The main
character is the incompetent and cynical wizard Rincewind, who involuntarily finds himself as a guide to the naïve tourist,
Twoflower. After they are forced to flee from the city of Ankh-Morpork, they meet two barbarians, Bravd and Weasel, parodies of Fritz
Leiber's fantasy heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Both characters also have
a narrow escape from Bel-Shamharoth — a monster inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, who wrote many stories in a universe where
unspeakable Evil lives, and where Ancient Gods (with unpronounceable names) play games with the lives of mortals. It is interesting
to note that Lovecraft also wrote a story called The Colour out of Space, about an indescribable, unnatural colour. The number eight is important on the Discworld, being closely associated with magic. Wizards avoid saying
the number out loud, and Octarine is the Disc's eighth colour, the colour of magic as described in the title. This is reflected
in the title of the French translation of the book La Huitième Couleur — (lit: The Eighth Colour). After a visit to the Wyrmberg, an upside-down mountain which is home to dragons that only exist in the
imagination, apparently inspired by the Dragonriders of Pern novels of Anne McCaffrey, and nearly falling off the edge of
the Disc, their journey leads them to the country of Krull, perched on the very edge of the Discworld. Their story is continued in the succeeding Discworld novel, The Light Fantastic.
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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 ...
.....the number between 7 and 9.....
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