Terry Pratchett's Discworld - The Colour of Magic

And so, The Discworld begins back in publishing order - come with me now to the dawning of a new age. First published in 1983 – the world population was half the size it is now; Fraggle Rock arrived; the Ethiopia Famine was in the headlines; Return of the Jedi was on the screens and the Space shuttle launched. I’m seven years old and just enjoy watching Doctor Who and going to my library for target books. I didn’t read TCOM until 1996 when I’m twenty at university slowly working out I don’t want to be a lawyer however much I enjoy the subject and the music of the decade was the best ever ahem and the internet was being talked about as the next big thing and DVDs began to be created.

Publisher of my copy– Corgi

This edition was priced £4.99 paperback back then!!

On a world supported on the back of giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There’s an avaricious but inept wizard, a naïve tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet…

I don’t reread books often and particularly as I blog the new stuff ever calls to me like a magpie so it’s fascinating to see how debuts evolve and this, I think must be labelled the product of its time. This is the Discworld but as we will see not quite as we come to know it

This is a very episodic set of adventures as into the greatest city of all; Ankh-Morpork, we see Twoflower a tourist from the wealthy Counterweight Continent arrive in the city where the merest idea that you are unarmed and carrying gold is a death sentence. He meets the singularly unmagical bar one spell Rincewind who on pain of death is ordered to accompany Twoflower exploring the main continent. They meet gangs, dragons, monsters and cults and clearly the Gods are playing some very stupid games as we can hear the dice.

I must admit a sense of underwhelming when reading this knowing what Pratchett is capable of. But that is me being unfair. Imagine what your first job was like and what you know you can do now. The inventiveness of the Discworld here is that Pratchett is taking many core and popular elements of the fantasy world at the time McCaffery, Vance and Lovecraft and poking fun at them with British humour. At the time and we know how much the golden age was lionised back then this was probably revolutionary and refreshing. If you know the stories this book mocks, then that may bring smile to your face. Sadly, I am not a huge lover of those books and while I am aware now of a lot more of what is being reference, those jokes not my favourite elements of the story. The humour feels a bit two dimensional. Yes, musclebound barbarians can be stupid; wizards do not have to be Gandalf, but the jokes don’t really progress a story its just a set really of loosely connected skits. Fascinating because as we will see plotting is something I really associate with Pratchett. The other absence for me was character. Everyone feels a bit too stereotypical (especially and most disappointingly the female characters) here there just aren’t many layers and there isn’t really much examination of humanity. Compare this to Hogfather which I’ve just read, and the differences are fascinating in approach. Annoyingly ends on a cliff-hanger so the story feels incomplete

And yet…. it’s not terrible just lightweight. In fact looking closely you can see so many elements to come of course DEATH appears but here much more of a villain than we come to know him; gods and belief are challenged and with Rincewind talking about how there must be different approaches to science we see Pratchett was already interesting in how these ideas rubbed up against one another. The other strong element here is Pratchett is even here still a good writer - passages describing Ankh Morpork on fire or the eyes of Fate are quite effective. The talent is there its just not yet as focused.

I tend to think of this era of Discworld as a theatre play where the costumes and sets are clearly cheap and the cast while doing their best aren’t yet really making this its own thing yet. Parody can make us laugh but the best humour can make us think too. Would I start someone here with Pratchett – no this feels a bit too dated and rough but it’s a fascinating place to visit just to see how this cartoon becomes a bigger piece of art.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments and I will have some thoughts on twitter soon via #DiscworldReads

Next up – The Light Fantastic