The Colour of Magic  - Terry Pratchett

What can I say about the beginning of the famous Discworld series, really? Not much that hasn't already been said multiple times.

 

These are old-school, classic, wizards-and-magic fantasy novels. They're terribly clever and sharp, but an interesting thing to note is that the first 'two' novels - Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic - actually don't show off the massive and very interesting Discworld as well as the later books do. Which, I suppose, should be an obvious fact, but it's interesting nonetheless.They're fun reads, but don't feel as Pratchett-esque as the later books do.

 

Nonetheless, this is a good book to power through on a rainy afternoon. Terry Pratchett has a gift for words and even in this earlier book, it shows. He does not tend to go too overboard with exposition - quite the opposite in fact, writing with short paragraphs and sentences that still somehow don't manage to feel clipped. He's great at being very descriptive with very few words, which is something I've always enjoyed about his work.

 

The world-building does seem a little vague at times, but I can accept that considering it's Discworld and I'm not new to the series. (Haven't read any of the older books in at least a decade, but if you enjoy these they really stick to you).

 

A lot of the humour in Discworld stems from witty writing, things that make you smack your forehead while laughing and curse over how obvious something was and why didn't you think of that yourself? I've had to put these books down on a massive number of occasions just to bask in the brilliance of one word-play or another. Despite that, they're easy to follow and easy to get into. They're fantastic also in that most of the books can be read as stand-alone novels, though personally I would recommend reading them chronologically, if only to see the world-building and be introduced to various core characters who show up over the course of the series. Thankfully though, it's really not entirely necessary.

 

While I don't power-read these books as much as I blast through, say, Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings, all of the Discworld books hold a very special place in my heart.