The Colour of Magic
core novel 1983 Discworld
Record
| First published | 1983 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.99 (433,077 ratings, collected 2026-09-11) |
| Page count | 228 |
| First-edition ISBN | 0861400895 |
Synopsis
In the city of Ankh-Morpork, the inept wizard Rincewind is pressed into service as a guide for Twoflower, a naive but extremely wealthy tourist from a distant empire, after the city's ruler makes clear that any harm coming to the visitor could provoke a war. When Rincewind tries to abscond with his fee, he is forced back into the job, and the pair's misadventures begin in earnest once Twoflower is kidnapped from a tavern and rescued along with his sentient, many-legged luggage chest. Twoflower's habit of taking out insurance on everything he encounters soon leads to disaster on a civic scale, and the two are forced to flee the ruined city and strike out across the Disc, unaware that their entire journey is being steered by a group of bored, gambling gods playing an elaborate board game with their lives.
Where it sits
- Universe: Discworld
- Series: Rincewind / Wizards core; position 1 of 8 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Terry Pratchett
Notes
- From the series record (Rincewind / Wizards): Sub-series grouping per Wikipedia arc articles; schemes vary between sources.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Rincewind / Wizards: position 1 of 8: next The Light Fantastic (1986)
Sources
← Discworld dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.