Unseen Academicals: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett (MOBI)

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Ebook Info

  • Published: 2009
  • Number of pages: 533 pages
  • Format: MOBI
  • File Size: 1.14 MB
  • Authors: Terry Pratchett

Description

Discworld lives on in Unseen Academicals, the latest novel from Terry Pratchett. Delivering the trademark insight and humor readers the world over have come to expect from “the purely funniest English writer since Wodehouse” (Washington Post Book World), Unseen Academicals focuses on the wizards at Ankh-Morpork’s Unseen University, who are reknowned for many things—sagacity, magic, and their love of teatime—as they attempt to conquer athletics.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐He’s still got it. Quarter of a century later and Terry Pratchett is still The Man when it comes to writing fantasy satire, still very much the champ when it comes to skewering established institutions. Terry Pratchett follows a pattern in which he rotates a recurring cast of characters to star in his Discworld novels. UNSEEN ACADEMICALS happens to feature the well-stuffed and stuffy wizards of the Unseen University, and these cats by and large aren’t my pick of the pack (I’ve gotten more or less tired of Rincewind’s schtick), at least not when compared to the City Watch or Death or Moist von Lipwig, or, okay, even Tiffany Aching. Having said that, I do love the heck out of the manky Librarian and the much-put-upon, do-it-all Ponder Stibbons. But Pratchett is a born storyteller and how could that change? He’d long ago honed his eye for the absurd. This time around, his sardonic gaze falls on, among other things, soccer, sports fan love, palace politics, and haute couture.The overarching plot goes something like this: An obscure clause forces the wizards to get off their duffs and play one game of “foot the ball” in order to maintain their lavish culinary standards. They don’t necessarily have to win it, just play it. And Lord Vetinari, the sinister yet oddly benevolent despot of Ankh-Morpork, has something to say about this turn of events (strangely enough, he approves of the thing).But, really, it’s not about the Patrician or the wizards as much as it is about the four lowly characters eking out an existence in the underbelly of the Unseen University. It’s about to get soap-opera-y. Glenda Sugarbean, cynical and hard-bitten, runs the Night Kitchen of the Unseen University. She looks after her simple-minded but stunningly beautiful friend Juliet, who also toils in the Night Kitchen. And Trevor Likely, one of them street savvy ne’er-do-well feller-me-lads, fancies Juliet. To pin down young Trevor even more fixedly into the plot, he also happens to be the son of the legendary foot-the-baller Dave Likely. Trevor can do uncanny things with his foot kicking a tin can around, and yet he’s adverse to playing foot-the-ball (he promised his mom he’d stay away from the brutal activity). Then there’s Mr. Nutt, this person with a mysterious, ominous past. Mr. Nutt is shy but so very erudite. He’s a professional dribbler (candle maker) without peer, and his candles never, never have those unsightly waxy lumps. Mr. Nutt is mates with Trevor and befriended by Glenda. As it’d turn out, Glenda and Trevor would become our primary point of view characters.UNSEEN ACADEMICALS keeps up Terry Pratchett’s long-running streak of awesome. This writer has not lost anything. The stuff we’ve come to expect, it’s all here. The feel-good warmth, the laugh-out-loud wit, and the occasional lean towards screwball, and the sharp insights about social behavior and stodgy conventions (particularly telling is the “There is no mallet” epiphany). And then there’s his knack for creating relatable characters you grow to care about. Pratchett meshes these elements. I took in the sly commentary and there are other writers out there whose bits of clever would momentarily take me out of the reality of their narrative. But never Terry Pratchett, who seamlessly integrates his satiric observations into the story. As per usual I found myself fully immersed and eagerly turning to the next page and the next because this story resonates and is dynamic and dramatic. I really wanted to know what would happen to these characters. And I didn’t even mind the played-out Romeo & Juliet angle.I like how Pratchett is able to take something familiar (like, say, soccer), come at it from a different direction, and then distill the essence of the thing so that you’re seeing it from his amused perspective and in a new light. I love how he describes the Shove, the organic experience of being part of the spectating crowd, swaying as it sways, feeling as it feels. The mob mentality from a sporting perspective. But football on Discworld (and elsewhere) is rooted in the sweat and blood and toil of the blue-collared folk, ingrained in how they live their lives, in the rituals and traditions which surface all on their own. So when Lord Vetinari attempts to manipulate the sport, he risks the wrath of the common folk. In a game for all the marbles, the wizards of the Unseen University may have to win their match after all (and do this without using magic), to safeguard the Patrician’s tyranny. And, in the end, the whole shebang may hinge on the actions of inconsequential little people. Like Trevor Likely, Glenda, Mr. Nutt, and Juliet (and even Pepe the peculiar fashionista who rivals even Mr. Nutt in sheer balllsy oddity).

⭐One of pratchetts best. What a beautiful way to bring prejudice and bigotry to our attention. His solution? Give, love, and help others. Wonderful.

⭐In the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” series there was an episode called “Lower Decks” that focused on a group of young people serving in minor positions on the Enterprise instead of the usual group of head honchos. That is essentially what happens in “Unseen Academicals” which focuses on the people who work in the Night Kitchen and the candle vats of Unseen University, the school for wizards in the city of Ankh-Morpork.Ostensibly though the book is about the game of foot-the-ball or football (or soccer as we call it across the Pond). In Ankh-Morpork, the game of foot-the-ball is actually more like rugby, with a lot of tackling and fighting and very little scoring. Young Trevor Likely’s father was a legend because he scored 4 goals.Trevor works in the candle vats of Unseesn University with Nutt, a very learned goblin who talks like a shelf of self-help books. Nutt has a Mysterious Past that not even he remembers. Eventually though Trev and Nutt go up to the Night Kitchen, where they meet the plain, fat Glenda and the beautiful, ditzy Juliet.As it happens Juliet is from the Stoops family, who are sworn enemies of Trev’s family because of their foot-the-ball allegiances. Trev & Juliet doesn’t play out like Romeo & Juliet because tragedy is not ever really on the menu in the Discworld. Nutt does a little Cyrano in writing a poem to help woo Juliet, which would work better if Juliet could read words of more than one syllable.Oh yes, there is a football game in there too. The wizards of Unseen University discover that they have to play a game of football in order to keep a bequest that keeps their Night Kitchen stocked. (If there’s one thing wizards really like it’s their kitchen.) When some new old rules are “discovered” from a museum, a new brand of foot-the-ball is born with Nutt taking the lead as coach.This book utilizes two recurring theme-like items in the Discworld series. One is equal rights/tolerance, which is embodied by Nutt. Goblins (or what Nutt really is) being the latest in a line that includes dwarfs, trolls, werewolves, vampires, and golems who break the racial barrier in Ankh-Morpork. The other theme-like substance is modernizing the city. The police force, post office, bank, and Unseen University itself have all been dramatically remodeled since the earliest Discworld novels. As well football joins other modern things like newspapers, movies, the Internet, and rock music to become part of the fabric of Disc society. So really while the book is entertaining (as most Discworld books are) it’s not anything fans of the series haven’t really seen before.What bugged me about the previous book “Making Money” was that there was no money made in it; the actual printing of money seemed like it would be taking place off the pages. I feared that Pratchett was going to do the same here and have the football game take place off the page, but he does at least manage to get it in, even if it is a bit underwhelming. While it was nice to see Rincewind (with a cameo by The Luggage) and the Librarian again, I wish they could have been used more.That the book doesn’t focus on any of the major characters in the end means that this can be filed away as “Minor Discworld” along with one-offs like “Pyramids,” “Small Gods,” “The Truth,” and “Monstrous Regiment.” Since football (soccer) hooliganism isn’t a big thing here in the States, I’m sure some of the jokes in this one went over my head; British readers would then probably enjoy this more.Still, it’s not a bad entry in the series, but not an overly important one either. You could do a lot worse.That is all.

⭐After seeing this book for such a good price, I thought I would get it, being that is is sold by Amazon itself, there should be no problem. It’s a book so there shouldn’t be any damage much more that a bumped corner or creased spine. This is true the book is it great condition, slight bumping of the corners and top of the spine. The pages are bright white with no marks on them.So what’s the two stars for. The stickers they put on it, not easy peal!!! When I removed the stickers it took some of the cover with it. The lovely designed cover is now ruined!!!Very disappointed, and could be solver easily, no stickers or easy peal stickers.

⭐What can I say – if you like the Discworld series you’ll love this one. I bought it earlier this year when I noticed it was the only Discworld book I didn’t have on my Kindle, although I read it in hard copy when it first came out…so I must still have the hard copy somewhere?Anyway, the usual well crafted storyline, and some examples of what I consider a Pratchett trademark, the throwaway one-liner joke which you realise afterwards has taken the last three pages to set up. If you think it might not be for you if you don’t like football, don’t worry – the theme of the book is football, but what it’s really about is another slice of life in the bustling world that is Ankh-Morpork and Unseen University.

⭐Though seemingly unrelated, two events have occurred in the city of Ankh-Morpork – an ancient football trophy is discovered in the Royal Art Museum and Mr Nutt who seemingly has no past, nor any memory of it, has started to work in the Unseen University as a candle dribbler. Both though are destined to come into each other’s orbit as football, modernism, class, racism and celebrity are parodied through the lens of Terry Pratchett’s satirical eye. Trying to summarise a Pratchett book is never easy. There is often no main plot as such, but rather a clutch of subplots that interweave in and out of each other binding to create a whole and tightening to a climax.Unseen Academicals (the name of the University football team) basically revolves around the night time staff of the university – the mysterious Mr Nutt, Trev Likely (Nutt’s colleague and son of football legend Dave Likely), Glenda (the level headed, cook extraordinaire) and Juliet (Glenda’s airhead assistant blessed with glamourous good looks) – as they each come of age. It involves Dwarf fashion, street gangs and hooliganism, inter-university and club rivalry, and tyrannical and inter-racial politics. While Pratchett’s books are light and comic, they are multi-layered, inter-textual (think Romeo and Juliet via Posh and Becks), and always explore and make deeper philosophical points and Unseen Academicals is no different. As with all of Pratchett’s books the characterisation is excellent and the story skilfully plotted.I thoroughly enjoyed the read. The first half of the book was excellent, although the second half tailed off a little. Whilst not quite up there with his very best books, it’s certainly high quality fare.

⭐Latest novel from sir terry pratchett and we’re back on the discworld once again in the city of ankh morpork.It runs for 400 pages exactly, and characters from previous discworld novels [including one we havent seen in a while] and new characters mix in a story that involve football coming to the city.That’s football as we would know it. The story starts with football as it used to be played – very large teams kicking balls through streets in games that lasted for days – being popular in the city. The patrician wants it under control. A clause in a will means the wizards from the unseen university will have to play a football match to avoid financial trouble. And discovery of an ancient artefact shows them what the rules should be.Throw in working class trev, son of a former football star, glamorous but dim juliet and her friend smart but dumpy glenda, and mr nutt, a goblin who has to keep his head down. all these characters collide and lives are changed in the run up to the big match.A sueperbly readable and a masterfully written book, down to very strong characterisation. all characters do very believable things, and although the changes they go through and the life lessons they learn may sometimes feel familiar, the quality of the prose is so good it keeps you turning the pages. As ever this is not laugh a minute comic writing, it’s a novel of character with laughs arising out of that. Although there are moments where it does get very funny, particularly during the climactic football match.Being 400 pages means the football does take a backseat in the middle when the plot focuses on mr nutt and a few dilemmas he faces, but everything comes together so well in the last hundred pages it’s all worth it.If you’ve never read a discworld novel before then you shouldnt have much trouble getting into this anyway. Although you may wonder about the back stories of some of the characters, and why the librarian is an orang utang. But even so, you should enjoy it enough to seek out his earlier work.A superb read from a master novelist.

⭐As you can see from my title, I had mixed feelings about this book after reading it twice. On the one hand, I love the Diskworld so much that any book by Terry is better than no book by Terry. On the other hand, this isn’t as tightly plotted, as amusing or as profound as many of his other books. As another reviewer has said, several characters are picked up and dropped without explanation, other characters suddenly assume prominence and remain centre stage ad nauseum, and some characters are almost unrecognisable from previous books. The Patrician is far less chilly and inhuman (and sexy!), Lady Margolotta loses her slightly bizarre bat design chintzy clothing and becomes sexy, Sam Vimes is a mere cardboard cut out … The wizards fare somewhat better and breeze through the story in their usual bluff and flatfooted manner.If I hadn’t read any of the previous novels, I might well have enjoyed this far more. But as I said in the beginning, a 2nd rate novel from Terry Pratchett is far better than no more novels. I hope very much that he will be able (and willing) to write more.

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