REVIEW - THE COLOUR OF MAGIC
I received my first Terry Pratchett novel during my early teens. At the time I wasn't aware of who he was, what the Discworld is, or the fact that the novel was about magic and supposed to fit into a larger fantasy world. I do not remember disliking A Hat Full of Sky, I think it just may have lost out, compared to my Harry Potter obsession of the time which pretty much ruled my life at that time. That and anything to do with Matt Berry. I decided half way through last year that I was interested in giving Pratchett's Discworld series another spin. So I borrowed the first two - The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic - from a friend. Nine to ten months on and I have finally gotten around to reading the former! I think the reason it took me so long to decide to actually start them is because of the hype - my expectations were pretty damned high. But after trekking through so many G.R.R Martin novels, the prospect of a, comparatively tiny, Pratchett novel seemed quite appealing.
It was nothing at all like I thought it would be. It was just so damned silly, and I loved it. It also felt strangely familiar. This is not thanks to the bit of A Hat Full of Sky that I read when I was fourteen, it is because the cities in Warhammer Fantasy were obviously partly inspired by the city of Ankh-Morpork, and I've been participating in a game of WFRP for almost a year now. The characters Pratchett creates are awesome. They make a mockery of stereotypes of protagonists and 'heroes' whilst remaining likeable and relate-able. The ease with which he slips in and out of vastly different dimensions and planes and times is really awe-striking. Although I have read a lot of other authors who I consider to be fantastic, never have I read something so vast and bold holds the scope that The Colour of Magic has. The system of magic too, is really interesting and cool. It re-imagines magic and gives it a different kind of status as compared to most other settings.
Of the slew of characters introduced in The Colour of Magic the ones who I most wanted to keep reading about were definitely the Gods. But I dare say there will be plenty of that in the forty-something novels I've still got to get through. The amount of blatant nudity in the book surprised me. It wasn't as though it was distasteful (read: there weren't inappropriate sex scenes), but people - usually as a cultural thing, as in the case of the inhabitants of the Wyrmberg - were a lot more naked than I was expecting! I just love how many ways this book surprised me! Although I am a little worried that now I have more realistic expectations of how silly Pratchett's writing is, I might not be as surprised and awe-struck by it in the future. But given the fact that he has been knighted for his services to literature, I think we might just be okay.
It was nothing at all like I thought it would be. It was just so damned silly, and I loved it. It also felt strangely familiar. This is not thanks to the bit of A Hat Full of Sky that I read when I was fourteen, it is because the cities in Warhammer Fantasy were obviously partly inspired by the city of Ankh-Morpork, and I've been participating in a game of WFRP for almost a year now. The characters Pratchett creates are awesome. They make a mockery of stereotypes of protagonists and 'heroes' whilst remaining likeable and relate-able. The ease with which he slips in and out of vastly different dimensions and planes and times is really awe-striking. Although I have read a lot of other authors who I consider to be fantastic, never have I read something so vast and bold holds the scope that The Colour of Magic has. The system of magic too, is really interesting and cool. It re-imagines magic and gives it a different kind of status as compared to most other settings.
Of the slew of characters introduced in The Colour of Magic the ones who I most wanted to keep reading about were definitely the Gods. But I dare say there will be plenty of that in the forty-something novels I've still got to get through. The amount of blatant nudity in the book surprised me. It wasn't as though it was distasteful (read: there weren't inappropriate sex scenes), but people - usually as a cultural thing, as in the case of the inhabitants of the Wyrmberg - were a lot more naked than I was expecting! I just love how many ways this book surprised me! Although I am a little worried that now I have more realistic expectations of how silly Pratchett's writing is, I might not be as surprised and awe-struck by it in the future. But given the fact that he has been knighted for his services to literature, I think we might just be okay.
