there are Wiches, and that is perfectly acceptible. But female
Wizards? That was unheard of. But a small girl had in fact inherited a wizard's
staff and she made a powerful claim at her rightful place in the exclusive
educational center that is the Unseen University.


Mort

Death can't retire, can he? He seems to think so. He hires a clumsy young man
by the fitting name of Mort to be his apprentice, in the hope that he can fill
in for him on those rare occasions when he whanted to do something other than
collecting souls. But on his first real job he refuses to collect a young
princess, and all hell breaks loose. Can history be saved without killing the
princess?

Sorcery

The eighth son of an eighth son is a wizard. But as it happens this particular
wizard had eight sons of his own. That eighth son is then a wizard squared.
Such a wizard is known as a Sorcerer, a person with more power than he is
likely to know what to do with. The last time there where any Sorcerers the
world was nearly destroyed. This could easily happen again. This Sorcerer must
be stopped and who better to stop him than the person at the Unseen University
with the least knowledge in the art of magic, Rincewind.

More...

Discworld series

The Colour of Magic, (St. Martin's 1983)
The Light Fantastic, (St. Martin's 1986)
Equal Rites, (Gollancz 1986)
Mort, (New America 1987)
Sorcery, (Gollancz 1988)
Wyrd Sisters, (Gollancz 1988)
Pyramids, (Penguin 1989)
Guards! Guards!, (Gollancz 1989)
Moving Pictures, (Gollancz 1990)
Whitches Abroad, (Gollancz 1991)
Small Gods, (Gollancz 1992)
Lords & Ladies, (Gollancz 1993)
Men at arms, (Gollancz 1993)
Sould music, (Gollancz? 1994)
Interesting Times, (Gollancz? 1995)
Maskerade (Gollancz 1995)
Feet of Clay (Gollancz 1996)
Hogfather (Gollancz 1996)
Jingo (Gollancz 1997)
The Last Continent (Doubleday 1998)
Carpe Jugulum (Doubleday 1998)
The Fifth Elephant (Doubleday 1999)
Some other books

The Carpet People, (Smythe 1971)
The Dark Side of The Sun, (St. Martin's 1976)
Strata, (St. Martin's 1981)
The Unadulterated Cat, (Gray Jolliffey Goll 1989)
Good Omens, with Niel Gaiman (Workman 1990)
Only You Can Save Mankind, (Doubleday 1992)
Johny and The Dead, (Doubleday 1993)
Strata
Bromeliad (Truckers series)

Truckers, (Doubleday 1989)
Diggers, (Delacorte 1990)
Wings, (Doubleday 1990)
I'd like to make a point, these are by no means all the books that Terry
Pratchett have punlished. But it's a lot of them. :-)

Have you ever wondered what the luggage looks like? I have, and here is my
interpretation. When it's benign and poses as a normal chest, that is.

Do you want to know more?
Check out the L-Space web.


The Hell Zone was written and conceived by Daniel Hellsson
This page was written and drawn in 000128