November book study: The Color of Magic

It is going to be difficult to discuss this book without discussing the umpteen other Discworld books. The series is a wonderful case study of an author evolving. Still, I'm brushing off my copy of the first Discworld novel.

I gave up on Disc world a long time ago...

I've just started on the Discworld series.
I've read Mort and Guards! Guards! I guess I can read this one next. Then I'll probably move on to Equal Rites.

When do we start discussing?

To my mind, the first two books are the least satisfying of the Discworld books. Pratchett was still feeling his way around, using overt (and often clumsy and cruel) parodies a la Piers Anthony and Craig Shaw Gardner. It was only when Pratchett let his characters and settings evolve (and he began to embrace affectionately-humanistic satire) that I really enjoyed his work.

It's not a Discworld novel if I don't finish the last paragraph smiling foolishly through tears. I love that a writer who can set up a five-page pun with the punchline of 'fences make good neighbors' can also write a line like 'humanity is where the falling angel meets the rising ape' (or some variation.)

That said, the movie adaptations of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic were very well done, and true to the spirit of the books.

The Colour of Magic is a greatest hits romp through the tropes of fantasy with tongue firmly in cheek. It is the Spinal Tap of epic fantasy.

We have the unlikely companions; the innocent abroad (who remains oblivious to what's really happening); the reluctant hero (very heavy on reluctant, light on hero); a geas from a powerful and sinister figure (not magical, definitely a curse, keep the rich idiot out of trouble or else, else being to die in an interesting fashion over a period); the grand tour (literally a grand tour, the adventures are accidental); fantastic locations (starting with Discworld itself); dragon riders and a dragon lady (thumbs up for the casting of this role in the recent TV version); magical writing; and horses. Everything is here and cranked up to eleven.

While Pratchett is merciless in skewering the tropes of fantasy, he clearly has great affection for the genre and the tropes. The tone is never mean. There are many points that betray this book's origin as a silly one-off. Three years later, the unplanned sequel, The Light Fantastic, only resolved the stories of Rincewind, Twoflower, and the eight great spells. The red star, key to the resolution, doesn't appear in The Colour of Magic at all. I suspect it had not yet been thought of.

The lack of any spine other than Twoflower-goes-on-vacation would be disastrous for any work other than a comedy. Pratchett's writing carries the day. As does his keen eye for detail, here applied to fantasy tropes, to us later as the Discworld evolved from comedy to satire.

It's a good read.

Filigree said:

To my mind, the first two books are the least satisfying of the Discworld books.

Click to expand...

I agree.

Pratchett has evolved as a writer since The Colour of Magic. It's a little disingenuous of the publishers to call it "the first Discworld novel". While the Discworld series was born in the success of this book, the Discworld was not created as the setting for a series, nor really as the setting for this book. The Discworld is one of the jokes. Nor would I call The Colour of Magic a novel. It is a lot of words on paper between two covers, but it lacks any real story. It's not a failed story. It just doesn't have one. The book is a series of vignettes poking fun at fantasy tropes. The spine of Twoflower and Rincewind's journey is a device to advance from one vignette to the next. Once you've run out of vignettes, they aren't needed anymore. Chuck them off the edge of the world.

Colour of Magic is very much a parody of Fritz Leiber (parodies of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser even appear in it) and the Robert E Howard Conan books (not just Cohen the Barbarian who appears in The Light Fantastic but also Hrun the Barbarian who is more Conan than Cohen ever was).

I sometimes have a problem integrating this definitely heroic fantasy world with the more mature, Regency feel leading into Victorian modernity setting of later books. It almost feels like a different era and if it were not for the fact that Rincewind appears in later books like Unseen Academicals and the Patrician mentioned in Colour of Magic is clearly the same Havelock Vetinari I would have assumed it was a Discworld several decades earlier.

Mind you, he does help the process of integrating them by making the changes in social outlook and technology clear as the series progresses. This is sometimes overt (Vetinari's mention of 'the grand undertaking', the development of clacks technology and various political changes seen mainly in the watch books) and sometimes more subtle (the slow change in how dwarves and trolls are seen and how their culture becomes more apparent as their integration into society happens).

One thing that always struck me about colour of magic, however, is the fact that I think it is where he first makes the statement about racism on the disc - that it did not matter so much the colour of your skin. This is a theme that has continued in one way or another throughout the series.

Oh and another parody in there - the Appointment at Samarkand is referenced by Death.

You bring up good points. I like the book on its own but don't really go back and read it compared to the rest of the Discworld series. The tone is different and doesn't fit well into the rest of the world. It stands alone just fine but I'd rather read more adventures with the wonderful characters he's built over the years.