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Unseen Academicals: A Discworld Novel |  | Author: Sir Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Corgi
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99 (8.29EUR)
Buy Used: £0.98 (1.02EUR)
as of 9/9/2010 13:02 IST details
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New (34) Used (18) from £0.98 (1.02EUR)
Seller: World of Books Ltd
Rating:  163 reviews
Sales Rank: 210
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 0552153370
EAN: 9780552153379
ASIN: 0552153370
Publication Date: June 10, 2010
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork. 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 163
Mix Football and Discworld... September 8, 2010
Canela
...and you get a terrific novel. With social innuendo going from the Football to the fashion world, this novel shows how alert T Pratchett still is. Great story, great characters (some new, some already known to us, namely the wizard bunch). Various references to football elements nicely inserted, and it rounds off a very good book.
Unseen Academicals September 6, 2010
lurcio
Up to Sir Terrys usual high standards. If you have enjoyed other discworld books then this is for you. Slightly longer than some of his earlier books and all the better for it.
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.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 163
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