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The Color of Magic
RECOMMENDED: The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett is 99c! This is the first book in the much loved Discworld series. There’s magic and lots of quirky humor, though admittedly, the series isn’t for everyone. So don’t worry if you give it a shot and it’s not for you. It has a 3.9-star rating on Goodreads.
Terry Pratchett’s profoundly irreverent, bestselling novels have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody next to the likes of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen.
The Color of Magic is Terry Pratchett’s maiden voyage through the now-legendary land of Discworld. This is where it all begins — with the tourist Twoflower and his wizard guide, Rincewind.
On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There’s an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive 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…
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Moon Called
RECOMMENDED: Moon Called by Patricia Briggs is $1.99! This is the first book in the Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series and I really loved this book. Admittedly, I’m not caught up in the series and have only read the first three or four books, so maybe someone can add some thoughts on how the series unfolds, whether good or bad. Many people love the heroine because she’s a bit of a badass. However, some people feel like the first book is a little slow.
Mercedes “Mercy” Thompson is a talented Volkswagen mechanic living in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. She also happens to be a walker, a magical being with the power to shift into a coyote at will. Mercy’s next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she’s fixing a bus for a vampire. This is the world of Mercy Thompson, one that looks a lot like ours but is populated by those things that go bump in the night. And Mercy’s connection to those things is about to get her into some serious hot water…
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My Highland Bride
My Highland Bride by Maeve Greyson is 99c! This is a time travel romance with a highlander hero and a heroine from Kentucky. If time travel romance is your bag, lost of reviewers on Goodreads recommend this one, but some said the romance was a little tame for their tastes. Have you read this one?
Southern sass meets Highland heat in Maeve Greyson’s scintillating Highland Hearts romance.
With bedroom eyes and racetrack curves, Kenna Sinclair seems like just another pretty Kentucky girl. But she can also read minds, erase memories, and jump through time—a skill set that comes in handy when her matchmaking granny sends her back to thirteenth-century Scotland on the pretext of visiting her older sister. When she encounters the clan’s womanizing man-at-arms, Kenna instantly knows the gorgeous Highlander has only one thing on his mind. She vows to steer clear of him, but after a single electrifying touch, she finds that playing hard to get won’t be quite so easy. . . .Bewitched by the first lass who could ever resist him, Colum Garrison will do anything to prove his devotion, even ask for Kenna’s hand in marriage—and swear off his chosen form of recreation until their wedding night. It’s a burden for a man of his thunderous appetite, but the sinful temptation is not his alone: Colum’s fetching bride-to-be is practically trembling with anticipation for a moment that can’t come soon enough. When she’s willing, Colum will be ready and waiting—with a love that lasts a lifetime.
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Wicked Ride
Wicked Ride by Rebecca Zanetti is still $1.99! This is a paranormal romance with a cop heroine and an immortal Irish biker hero. I know we’ve debated about motorcycle clubs in the past and the book’s description makes mention that this particular MC is up to some pretty rough stuff, regardless of the hero’s involvement. However, many readers loved the chemistry between the very much alpha hero and the heroine. It has a 4.1-star rating on Goodreads.
Alexandra Monzelle is a hard-fighting, heat-packing Seattle vice cop, and she’s not much interested in being protected. Her short skirt and sex-kitten heels are tools to lure her suspects into talking about the deadly new drug hitting the streets. She can take care of herself and then some. Unfortunately, she can’t seem to get that through to Kellach Dunne.
Kellach is a fresh import from Dublin, and he’s landed at the heart of a vicious motorcycle club that deals in guns, narcotics, and mayhem. He’s all male, all rough power—and all interference in her damn investigation. Maybe he’s one of the good guys. Maybe not. Lex knows an affair with an immortal like him would risk everything. No matter how delicious he looks…
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I disagree that it would be fair to say that Discworld is not for you after reading The Colour of Magic — the first two or three books are untypical and less sharp than the rest, I actually find them annoying although I’m a fan. If you’ve read ones like Wyrd Sisters, The Wee Free Men, or Guards! Guards! and don’t like them, then yeah, it’s not for you.
Ryker by Sawyer Bennet, part or the Carolina Cold Fury hockey series, is .99 at Amazon at least. I liked the first two books in the series, but haven’t gotten around to reading the third book yet. This is the fourth and most recent in the series.
I agree with Vasha. I find the first two or three Discworld books to be very different in tone and style from the rest of the series. If you are new to Discworld/Pratchett, you’re better off starting with Mort or Guards, Guards. If you don’t like them, then Pratchett might not be a good fit for you.
Chiming in to agree with Vasha and Susan that the first two or three Discworld books are really not indicative of the series as whole. I’m pretty sure it’s something Terry himself talked about in interviews, that when he started he was trying to write ‘proper fantasy’ and then he realised it wasn’t for him and started writing what we associate with Discworld today. I’d second Guards, Guards or Mort as starters and also suggest Wyrd Sisters or even Going Postal (which is VERY late in the series but is not a bad jumping in point, as it introduces an entirely new character and angle to the tales). Disclaimer, it’s my favourite. Lots of Discworld fans don’t really like the first two books all that much (and frankly, their decision to make Colour of Magic into a mini-series baffled me).
Thanks for the thoughtful responses on Discworld. I started Color of Magic three times and couldn’t get into it (and I absolutely LOVE Douglas Adams). Although it goes against my type A nature to start anywhere but the beginning, maybe I’ll try the series again at a later book. Good tip!
Oh very much with the first Discworld books! I don’t like Rincewind, so if I’d read those books first, I’d never have gotten onto the delight that is the Night Watch or the Witches or … or… or… OOK!
This chart is a HUGE help in getting things straight: http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-20.jpg
If you haven’t read Discworld, I always recommend starting with Guards Guards or Equal Rites.
Count me as another reader who didn’t care for Rincewind and didn’t understand the Discworld hoopla until Guards! Guards!–and then after that I was hooked. Pratchett’s observations on gender in the workplace (You can be any sex you like provided you act male.) were spot on, funny, and just plain balm to my soul when I started out in Hollywood. I remain as baffled as anyone by which of his books has been adapted for television, though.
Thanks for the recommendations on Discworld. I have tried several times to read Colour of Money but give up every time.
Random Michelle, thanks for the link to that reading guide. I’ve read all the novels, but not in any sensible order (more like “what does the library have now?”). Nice to have a better picture of the overall narrative structure.
I agree the first couple novels written aren’t the same as the others, but I do like Rincewind. He’s a very Arthur Dent kind of character, and he’s in some of the better later novels (like The Last Continent).
I would recommend not starting with The Color of Magic. I started off with Going Postal, and would recommend it to newbies.
Another one here who couldn’t get into Discworld after repeated stabs at COM. But I actually own many of the books so will take the helpful recommendation to start with one of the others. Thx.
(This is a different Susan, btw.)
Haven’t read any Discworld novels, but I have to say that I have read all of Patricia Briggs’ “Mercy Thompson” novels and loved them. I have to admit I don’t usually like the vampire/werewolf/whatever type of books, but my aunt kept on telling me I had to read the Mercy Thompson books. I’m glad I gave into the pressure. They are great and they have the added bonus of being set in the part of the US of A that I am intimately familiar with. I imagine the first book is on sale because of the March release of the new novel in the series…which I already pre-bought and am anxiously waiting for 🙂 .
The first Discworld books were parodies of 70-80s fantasy novels like Conan the Barbarian, though I don’t know if Pratchett tried to write “serious” fantasy novels before that. There’s also a part In The Colour of Magic that parodies dragon riders of Pern.
I’m quite sure I’ve read interviews with Pratchett where he explained this, but not sure where. I had a thing for the Discworld books in my late teens and early 20s where I basically read them all several times, plus books of extra materials and web pages like the l-space linked above that does annotations of all the books. Still love the books, though I haven’t reread since then.
The best character in The Colour of Magic is The Luggage …
Nerd note: Conan the Barbarian is a character created by Robert E. Howard in the 1930s in a series of short stories in Weird Tales. The novels are by later authors playing in his sandbox. I sincerely hope that is the geekiest thing I write all day.
For all Canadian Discworld lovers: The Colour of Magic is NOT currently on sale in Canada. But I notice that Thud! and Raising Steam are half price on Amazon.ca.
Also, speaking of the colour of Discworld magic known as “octarine”, there is currently a petition to name one of the newly discovered elements of the periodic table octarine in honour of Sir Terry. I hope it succeeds!
The Patricia Briggs Mercy series is one of my favorites. Combined with her Alpha/Omega series set in the same world, it makes for really good story-telling.
Definitely the first two books in the Discworld series are more definitely parodying specific old-fashioned pulp fantasy (Conan, the wonderful Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser books, etc).
It took off best for me as regards both humour and depth at Guards! Guards!. The less-successful ones in the earlier books include “something from modern life turns up in the Discworld and turns out to involve a threat from the Dungeon Dimensions”. This was slightly too formulaic and allowed Sir Terry to reset to 0 at the end of the book. The later better-written books often involve something “from our world” turning up on the Discworld, but because there was more detail put in about how it was discovered, and then later books in that series build from that, it works better.
People who didn’t like Rincewind in the earlier books could try The Lost Continent (Rincewind discovers Australia). My favourite Rincewind book is Interesting Times (where Rincewind goes to China, or at least how China is understood from stories and histories over here), because it showcases his actual talents, survival instinct and languages, rather than just pointing out he’s terrified of everything. And I love wordplay and language jokes.
The book sequences involving the Witches (Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat), the Young Witches (YA books about Tiffany Aching), the Ankh-Morpork City Watch (Vimes, Carrot, Angua etc; using fantasy species like dwarfs and trolls to explore diversity hiring, among other things) and Moist von Lipwig (ex-con-artist gets “hired” by the Patrician (who runs everything) to develop the Post Office, the Bank and the Railway) are probably good ones to watch out for.
He was a truly great writer and will be much missed.