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Unseen Academicals: A Discworld Novel |  | Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: £18.99
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Rating:  161 reviews
Sales Rank: 4109
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.5
ISBN: 0385609345
EAN: 9780385609340
ASIN: 0385609345
Publication Date: October 1, 2009
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Product Description
Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork - not the old fashioned, grubby pushing and shoving, but the new, fast football with pointy hats for goalposts and balls that go going when you drop them. And now, the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match, without using magic, so they're in the mood for trying everything else.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 161
He does it again August 10, 2010
verticalshine
How does Terry Pratchett maintain his incredibly high standards.
I don't know but I'm glad he does.
Not my favourite Discworld novel but it has all the wit, lovable characters, and insight we've come to expect.
Don't be put off if you don't like football. It's more about herd mentality, gang warfare, and tradition.
That makes it sound like a sociology text book but its not.
Enjoyable Pratchett August 10, 2010
KPC (London)
I've been a big fan of the Pratchett phenomenon ever since reading Colour of Magic. Pratchett's ability to produce such prolific work still amazes me. However I've found myself over the past few years finding his books less and less enjoyable. I don't think this is any real reflection on his writing. I think when a writer produces as much work as Pratchett, to be able to maintain this momentum he has to follow a tried and tested formula. Regrettably, after having read as many of his novels as I have, this hugely successful formula begins to show on the page and I see all too often where it is going. I think my days of laughing out loud to his books are over, but for those just coming to Pratchett, read on and enjoy: he is the king of beach reading and there are few who can touch him.
 Worst discworld novel for a very long time August 8, 2010
techie@techie.f9.co.uk (Edinburgh, Scotland)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The worst criticism I can make here, this reads more like Robert Rankin than Terry Pratchett- the various storylines are chaotic and poorly integrated, the characterisation is mostly 2 dimensional, and too many of the jokes depend on sillyness over cleverness.
One of the 2 storylines- the very weak supermodel plot- limps along with no momentum and weak characters, and little attachment to the main football plot, and throws in ideas that are never really fleshed out and characters that don't ever seem to live beyond the page, and then abruptly peters out without ever reaching a proper conclusion- it's just dropped at the wayside and never really felt like it belonged. If it was removed, the plot wouldn't suffer in the slightest. But at the same time it detracts from the main football plot, which in turn feels rushed and also ends in a fairly unsatisfactory manner. This, bolted to a slow and fairly uninteresting start, is doubly frustrating. The same to a lesser extent is true of Nutt's story, which likewise isn't adequately tied up and never feels essential- though at least it's integrated.
Basically, this doesn't have the real thump that Pratchett and Discworld usually gives you. Despite being on the back of a giant turtle, most of his plots and characters could live in our world, Sam Vimes and Granny Weatherwax and his other strongest cast do this seemingly effortlessly, and that's his greatest triumph. But here previous strong characters wander in and out of shot in cameos- Rincewind's return is frankly horrible, Death has a very forced appearance, Ridcully seems to aquire a family history that contradicts earlier novels (I can't lay hands on Lords and Ladies but the Companion certainly seems to contradict UA) and is a shadow of his past self... Vetinari similiarly is almost unrecognisable from earlier novels. It's like fanfic in places, squeezing in as many characters and old faces and dropped references as possible.
The central plot concept is rock solid though, and even though the racism vs speciesism subtext is old Pratchett territory, he still makes it interesting- though again, Nutt's story is just left hanging, as if for a sequel, and he swings annoyingly from Dobby the Bastarding House Elf to delivering pages of dry prose. There's a fair amount of retreading here, new characters are strongly reminiscent of old ones and many of the themes have been used before, though not to the extent of ruining it. And though this is a plot that ought to tie strongly to our world, it never really seems to, other than on a basic level. It basically never comes to life- it feels written, it doesn't feel natural.
One thing that's constant, every character appears like magic every time they're needed, just to have a forced plot conversation than leave, pushing coincidence way too hard- it feels almost like computer game plotting, characters are clearly only there to deliver lines or to carry the plot and then they're switched off afterwards. It makes the world feel small, to have a huge city in which everyone seems to know everyone else.
Remember Masquerade? Remember thinking "I love the Witches but when you've got a cast this good you need to be more careful how you use them"? That's Unseen Academicals. And it has the silliness of the Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic- ie, from before Pratchett really found his feet- but with less energy.
Of course, everyone knows about Pratchett's alzheimers, but I'm not sure that this is so simple- he's written poor books before with the same issues, most especially Masquerade, and other recent work has been far stronger. But, he did mention that it was typed out by an assistant which suggests it was dictated, and I wonder if that's what's caused this huge drop in quality- he's acquired a tremendous writer's craft over the years which is what has made him completely transcend the competition and become one of the modern greats in any field, but perhaps that doesn't transfer so well to a new way of putting text on paper. Who knows?
In the end, Discworld fans must buy this, and it's not terrible- but this is Terry Pratchett people, he's set a standard. This doesn't come close. At its very best it's adequate.
 Not on par with the last few Pratchett offerings. . . August 2, 2010
Patrick St-Denis (Laval, Quebec Canada)
A new Terry Pratchett Discworld title is always a nice treat. Especially now that the author is battling with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, his legions of fans are aware that there might not be that many more installments to come.
With Pratchett's tackling his country's passionate love affair with football (or soccer, if like me you live on the other side of the Atlantic), I believed that Unseen Academicals had the potential of being another terrific addition to the Discworld sequence. With his trademark witty humor and intelligent narrative, I felt that this would be another winner. And yet, sadly, Unseen Academical was, for me at least, one massive failure to launch.
Here's the blurb:
Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork - not the old fashioned, grubby pushing and shoving, but the new, fast football with pointy hats for goalposts and balls that go going when you drop them. And now, the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match, without using magic, so they're in the mood for trying everything else. The prospect of the Big Match draws in a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a dim but beautiful young woman, who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been, and the mysterious Mr Nutt (and no one knows anything much about Mr Nutt, not even Mr Nutt, which worries him, too). As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed for ever. Because the thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football. Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!
The main problem was that Pratchett is all over the place with this one. And as a result, the novel fails to form a cohesive whole. The chuckles and the laughs are there, don't worry. But the various storylines don't come together very well. And for the first time in my life, portions of a Terry Pratchett book bored me out of my mind. I simply could not get into Unseen Academicals.
Some of the plotlines are hilarious, true. Everything that had to do with the Unseen University was a lot of fun to read. Alas, all the scenes regarding Juliet's burgeoning modelling career were on the lame side. The same could be said of the relationship between Mr. Nutt and Glenda the Night Kitchen cook. Mr. Nutt was an interesting character in his own right until the truth about his identity is revealed. Overall, these disparate storylines make for an uneven read.
At times it feels as though Pratchett lacked enough material for a complete novel, so he was forced to pad the plot with filler material. Given the fact that I was expecting another brilliant Pratchett offering, Unseen Academicals sometimes felt a bit uninspired.
Nonetheless, this novel will likely please some of the author's less demanding fans or those looking for light fantasy fare, but I doubt it will help win him new ones. If you have yet to sample Pratchett's comical and intelligent style, Unseen Academicals is not a good place to start.
Here's to hoping that the next Discworld book will be a return to form. . .
The mixture as before July 31, 2010
W. Black (Scarborough UK)
This is yet another Discworld novel, and it's the mixture as before. Witty, fast paced and entertaining. It flags a bit at the end and the character of Nutt is not really fully developed to a point where he is taking centre stage as he should.
But it isn't a patch on 'Making Money'...
Showing reviews 1-5 of 161
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