Review: The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

So I'm a little late to come to the Terry Pratchett bandwagon. Sue me. He was one of those writers I knew I was going to enjoy so I put off reading him until I found a dry point in my reading. Since I'm still waiting for George R. R. Martin to finish A Dance with Dragons and I've been hesitant to get involved in another big fantasy series I decided to finally read Pratchett. I chose to do this because from what I've heard his work is pretty stand alone in that you don't have to read book #1 then #2...on and on.

Even if that's the case I chose to start at the beginning with The Color of Magic.

http://www.librarything.com/work/1044440/book/43848358

It tells the story of the failed wizard Rincewind and Twoflower, a tourist, and their adventures as they stuble from one hilarious disaster to an even bigger one. It all starts when Twoflower shows up in Ankh-Morpork with his intelligent and over protective piece of luggage. Here he meets Rincewind a wizard that is tasked with protecting and entertaining the tourist. They cause serious trouble in Ankh-Morpork and high-tail it out of town only to run into dragon riders, are stranded on the endge of the world, and finally are offered as sacrifice for then gods.

The characters are wonderful. Rincewind is a great cynical lecher that despite his best efforts is put into the role of protector. Twoflower is the prototypical innocent abroad, inadvertantly stumbling through a world hell bent on harming him, without picking up a scratch. Following them are Death and Fate both intent on harm; both very good at their jobs.

The writing is free and easy, not a simple thing to do. I really enjoyed his style and found that it helped to create a good flow through the story.

One thing I would have liked is more connection between stories. These seemed to be seperate stories that shared common characters, but there was no overarching plot. I think the novel would have been much stonger with a real plot.

I would rate The Color of Magic four out of five stars, well worth reading if your ready to start delving into Pratchett's world.