Book

Author:	Terry Pratchett
Title:	The Colour Of Magic
Publisher:	Colin Smythe
Country:	UK
Date:	Nov 1983
Format:	Hardcover
Genre:	Fiction, Fantasy, Humour
ISBN-10:	0861400895
Total Editions:	13
Rating:	9.0 Rate
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	1 Owns
Price Guide:	Valuation Page
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Notes

books accidentally shipped 21/10/1983 instead of being held for the publication date month by the merkin printer of both uk & us variant editions

Comments and Reviews


ppint. 27th Aug 2022		colin smythe h/cvr first printing, simultaneous with st. martin's press h/cvr first printing, first edition the originating publisher was colin smythe ltd., so this is the true first edition. cover (d-j) art by alan smith (unsigned - check, credited) cover (d-j) price £7.95 208pp. including six unnumbered pp. titles, indicia etc, novel p.7-205, blank end pp. bound with endpapers between covered boards both publisher's first editions were accidentally shipped 21/10/1983 by the merkin printers instead of a week later to go on-sale 1/11/1983, which remained their official publication date.



ppint. 25th Apr 2024		merkin penguin group roc imprint mmpb undated° second printing, seventh nal/signet/roc mmpb printing over-all cover art by josh kirby (signed, retained from all but earliest previous mmpb printings) cover price (canada $5.99) • u.s. $4.99 (reportedly also £4.99 "export only" (check this!†) 256pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising ° - date obtained by interpolation into (canadian & merkin) cover prices for roc imprint mmpbs of this extent: 1-4/1992 would've been (canada $5.50) • u.s. $4.50; 5/1992 is the earliest that 256pp. roc mmpbs were priced ($5.99) • $4.99; and to tie in to known date of publication of roc mmpb of "reaper man", the only terry pratchett roc mmpb published in 1992 after "moving pictures" (1/1992). † - it seems a little unlikely, to put it mildly - but isn't impossible: it could've been a mistake made by the merkin penguin group - a number of rpg & war game spin-off roc mmpbs published by arrangement with fasa inc. were legitimately exported to the uk, bearing £ uk prices - and copies might even have been legitimately distributed in some other countries in the commonwealth still using £uk, by arrangement with transworld publishers ltd. (this comment is from another edition of this book)



ppint. 25th Apr 2024		dutton penguin new american library (signet/) roc imprint mmpb undated° first printing, sixth nal/signet mmpb printing over-all cover art by josh kirby signed, retained from previous two signet mmpb printings cover price (canada $4.95 (check)) • u.s. $3.95 256pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising ° - month & year date from locus (this comment is from another edition of this book)



ppint. 24th Apr 2024		dutton penguin new american library signet imprint mmpb undated° fourth printing cover art by josh kirby (signed, credited; reused from corgi uk p/b (1985), q.v.) cover price (canada $4.50) • u.s. $3.50 256pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising ° - publication month & year date taken from locus refer to indicia publishing history to distinguish from: near-identical undated signet mmpb fifth printing, which retains cat#, isbn, cover art by josh kirby cover price (canada $4.50) • u.s. $3.50 the next new american library signet books mmpb bears the then new roc imprint, together with new cat#, and new isbn, but is nevertheless accounted its sixth mmpb printing (this comment is from another edition of this book)



ppint. 24th Apr 2024		new american library signet imprint mmpb simultaneous first printings sharing merkin-printed covers, first merkin p/b edition cover art by vicente segrelles (unsigned, uncredited; collected in "la fantasia de segrelles" (1986), q.v.) cover price (canada $3.50) • u.s. $2.95 256pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising refer to indicia publishing history to see if carcass of copy held was canadian-or merkin- printed no priority established nor liable to be, both state first signet printing, may, 1985 check publishing history also for indicium of signet mmpb third printing, not yet seen recorded nor seen by myself, which may be near-identical. (the fourth signet mmpb printing definitely bears josh kirby's cover art, new cat# and a new isbn) (this comment is from another edition of this book)



ppint. 22nd Apr 2024		this was a first attempt to try selling the discworld books to ''non fantasy-readers'' and any others who might've been put off by josh kirby's idiosyncratically and highly spiritedly atmospheric and immensely successfully eye-catching - but undeniably somewhat garish - covers. the sales velocity of this printing° did not compare well with those bearing josh kirby's art, and it was not reprinted. c. 15,800 copies printed and distributed by transworld publishers ltd. (this comment is from another edition of this book)



ppint. 22nd Apr 2024		barcode number truncated by too-small field: 978-0552-13893-2-00399 indicia publishing history: colin smythe edition published 1983 corgi edition published 1985 corgi edition reprinted 1985 corgi edition reprinted 1987 (twice) corgi edition reprinted 1988 (twice) corgi edition reprinted 1989 (twice) corgi edition reprinted 1990 (twice) corgi edition reprinted 1991 (twice) corgi edition reprinted 1992 (three times) (- why not "thrice" ?) corgi edition reissued 1993 (this comment is from another edition of this book)



ppint. 27th Aug 2022		colin smythe h/cvr third printing, second with cover (d-j) art by josh kirby (credited on d-j back flap for design) cover (d-j) price (none printed: (£10.95?-)£12.95 added by colin smythe ''nor'' price gun peelable label) 208pp. including nine pp. titles, indicia, introduction (1989) etc, novel p.7(!)-205, one blank end p., bound with endpapers between cloth-covered boards (this comment is from another edition of this book)



ppint. 10th May 2021		transworld publishers corgi books p/b sixteenth or seventeenth° printing bearing new cover art by stephen player (''vitruvian turtle'', unsigned, credited on back cover) cover price £3.99, $11.95 australia, $14.95 new zealand; can. $5.99 vertically on front cover by top spine 240pp. including 6pp. titles, indicia, table-of-contents etc, two end pp. advertising there is a clarecraft text advertisement at foot of p.238, last page of novel, before the end two pages. ° - yr hmbl srppnt. wasn't greatly impressed with this alternative cover, and didn't keep a copy: it appears to be the sixteenth corgi books p/b printing, but i'm not sure whether it wasn't the seventeenth or even the eighteenth corgi books printing; the printing history (quoted above) fails to note when the text was re-set in larger type, and the extent of the p/b - its pagination - thereby increased, which yr hmbl srppnt. noted at the time in the cumulative terry pratchett bibliography i wrote and maintained, and of which change i advised leo breebart, keeper of the annotated pratchett file™, at the time, as it affected the apf. (this comment is from another edition of this book)



ppint. 10th May 2021		colin smythe ltd. second h/cvr printing, with new introduction by terry 10/1989, first h/cvr edition with cover (d-j) art by josh kirby (signed, credited on d-j rear flap) (shared from corgi p/b edition (1985)) cover (d-j) price (none printed: £9.95(-£10.95?) publisher's price-gun labels bearing publisher's price) 208pp. including eight unpaginated pp. titles, indicia etc, 1. introduction; pp. numbered 7(!)-205 the novel, 1 end p. blank; sewn in signatures bound with endpapers between red cloth-covered boards, authors name and title blocked on spine in metallic blue month of publication from colin smythe. 1,033 copies in this printing (number from the same source) (this comment is from another edition of this book)



ppint. 23rd Apr 2021		Rated 9/10 n.b. though the printing of the text is clear, the carcass is neither sewn nor glued onto a strong, flexible backing strip of any variety and consequently the full strain of opening the book is borne by the thin paper endpapers, unreinforced by any material hinge. which endpapers tear extremely easily under perfectly ordinarily careful and considerate usage. this is true of all the ''compact discworld'' editions. (this review is from another edition of this book) 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?



David Whiteley 23rd Apr 2021		Added wraparound cover for 1989 (7th paperback) printing, with a price change to £2.99 and catalogue No. on front cover. (this comment is from another edition of this book)



fantasticbaggie SUBS 11th Aug 2019		Added images for the 1988 reprint. According to the image on google books there is one minor difference to the front cover - a white window in the top left corner with the code 124753 in it. On the back cover the pricing scale has also increased and there may be a few other minor changes. (this comment is from another edition of this book)



carryonsidney 15th Dec 2016		Im not sure how this book site works but the release date for this paperback is 7 months wrong as first edition UK hard back had a possible release date of 21st october 1983 and was published by Colin Smythe, in the USA by St Martin's Press (same date). (this comment is from another edition of this book)



ppint. 8th Mar 2016		my info for the edition and printing is as i stated it. - i added the further information that after a number of reprintings, transworld publishers ltd. reset the text at larger point size, as i thought (most) bookcat contributors and browsers might appreciate this advice. the front promotional blurb comparison also changes - somewhat earlier on in the ukpb's story - and there is also an unreprinted edition with totally different, significantly more restrained artwork by stephen player, testing whether sales of the books in the series were being held back by josh kirby's wildy enthusiastic - and highly appropriate, but undeniably garish - artwork. . . - as to whether information helpful in identification of differences between editions is important, i'm content to leave that in the lap(s) of our semi-divine beings.°°. an appreciable proportion of online pratchettfandom found it useful, or at least of some interest, back when terry was alive, and dedicating discworld books. . . ° - and therefore, the pagination would of course increase °° - perchlorax the sickly yellow is, of course, entitled to their own opinions°°° °°° - no matter how far-fetched from under the moving turtle's carapace (this comment is from another edition of this book)



RadoxTheGreen 3rd Mar 2016		Your info for the Corgi book is incorrect. The adverts on the end pages change according to printing edition. Mine has an ad for The Light Fantastic and Equal Rites, with a selection of Bantam Books titles on the final page. I'm not sure it's really neccessary to include that sort of info anyway. (this comment is from another edition of this book)



ppint. 1st Mar 2016		Rated 9/10 terry's first discworld novel - his fourth novel - is composed of four consecutive-but-more-or-less self-contained sections introducing rincewind, the discworld's most incompetent ''wizzard'' ever; twoflower, the discworld's first ever tourist; the unseen university, and its more-or-less permanent population of wizards, masters of arcane lore and who, save for the truly ambitious amongst them, who are also attempting to become masters in the art of assassinating their superiors in the uu hierarchy, are primarily interested in continuing to live their comfortably overfed lives with a minimum of effort on their own parts; the thieves' & other city guilds, whose rivalries and excesses are - mostly - balanced by an early incarnation of the patrician of the twin city of ankh-morpork whose skills in this have been sharpened by necessity, occasioned not least by the incompetence of the city guardsmen, as evidenced by the men of the night watch; and to the discworld itself, borne by the four great elephants standing atop giant atuin, the star-turtle, orbited by the sun as it (- whether he or she is a matter of deeply serious religious debate - for some -) swims slowly through space towards - what? - terry takes a delight in gently pointing out the occasional sillinesses in the very best of fantasy he's enjoyed, nodding his appreciation by this of the pleasure their authors provided him over the decades, whilst telling a story that is all his own, that starts off with - not one, but several bangs, as the city of ankh-morpork explodes behind an incompetent wizzard escaping the catastrophe his unwanted companion, twoflower has inadvertently and accidentally triggered - both pursued by "the luggage" - twoflower's at least mildly intelligent, and apparently "mildly murderously" protective brass-bound travelling, sometimes aggressively-, even hungrily- hinged toothed timber chest, highly mobile on its innumerable tiny legs... - contrary to his devout personal belief that the safest direction to choose is always "away" - from any and every danger or disturbance, and at as high a speed as possible, rincewind is saddled with the task of ensuring twoflower's safety and survival by the ruler of ankh-morpork - and the apparently suicidally-insane prototypical "tourist" persists, even insists, in heading for the most "picturesque" and "interesting" - for both of which rincewind rightly reads "most dangerous" - sights, company and events in any and every circumstance possible... (re-edited 2021, to add more without committing any spoilers; maybe more to follow, still...) (this review is from another edition of this book) 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?