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The Colour of Magic

By: Terry Pratchett
Narrated by: Colin Morgan, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy
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Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin. The audiobook of The Colour of Magic is read by Colin Morgan (Merlin; Testament of Youth; Belfast). BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually; Pirates of the Caribbean; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) reads the footnotes, and Peter Serafinowicz (Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace; Shaun of the Dead) stars as the voice of Death. Featuring a new theme tune composed by James Hannigan.

'It was octarine, the colour of magic. It was alive and glowing and vibrant and it was the undisputed pigment of the imagination....'

Somewhere between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a magical world not totally unlike our own. Except for the fact that it travels through space on the shoulders of four giant elephants who in turn stand on the shell of an astronomically huge star turtle, of course.

Rincewind is the world's worst wizard who has just been handed a very important job: to look after the world's first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land. Unfortunately, their journey across the Disc includes facing robbers, monsters, mercenaries, and Death himself.

And the whole thing's just a game of the gods that might send them over the edge....

You can listen to the Discworld novels in any order, but The Colour of Magic is the first book in the Wizards series. The Colour of Magic is the first book in the Discworld series and was published in 1983. Some elements of the Discworld universe may reflect this.

©1983 Terry Pratchett (P)2022 Penguin Audio
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Critic reviews

"If you've never read a Discworld novel, what's the matter with you?" (Guardian)

"Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own." (The Times)

Featured Article: The top 100 fantasy listens of all time


When compiling our list of the best fantasy listening out there, we immediately came up against the age-old question: Is this fantasy or science fiction? The distinction is not as clear as you may think. Dragons, elves, and wizards are definitely fantasy, but what about wizards that also fly space ships? (Looking at you, Star Wars.) For the sake of fantasy purity, the top 100 fantasy listens include the best audio works in all manner of fantasy subgenres.

What listeners say about The Colour of Magic

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Superb work!

Since originally hearing they were redoing the audiobooks I was hyped! They did an amazing job with the performance overall. For anyone already a fan of Terry's work this is a must!

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11 people found this helpful

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An update on a classic for sure.

so the original audiobook recording of this was done by sir Terry Pratchett himself, as this was before he was a well-known author obviously. The audio was scratchy and inconsistent, and made you miss certain details of the story. This update is amazing and brings new life. I hope the voice actor for death isn't the same throughout all these recordings. While he does a great job, death is supposed to sound sarcastic, and in this recording he sounds far, far to serious. Other then that, especially in this first entry, arguably the audiobook that needed to be remade the absolute most out of all of them, this is a delight. Nigel Planter is hard to beat, but I will deff give the rest of the books a chance with this level of production and care put into their release.

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1 person found this helpful

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God story - slow reading

The book remains a classic, but the narration was so slow I constantly found my thoughts drifting.
Luckily it was readily remedied by speeding up the playback to 1.2!

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well then

Well, that was different. I enjoyed it, very different from other fantasy novels I've read. I will probably do another before deciding if I want to commit to the whole series.

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Amazing!

Could not stop listening! Read the discworld novels as a kid and to find these on Audible with new readers as well! Can't wait to listen to the rest!

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I've always had a live for the Discworld

wow the perilous adventure. can't wait for the next audio book. this was awesome. love terry pratchet

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love the book hate the narrators

not a really clear accent, specially if a non native speaker listens. it just isn't accessible. also death just sounds flat and has lost his sparkle. the book itself is great ... obviously. this may not be the best of his work but even on a bad day he is phenomenal

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  • Overall
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Quick and quirky

This was a fun little story. The pacing was great. Funny and quirky. Will be enjoying other books in this series.

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As Much Fun as Being Swept Off the Edge of the World!

Thought provoking? Utter absurdity? You decide. Cast aside all those fussy reviews and go for the ride. Definitely funny.

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Great narration!

Narrator was great and the story got better the further along you get. Definitely recommend

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