Challenge 3: 'The Colour of Magic'

Your mission, and you have no choice but to accept it, is to read:
The Colour of Magic, by (Sir) Terry Pratchett.

The Colour of Magic is the first book in the Discworld series. Me, I love Discworld, and it seems that everyone else either loves or hates it; there is no middle ground - comic fantasy isn't for everyone. Hopefully Emma will love it, as there are plenty more books in the series (40ish, I think).


One of the beauties of the Discworld series is that the books don't have to be read in order - you can skip pretty much straight to the good ones. While The Colour of Magic isn't (in my opinion) the best Discworld book, it is the first and that is why I am assigning it. Hopefully Emma will like it enough to read some more.

I am honestly unsure how much Emma will like this book, it does have some very... odd... humour. I love it, and I know quite a few people who do too, but it isn't for everyone. (So if you hate it Emma, I apologise :P).

In the end, Discworld is really summed up by this quote from T.P. himself:

"There are no maps. You can't map a sense of humor. Anyway, what is a fantasy map but a space beyond which There Be Dragons? On the Discworld we know There Be Dragons Everywhere. They might not all have scales and forked tongues, but they Be Here all right, grinning and jostling and trying to sell you souvenirs."

Review 2: 'Emma'

I approached this book with misgivings; I have never really liked books of this style (about the exeptionally uneventful lives of English gentility). That said, I did make an effort, not just to get through Emma, but to enjoy it.

I can tell you now, it will never be one of my favorite books, and I probably won't read it again any time soon, but it wasn't as bad as I had expected. True, it seemed to drag on, and on, aaand on, but that really is just part of the style of writing. This, really, is my main problem with this book (and even the whole style/genre): It just takes a very long time to get anywhere. Admittedly, my impatience with the slow pace is probably the result of reading very little other than fantasy/sci-fi/action which reads quite a bit faster.

Now: the good points, I'm sure I can find some ;) ... I did get a few laughs from Emma (The character, that is) (Emma (the challenger, that is): Yay! I like it when I'm right.). She has a wonderful combination of egotism, arrogance and smug superiority that does make her character... hmm... interesting. She isn't - apart from a few incidences which she later regrets - mean or spiteful, she just thinks that she knows more/better than everyone around her. It is amusing when she finds out that things she is so absolutely certain about are not actually correct, and are usually a very long way from what is actually happening.

So in the end I have decided that Emma isn't a bad book, just one that I dont find particularly entertaining. Since this is usually why I read, there isn't a huge change of me reading it again - unless of course I start dating an Austen fan, then I might, if only to appear knowledgeable. :P

Check back for the next challenge soon.