The Colour of Magic

The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett's fantasy comedy, appeared in 1983 and opens the Discworld series. Only 506 copies of the British first printing were produced. Pratchett said the aim was to treat the classical fantasy universe the way Blazing Saddles had treated westerns, and the book and its sequel were adapted together as a two-part television production.

Discworld is a flat world carried through space on the back of four elephants standing on a turtle, and its first tourist is Twoflower, a property insurance salesman who has read a book about the place that was wrong in every important line. He arrives in Ankh-Morpork with a magic suitcase made of sapient pearwood that walks on its own legs and is full of gold. His arrival creates a demand for a guide, which the city is happy to supply.

Rincewind is the failed wizard appointed to keep him alive, mostly by running away. He spent forty years at Unseen University without learning even the most basic magic, and he has a spell stuck in his head that makes real magic impossible. Together they travel towards the edge of the world, pursued by the city's guilds, a fire and a great many people who want the luggage.

The Discworld series eventually ran to more than forty novels, with the later books moving away from the parodies of the first two towards satire of other subjects. This first volume establishes Ankh-Morpork, the Unseen University and the luggage, and it was followed by The Light Fantastic in 1986.