The Colour of Magic

This article is about the book. For the TV film, see The Colour of Magic (TV film).

Terry Pratchett The Discworld series 1st novel – 1st Rincewind story
Outline
Characters	Rincewind Twoflower The Luggage
Locations	Ankh-Morpork Krull
Motifs	Fantasy clichés, Role-playing games
Publication details
Date of release	1983
Original publisher	Colin Smythe
Hardback ISBN	ISBN 0-86140-324-X
Paperback ISBN	ISBN 0-552-12475-3
Other details
Other notes	93rd in the Big Read

The Colour of Magic is a 1983 comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, and is the first book of the Discworld series. Pratchett has described it as "an attempt to do for the classical fantasy universe what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns."^[1]

Plot summary

The main character is an incompetent and cynical wizard named Rincewind. He involuntarily becomes a guide to the rich but naive tourist from the Agatean Empire, Twoflower. Forced to flee the city of Ankh-Morpork to escape a terrible fire that was caused by a bartender who misunderstood the concept of insurance, which Twoflower told him about, they begin on a journey across the Disc.

Unknown to them, their journey is controlled by the Gods playing a board game. Rincewind and Twoflower are controlled by the Lady, and is pitted against the champions of Zephyrus, the god of slight breezes, Fate and Offler the Crocodile God, in the game supervised by Blind Io. The duo face a mountain troll and are separated. The ignorant Twoflower ends up being led to the Temple of Bel-Shamharoth, and Rincewind ends up in a tree-nymph inhabited tree. Rincewind manages to escape while the tree-nymphs try to kill him and is reunited with the tourist. Together with Hrun the Barbarian, they escape from the Temple of Bel-Shamharoth the Soul Eater, which collapses. Later, Hrun agrees to travel with and protect Twoflower and Rincewind in exchange for Heroic pictures of him from Twoflower's magical picture box.

They visit Wyrmberg, an upside-down mountain which is home to dragons that only exist in the imagination. The names of the dragons' riders feature punctuation in the middle, making reference and parody of the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. They nearly go over the waterfall on the edge of the Disc, only to be rescued and taken to the country of Krull, a city perched on the very edge of the Discworld inhabited by hydrophobic wizards. The Krullians wish to discover the gender of Great A'Tuin, the giant turtle which carries the Discworld through space, so they have built a space capsule to launch over the Edge. They intend on sacrificing Rincewind and Twoflower to get Fate to smile on the voyage. Instead, Rincewind, Twoflower and Tethis the water troll hijack the capsule in an attempt to escape and are launched off the Disc themselves.

Structure

The Colour of Magic is one of thirty nine Discworld novels to be divided into sections or chapters, some others being Pyramids, Going Postal, Making Money, and some of the books for younger readers, specifically The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents and the four Tiffany Aching books, The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith and I Shall Wear Midnight.

Adaptations

Graphic novel

A graphic novel, illustrated by Steven Ross and adapted by Scott Rockwell, was published by Corgi in 1992. The graphic novel is split up into several chapters like the book, and is faithful to the source material in that it is built up like classic barbarian stories (in this case comics a la Red Sonja). Crucial differences between the book and comic include the cutting-out of some of the adventures in Ankh-Morpork and Krull. Also, in the book, the female Dragonriders are described as being topless, as barbarian women in fiction tend to be. However, in the graphic novel the women wear chain-mail bras as well as the clothing described in the book. It has been published in hardcover along with the graphic novel of The Light Fantastic, as The Discworld Graphic Novels. (ISBN 9780061685965)

TV adaptation

Main article: The Colour of Magic (TV film)

The Mob Film Company and Sky One have produced a two-part adaptation, combining both The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic broadcast over Easter 2008. David Jason starred in the role of Rincewind.^[2] Sean Astin took the role of Twoflower. Christopher Lee took over the role of Death from Ian Richardson^[3] (a role Lee previously portrayed in the animated series Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters).

Computer game

Main article: The Colour of Magic (video game)

The plot was adapted for a text adventure computer game in 1986.

References

1. ^ Why Gandalf Never Married, by Terry Pratchett, originally presented at Novacon 15 (1985), collected in Xyster 11 (1986); archived at ansible.co.uk
2. ^ "Del's spells as David lands role". The Sun Online. 24 April 2007. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001320029-2007180838,00.html. Retrieved June 8, 2007. 
3. ^ "Colour of Magic Cast". Paul Kidby official website. July 31, 2007. http://www.paulkidby.com/news/jul2007.html. 

External links

• Terry Pratchett discusses The Colour of Magic on the BBC World Book Club
• Annotations for The Colour of Magic
• Quotes from The Colour of Magic
• Synopsis of The Colour of Magic
• Sky One's The Colour of Magic
• Colin Smythe Ltd
• Full Length Commentary on The Color of Magic

Reading order guide
Preceded by None	1st Discworld Novel	Succeeded by The Light Fantastic
Preceded by None	1st Rincewind Story Published in 1983	Succeeded by The Light Fantastic