The Colour of Magic
On the Discworld, a flat planet resting on the backs of four elephants that stand on the shell of the star turtle Great A'Tuin, magic works, gods bicker openly, and a completely incompetent wizard named Rincewind has just been hired as a tour guide. His client is Twoflower, the Disc's very first tourist, an amiable, insurance-selling innocent who travels with a malevolent sapient trunk called the Luggage and a frightening amount of gold. What follows is a breakneck tour through dragon riders, barbarian heroes, and the edge of the world itself. Terry Pratchett's 1983 debut on the Discworld is an affectionate, sharp-elbowed parody of sword and sorcery that doubles as the overture to one of the longest-running and most-beloved comic fantasy series in English.
Where The Colour of Magic keeps showing up
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Books in conversation with The Colour of Magic
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
What you might want to know about The Colour of Magic
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
First Discworld novel. The disc rides on four elephants on the back of the turtle Great A'Tuin. Failed wizard Rincewind is hired to guide Twoflower, the world's first tourist, around Ankh-Morpork. It does not go well.
Most Pratchett readers do not recommend starting with The Colour of Magic (1983). It is the first novel chronologically but written in a different style than the rest of Discworld. Better starting points are Mort, Guards! Guards!, Going Postal, or Small Gods.
Rincewind is the protagonist of eight Discworld novels: The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Eric, Interesting Times, The Last Continent, The Last Hero, and Unseen Academicals.
The Colour of Magic was written by Terry Pratchett, published in 1983 by Random House.
The Colour of Magic is 578 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Colour of Magic takes most readers 9 to 13 hours to finish.
The Colour of Magic is a standalone novel by Terry Pratchett, not part of a series.
The Colour of Magic is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
