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If you haven't read Terry Pratchett, you should
A good laugh
The First And The Best
terry pratchett
Not perfect, but enticing

The Colour of Magic (Discworld Novels)
Terry Pratchett
Manufacturer: Dual Dolphin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 1856958000

Amazon.com

The Colour of Magic is Terry Pratchett's maiden voyage through the bizarre land of Discworld. His entertaining and witty series has grown to more than 20 books, and this is where it all starts--with the tourist Twoflower and his hapless wizard guide, Rincewind ("All wizards get like that ... it's the quicksilver fumes. Rots their brains. Mushrooms, too."). Pratchett spoofs fantasy clichés--and everything else he can think of--while marshalling a profusion of characters through a madcap adventure. The Colour of Magic is followed by The Light Fantastic. --Blaise Selby

Book Description

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...

Customer Reviews:

If you haven't read Terry Pratchett, you should.......2007-06-27

I love Terry Pratchett's work. I had read a number of Discworld books and decided to go back to the beginning to find all of the characters. While this one isn't entirely up to his best later in the series it is still funny and the characters are still a hoot. I think if you start here you'll like it even better.

A good laugh.......2007-04-12

This is not a serious book, and it never pretends to be, and quite frankly thats why i like it. My biggest question with this series is why it took me so long to finally pick up the series.

Color or Magic is Terry Pratchett's first novel in the Discworld series, and its filled with the absurd humor that makes you want to read more and more. Pratchett takes the ordinary from our world and shows just how wierd it can be, the concept of insurance for example. And the "main" characters of this novel are great: Twoflower teh tourist with his naivete, and Rincewind the wizard with his pessimism.

If you enjoy reading Douglas Adams or John Swartzwelder, how have you not read this series yet? This book isn't laugh out loud funny, its make your brain think funny, and in my opinion this is the best kind!

The First And The Best.......2007-04-11

This is truly an inspired piece of writing. Right from the first page where we are introduced to A'Tuin the Great, to the last page where Rincewind the failed wizard is for the umpteenth time facing certain death, I was enthralled and entertained and left begging for more.

Consider the brilliance of the conception of Discworld itself: A world that is flat, where if you get to close to the edge you fall off, where the sun and moon orbit the world, where Gods are real, have character and flaws and are constantly competing with each other. A world that is full of Dwarves, Trolls, Wizards, Heroes, Witches, Tyrannical Despots, Thieves, Assassins and Monsters of all descriptions. A world that is supported on the back of Berilia, Tubul, T'Phon and Jerakeen, four enormous elephants that in turn stand on the back of A'Tuin the Great, the cosmic turtle, who swims forever through the vastness of space.

Yes, these are things that Terry Pratchett has taken from all manner of ancient and modern writings, with a hefty dose of Dungeons & Dragons thrown in, but the genius of the conception is that he has taken everything that is patently untrue and used it to mirror the truth. It is this bizarre juxtaposition that provides the rich vein of thematic material and humour that Pratchett has been mining so successfully for more than 20 years and more than 25 novels.

I have read about 10 of the Discworld series and in my opinion "The Colour Of Magic" is the best. Although the series is consistently entertaining and each book offers something new, yet they do get a bit samey after a while, like a pair of comfortable old slippers: you know what they will feel like when you put them on. But that is not true with the first of the series. It is new, it is fresh, the inspiration is red hot all the way through.

All the characters are new: Rincewind, (Pratchett's favourite anti-hero), the failed wizard, who cheats death again and again, who plays the hero against his will, not by courage and skill but by great, bizarre, strokes of fate. Twoflower, the medieval insurance clerk who becomes the world's first tourist, who enjoys all the danger and adventure with the fearless, good-humoured aplomb of someone who is only watching. And, of course, The Luggage! Sapient Pearwood! Loyal, ferocious, fast, strong, bloody minded and indestructible, who will also keep your clothes freshly laundered and neatly pressed. Now there's some rich and unique characters!

Terry Pratchett's inate philosophy of life comes through clearly in this volume, just as it does in all the other books in the series. All his characters are flawed, most of them deeply. Few of his heroes actually want to be heroes, those are do are invariably dumb as dishwater and are soon killed or made to look foolish. Rulers, whether of countries or organisations are generally paranoid, selfish and cruel. Happiness is only found by those without ambition who are blessed by fate. And, of course, books are special and must be preserved!

Pratchett is one of the most successful writers in the last 50 years. Every bookshop in the world has a rack of his works, and they are greatly loved. If you read a few you will quickly see why. The combination of magical adventure, clever humour and humanist wisdom put together by a master craftsman is a winner.

Yet every successful series has to start somewhere, and this is the first... and the best!

terry pratchett.......2007-03-30

Definitely must be a children's book. Written by a child for a child with absolutely no life experience. I read many books of many genres and this book is completely and utterly boring...Maybe he puts together some fancy little one liners and a couple of odd pairing of words. This is definitely not a timeless novel. Not a book I would recommend wasting your time on. Sadly my boyfriend recommended this book to me and I am quite disappointed at his lack of taste and style. My imagination needs a bit more colors than this. Anyone who can rave about this book has absolutely no clue about art or true writing. It is rigidly boring and a pretentious piece of writing. I don't see how anyone can waste there time on this book...It is really very pathetic and disturbing.

Not perfect, but enticing.......2007-03-09

I am not really certain why this particular book got 5 stars from many reviewers. I suspect they are basing it on the whole series, rather than this first book. I would have liked to have liked this novel a whole lot more than I did, but 3 stars is a fair grade. Its a short book, it reads quickly and isn't bogged down in long Tolkien-esque parading around the hillsides. In fact, several months can go by in the storyline and you didn't miss a thing by not reading about every minute of them!

It is a tentative start, Pratchett clearly had a vague idea of where he was going, but it probably didn't fully develop until later in the series. In this book, we are introduced to the city Ankh Morpork and some of its characters. He also tosses in some playful spoofs of insurance (insewerance) and Conan. The main characters are really interesting and fun (even the names: Twoflower & Rincewind!) and manage to get themselves constantly in ridiculous situations.

Still, its not perfect. It takes the reader until the third chapter to get a handle on what the heck is going on and then late in the book, characters and scenes get a little confused. Anyone who likes Douglas Adams and/or the Pip & Flinx stuff of Foster would like this book.

The Magic School Bus Makes A Rainbow: A Book About Color (Magic School Bus) (TV Tie-In)

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great book
The Magic School Bus Makes a Rainbow
A Review of the MSB's "Makes a Rainbow"
Fun Book
Skip this one

The Magic School Bus Makes A Rainbow: A Book About Color (Magic School Bus) (TV Tie-In)
Joanna Cole
Manufacturer: Scholastic Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0590922513

Customer Reviews:

great book.......2007-05-13

My daughter loves the Magic School Bus, so this was a great book to add to her collection. Great learning books with fun facts.

The Magic School Bus Makes a Rainbow.......2005-08-15

My granddaughter loves this book also, she loves talking and reading about rainbows and stars

A Review of the MSB's "Makes a Rainbow".......2005-07-16

Ms. Frizzle does it again! With her remarkable bus, silly wardrobe, and bag of tricks, she teaches the gang alot about light. This time she teaches using an amazing laser-powered pinball machine.

The kids can't wait to play -it is pinball afterall-but the problem is that Mr. Rule (the principal) is about to take the game away if they can't `win' a game. To win, the students must light up all six `colored eyes' at the back of the game. This requires that they split the incoming laser light and bounce the various frequencies/light colors around.

The children win, of course, but not before they learn about wavelength, prisms, and reflection and refraction.

Four Stars. These books are very educational, but they are not the easiest read-alouds. (I read them to my 3 and 5 year-olds anyway.) In this case, the topic is rather complex AND I would suggest that you use this book as a supplement to the Video.

**See the `Search Inside' Excerpt page for an example of reading level. Certainly young children will not be able to read them.

Fun Book.......2005-03-27

My children enjoy the MSB books that are based on the TV show more than the original ones. Since MSB doesn't come on very often when we can watch it, we love to read the books.

This is an excellent book about colors. The kids also learn a little about light. I highly reccommend it.

Skip this one.......2005-03-24

I love the magic school bus series and find most of them superb. This one, however, is tedious, repetitive and confusing. Not worth a look.

Average customer rating:

Good. Very good.
Where the laffs emerged.
Excellent Opening To Discworld Marred By Poor Publishing
This is how it all began...
These two stories should have come in one book to begin with

The Colour of Magic/the Light Fantastic
Terry Pratchett
Manufacturer: Colin Smythe
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0861404211

Customer Reviews:

Good. Very good........2002-12-10

Not only is The Color of Magic the beginning of an amazing series, there is something about the book that you can't put your finger on that makes it one of the best I have ever read. Rincewind and Twoflower are good characters and the sheer randomness and hilarity of the books makes them excellent aside from everything else.

Where the laffs emerged........2002-01-31

Having started reading Discworld books further into the series, I was worried that the first two stories would be lacking in quality. I needn't have worried that standards or style would be inferior, in fact the first two books are now my favourite in the series.

Pratchett begins his exploration of the Disc with parody of the fantasy genre. Later on in the series he focuses more on developing the mechanisms and realism of the Discworld, but here there are more laughs, and more subversion of the genre.

The relationship between Rincewind the cowardly student wizard and Twoflower the naive, good natured tourist is always amusing and compelling. The plot is perhaps slightly less complicated than later books, but still strange and magical, while firmly rooted in the cynical common sense of the English.

Also the books feature my favourite Discworld character, the tenacious, slightly sinister Luggage! It's an easy read that flows well and has some spot-on humour.

Excellent Opening To Discworld Marred By Poor Publishing.......2001-01-07

I have reviewed the two opening books to Discworld separately elsewhere. Needless to say both works begin one of the most imaginative and original series ever to grace the world of fantasy fiction, and, because of their inseparable relationship in terms of story, their republication as one work makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, Pratchett's new publisher, Collins, has not presented these gems in a manner for which the work is deserving. The text is riddled with punctuation and spelling errors, at times forcing the reader to reread the text for sense, a problem that was equally in evidence in "The Fifth Elephant." Collins is fortunate to have this author now in their stable of fantasy writers---they certainly have no other fantasy author of his stature---and should feel a responsibility---to the work, to the author, and to the readers---to present Mr. Pratchett's marvelous fiction in a manner equal to the riches of its contents. For this reason, don't waste your money on an inferior packaged product. There are still good hardbound copies of the original publications around, if you desire these works in cloth, as I do, that justify their expense, both in terms of presentation and text. This is merely a shoddy reprint, undeserving of purchase, and it is for this reason I have given it only three stars. Pratchett's work deserves far better.

This is how it all began..........2000-06-03

There are now about 24 books in the DiscWorld series, possibly 25 if you live in Britain. But these are the two books that began the series. This is where it started.

I don't usually like parody. Harvard Lampoon's "Bored of the Rings," for example, has never impressed me. But Pratchett has brought parody, and parody of the fantasy genre in particular, to a new level in the DiscWorld series.

Pratchett's writing in these early books, as you would expect, isn't nearly as good as it gets later, but his characters are just as wonderful and his sense of the absurd is working overtime. There are outright parodies (Cohen the Barbarian, a lifetime in his own legend), homages (Firtz Leiber's Ffahrd and the Grey Mouser) and horrible puns ("luters, I expect"). No fantasy novel emerges unscathed.

Like most parodists, the plotting here is weak, with Rincewind, the most incompetent wizard in literature, and Twoflowers, the quintessential tourist, careening from disaster to disaster. In later books, Pratchett's plotting is impeccable, but here it's just not that good. But you don't read these two books for the plot, you read them for the laughs, for the fun of recognizing characters and books, and for the sheer hysterical madness.

The books are a delight. I caution you against reading them in bed - your laughter will disturb your partner - but otherwise whole-heartedly recommend them.

These two stories should have come in one book to begin with.......2000-02-24

I'd give this book a five, but as someone else said- you have to leave room for his future works which get better. The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic were Pratchett's first two novels, and possibly the funniest stuff I've read yet. I'm usually into the more serious works of fantasy fiction, but reading this parody of the genre left me in stictches.

It takes a bit to get into it because it starts off by describing this world as being a flat disk carried on the back of four giant elephants who in turn, are on top of a enormous turtle. Don't ask. Then we meet our heroes: A short tourist with four eyes who doesnt speak the language, and has enough gold to capture the attention of every lowlife thief and robber. The tourist's luggage which is made from the magical wood of a special pear tree and as a result- it has a mind of its own, many feet and teeth and follows the tourist everywhere. And the third main character is Rincewind... a failed, coward of a wizzard who can't learn any new spells because he accidentally memorized one of the eight most powerful spells on the disk- a spell so powerful that no one knows what it does and he dare not say it. In fact all other spells are AFRAID to go near it.

This is just the beginning. Pratchett's wit and spaced-out imagination take the reader on a wild ride where nothing in fantasy is sacred. Now these first two books come together in one book, and I say thats the way they should have come from the beginning. The first book ends with a cliff-hanger (disk-hanger) that is neatly resolved in the second story. And hardcover is a plus, because this IS a classic that belongs on any fan's shelf. It is highly recommended as a breath of fresh air to any fantasy fan- serious or not.

I think I liked it even better the first time I read it eight years ago at 16. Oh... and if you are Brittish- add one star! They all love Pratchett!

Also, if you liked this one- you might enjoy Robert Asprin's Another Fine Myth. It has the same type of fantasy-mocking humor. It's not bad!

Terry Pratchett"s the Colour of Magic,vol 1,no. 4 of 4
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Terry Pratchett"s the Colour of Magic,vol 1,no. 4 of 4
scott rockwell
Manufacturer: innovation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic

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ASIN: B000MQJSZ0

Product Description

adapts terry pratchett's 1st discworld novel

Avalonia's BOOK OF CHAKRAS: A Practical Manual for working with your Chakras using Aromatherapy, Colours, Crystals, Mantra and Meditation to work with, ... with your body's natural energy centres.

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Avalonia's BOOK OF CHAKRAS: A Practical Manual for working with your Chakras using Aromatherapy, Colours, Crystals, Mantra and Meditation to work with, ... with your body's natural energy centres.
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Learn how to work with your body's energy centres... Improve your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health... Take control of your spiritual path by using your energy efficiently... This practical manual contains: * Detailed information on the seven major chakras. * Information on the major nadis (energy channels) of the body and the Kundalini serpent power. * Simple techniques for using aromatherapy, crystals, incense, mantras and meditation for working with the major chakras to stimulate or unblock them individually. * Rare information on the minor chakras with insights on how to incorporate some of them into meditations. * Exercises for opening, closing and balancing the chakras, and working with them in an elemental context. * A creative visualisation exercise using the wish-fulfilling tree found in the Hrit minor chakra. * The connection between the goddess image of the Sri Yantra and the chakras. The chakras are energy centres in our subtle bodies. The word chakra comes from the Sanskrit language and translates as wheel or disk, a reference to the fact that our chakras each spin at a particular frequency when they are in harmony with our physical bodies. By learning how to balance our chakras, we can improve our health, take positive control of our emotions and enhance our spiritual wellbeing.

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Learn about the color wheel

Mouse Magic
Ellen Stoll Walsh
Manufacturer: Harcourt Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0152003266

Book Description

There's a Wizard who knows how to make colors jiggle and shake. It's magic, he says, just for wizards. But Kit, the mouse, realizes that there's more to color than meets the eye. He also discovers that the magic belongs to the colors, not to the Wizard. So step back, Wizard--it's time for mouse magic! Ellen Stoll Walsh, the creator of Mouse Paint, has shown millions of children how red and yellow create orange. She now reveals that complementary colors--like red and green--can't help dancing when they're put side by side.•From the creator of Mouse Paint and Mouse Count, with more than 550,000 copies sold •Includes a color wheel and simple explanation of color types

Customer Reviews:

Learn about the color wheel.......2000-03-29

This book reminds me of Hello Red Fox by Eric Carle in terms of concept, though the story is quite different. Hello Red Fox was only about complementary colors -- the story was about going to a birthday party and all the animals were shown in complementary colors (Red Fox was depicted in green) so the reader's eyes would do the "trick" and see the character in the "correct" color. Unfortunately, some people, myself included, were not able to "see" the colors no matter how we stared. However, I was easily able to see the effect here. In this book, a raven is teaching a mouse "magic" tricks using complementary colors. For example, mixing blue and yellow to make green, then using that green in a pattern with red. What happens is the colors move around in your field of vision. I am not sure that a young child would be able to understand this book without the help of an adult. But, with that help, I think the book does illustrate its point rather effectively. I also think it could have lots of applications for teachers to use with their classes when they teach about colors. There is an author's note at the end which explains the color wheel and primary, secondary, and complementary colors. I wish the author's note, or some other kind of explanatory device, were at the beginning of the book, though, because it would make it easier for kids to follow.

Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic Volme 1 No 1

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Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic Volme 1 No 1
(unknown author)
Manufacturer: Innovation Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KK69F0

Nuremberg: The magic of a medieval city told in engravings and colour prints

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Nuremberg: The magic of a medieval city told in engravings and colour prints
Ursula Pfistermeister
Manufacturer: Carl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Magic Colours Board
Nicola Baxter
Manufacturer: Armadillo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1843223643

From My Window (Tiny Magic Window Books)

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From My Window (Tiny Magic Window Books)
Stewart Cowley , Caroline Church , and Kate Davies
Manufacturer: Reader's Digest Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book

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