Wednesday, January 09, 2008

The Color of Magic


The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
Copyright 1983
210 Pages
Reason for reading: I read this book for the 1st in a Series Challenge
Days to finish: 7

As mentioned above, it took me seven days to finish this book and it was only 210 pages long. That fact, in and of itself, should be an easy indicator of whether or not I enjoyed this book.
Don’t get me wrong. It was a very well written book. Pratchett invented an entire world with unique cities, landscapes, and people. He also used elements of mythology to round out his universe. My problem with the book was that I just didn’t care about the characters. Rincewind, Twoflower, Hrun, Luggage, and the others didn’t hold my interest. It was easy to put down the book and find other things to do with my time. Surprisingly enough, I plan on reading the next book or two of the series. I was recently told that the series gets better and I really wanted to like it so I’m giving it another chance.

My favorite character was the Luggage. Pratchett displays his talent by being able to give a piece of luggage personality. It was funny and the Luggage was tenacious. You had to love it.

I also found similar elements in The Color of Magic and the Harry Potter series. Whether or not Pratchett and Rowling used the same references or Rowling was a fan of the Disc World series and incorporated parts of it into her own series, I don’t know. I’d be interested to find out though and plan on doing some research to assuage my curiosity.

In conclusion, if I were to rate this book (I don’t currently have my own rating system) I’d give it 2 ½ stars out of 5. The series has potential but so far, it isn’t interesting to me.

2 comments:

  1. The luggage had personality, eh? That sounds interesting! I'll be reading this one later this year and it'll be interesting to see how my thoughts compare to yours. I've heard the series gets better as it goes, and so there is hope!

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  2. Yeah. The luggage was referred to as "Luggage" too with a capital L. It was an interesting story but not one that held me in its grips like Water for Elephants and Brother Odd did. I am def going to try a few more before I give up though.

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