The Color of Magic
Having almost finished Discworld, it was fun to go back to the beginning and see where it all started, with The Color of Magic.
I always made a point of reading these books in publication order, and from the beginning I fully intended to read the entire series. You know, eventually. But it's not like I ever pushed myself through a book I didn't like. I remember enjoying every installment in this series on some level (well except for Eric, but that's just because I never read Faust). So it was surprising to realize how rough the first book is.
There are hints of the direction Discworld will go. We're introduced to some of the basic building blocks, like Ankh-Morpork and the Patrician and the various Guilds. Magic is dying out, but given how rare it is to find it in later books, it still seemed like there was a lot here.
What really struck me was how different so many of the characters are. Death hasn't gone through is arc yet and comes off incredibly cold and almost callous. The City Watch is in its absolute infancy. And the Librarian is nowhere to be found (I don't think he's even a orangutan yet).
But the most distracting thing was the structure of this book. It's not so much a novel as four loosely-connected short stories. Yes, they all center on Rincewind and Twoflower's adventures exploring the Disc. Beyond that, each installment is very different. One takes place in a city, another in an HP Lovecraft story.
For all that the story tends to jump around, I still think it's a good introduction to the Discworld. You get a decent overview of geography on a large scale, and an introduction to a smattering of characters and cultures that show up again in later books and start to make up the scenery. The humor that is such a staple of this series is also given a good introduction. But while the puns and loving spoofs are present, the biting satire is only beginning to peek in from around the edges.
I think this book is mostly disappointing looking back from what I know about the series now. Pratchett grows so much as a writer over the course of these books, and it's a little jarring to remember where he started. But it was still nice to remember that there was a time that I did like Rincewind, back before he stubbornly refused to ever grow or change despite all the shit he goes through.
I always made a point of reading these books in publication order, and from the beginning I fully intended to read the entire series. You know, eventually. But it's not like I ever pushed myself through a book I didn't like. I remember enjoying every installment in this series on some level (well except for Eric, but that's just because I never read Faust). So it was surprising to realize how rough the first book is.
There are hints of the direction Discworld will go. We're introduced to some of the basic building blocks, like Ankh-Morpork and the Patrician and the various Guilds. Magic is dying out, but given how rare it is to find it in later books, it still seemed like there was a lot here.
What really struck me was how different so many of the characters are. Death hasn't gone through is arc yet and comes off incredibly cold and almost callous. The City Watch is in its absolute infancy. And the Librarian is nowhere to be found (I don't think he's even a orangutan yet).
But the most distracting thing was the structure of this book. It's not so much a novel as four loosely-connected short stories. Yes, they all center on Rincewind and Twoflower's adventures exploring the Disc. Beyond that, each installment is very different. One takes place in a city, another in an HP Lovecraft story.
For all that the story tends to jump around, I still think it's a good introduction to the Discworld. You get a decent overview of geography on a large scale, and an introduction to a smattering of characters and cultures that show up again in later books and start to make up the scenery. The humor that is such a staple of this series is also given a good introduction. But while the puns and loving spoofs are present, the biting satire is only beginning to peek in from around the edges.
I think this book is mostly disappointing looking back from what I know about the series now. Pratchett grows so much as a writer over the course of these books, and it's a little jarring to remember where he started. But it was still nice to remember that there was a time that I did like Rincewind, back before he stubbornly refused to ever grow or change despite all the shit he goes through.
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