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The Colour of Magic

By: Terry Pratchett
Narrated by: Colin Morgan, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin. The audiobook of The Colour of Magic is read by Colin Morgan (Merlin; Testament of Youth; Belfast). BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually; Pirates of the Caribbean; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) reads the footnotes, and Peter Serafinowicz (Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace; Shaun of the Dead) stars as the voice of Death. Featuring a new theme tune composed by James Hannigan.

'It was octarine, the colour of magic. It was alive and glowing and vibrant and it was the undisputed pigment of the imagination....'

Somewhere between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a magical world not totally unlike our own. Except for the fact that it travels through space on the shoulders of four giant elephants who in turn stand on the shell of an astronomically huge star turtle, of course.

Rincewind is the world's worst wizard who has just been handed a very important job: to look after the world's first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land. Unfortunately, their journey across the Disc includes facing robbers, monsters, mercenaries, and Death himself.

And the whole thing's just a game of the gods that might send them over the edge....

You can listen to the Discworld novels in any order, but The Colour of Magic is the first book in the Wizards series. The Colour of Magic is the first book in the Discworld series and was published in 1983. Some elements of the Discworld universe may reflect this.

©1983 Terry Pratchett (P)2022 Penguin Audio
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Critic reviews

"If you've never read a Discworld novel, what's the matter with you?" (Guardian)

"Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own." (The Times)

What listeners say about The Colour of Magic

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Loved it

Great listen, look forward to the next one. Well read great characters, brings the dis world to life.

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1 person found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars

Wacky

The pacing and humor took me quite a while to warm up to, but it really is charming once you get into it.

Just give into it.

Don't resist.

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Great introduction

A great intro to the discworld. A clever concept to have a tourist, so you can explore the world and learn about it as you go. Very funny too!

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audio

I have enjoyed this, this being the first audiobook, I would recommended to friends and family

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Good story, pointless music

Lovely initial development of STP's Diskworld, but I am a life long fan.

I'm getting used to the narration, I hope it grows on me.
I'm not a fan of the music, just seems out of place ...

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The magic

The narrator was ok. The story was as expected. wonderus. Rincewind was hopeless as the tourists was hopeful.

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Excellent performance

If you haven't tried a Discworld book before the general advice is don't start here - it's really a setting for various series of books more than a series by itself, you can safely start elsewhere to find out if you like the world (I'd recommend Small Gods, Guards Guards or Going Postal) without needing to know the plot of this book. You can always return to this later if you like the world but this and it's second half The Light Fantastic are a bit odd and chaotic compared to the later books.

Morgan did an amazing job narrating this, every character has a distinctive voice and his narration voice is excellent. He also happily avoided giving Twoflower (the Disc's equivalent of an asian tourist) an offensive accent. I'm looking forward to trying his version of the rest of the Wizards series.

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19 people found this helpful

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As brilliant as I remembered!

It must be 25 years since I read the book and this was a lovely trip down memory lane! Beautifully written. You do need to be concentrating as there are SO many characters. Fantastic fun though!

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Loved it!

I can honestly say I loved this book and can not wait to listen to the next one in the Disc World series.

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Fun. Brilliant sections, plot is a bit random

Moves all over the place imo
He keeps drawing you in with fun characters and imagined situations, beautifully written. I feel the plot pace and flow was off though. Will check the next i series see if it makes more sense over time. I stay open. As I’m so late in life to visit disc world

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