Unseen Academicals
The wizards at Ankh-Morpork's Unseen University are renowned for many things—wisdom, magic, and their love of teatime—but athletics is most assuredly not on the list. And so when Lord Ventinari, the city's benevolent tyrant, strongly suggests to Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully that the university revive an erstwhile tradition and once again put forth a football team composed of faculty, students, and staff, the wizards of UU find themselves in a quandary. To begin with, they have to figure...
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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 gloing 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!Publishers WeeklyIn the magical universe of Discworld, the dithering and very dotty wizards at Unseen University struggle to master the arcane rules of football as they enter a violent street sport competition. The challenges include getting the sedentary and distracted professors to play with some enthusiasm (and without magic), defending themselves against their opponents’ unsportsmanlike behavior, and naturally, to win. It’s not easy to track the multitude of characters, but Stephen Briggs gives each of them a distinctive voice. Briggs has been adapting Pratchett’s novels to the stage since 1991, and the recurring characters are his to command. His performance brings out the best of the satirical humor and Pratchett’s really good bad puns. Fans of Discworld will not be disappointed. A Harper hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 31). (Nov.)
\ From Barnes & NobleSir Terry Pratchett's 37th Discworld novel, the first since he made the announcement that there might not be too many more, contains plots, subplots, side plots, thwarted plots, romance, comedy, soccer, and more. Set in the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork, Unseen Academicals seizes all the things you thought you understood, shakes them vigorously, and invites you to watch with snow globe sensations. On the shortlist of the most invigorating authors on the planet.\ \ \ \ \ The Independent on Sunday“It’s a triumphant effort”\ \ \ “Thirty-seven books in and ... Discworld is still going strong...and doing so with undimmed, triumphant exuberance. ”\ \ \ \ \ “In short, this is as busy and as daft as any other Discworld yarn, which means it is the quintessence of daft. Nobody writes fantasy funnier than Pratchett.”\ \ \ \ \ “It’s a triumphant effort”\ \ \ \ \ In the magical universe of Discworld, the dithering and very dotty wizards at Unseen University struggle to master the arcane rules of football as they enter a violent street sport competition. The challenges include getting the sedentary and distracted professors to play with some enthusiasm (and without magic), defending themselves against their opponents’ unsportsmanlike behavior, and naturally, to win. It’s not easy to track the multitude of characters, but Stephen Briggs gives each of them a distinctive voice. Briggs has been adapting Pratchett’s novels to the stage since 1991, and the recurring characters are his to command. His performance brings out the best of the satirical humor and Pratchett’s really good bad puns. Fans of Discworld will not be disappointed. A Harper hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 31). (Nov.)\ \ \ \ \ Imagine Harry Potter rewritten by Monty Python: That's the mood of Pratchett's return to Discworld (Making Money, 2007, etc.). This account of Unseen University's entry into the world of soccer (or, as they occasionally call it, "foot-the-ball") pushes past the usual conventions of satire to offer equal parts absurdist philosophy and heartwarming romance. Here, all the professors are ponderous buffoons as well as wizards, though occasionally they indulge those they consider their inferiors with "the sarcasm of a born pedagogue." Those inferiors generally have a whole lot more common sense and occasionally more learned erudition, particularly in the case of our hero, Mr. Nutt. A lowly candle dipper who is also a goblin and may well be something else as well, the humble Nutt ultimately reveals more brain power than anyone else in the novel, along with a variety of other powers, even though his background makes this intellectual range and depth seem unlikely. When Unseen University decides to field a soccer team, Nutt emerges as the coach, the driving force and the potential star, using his "talent for pattern recognition in developing situations" to train a team of players who previously had no conception of teamwork. In the process, Nutt not only falls in love with a worthy cook no one else considers lovely, he also helps his mate win the heart of the cook's helper, who has somehow become the rage of the land as a fashion model. Pratchett has great sport with a university that employs a Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography and Chair of Indefinite Studies and spouts platitudes such as "if we can make a tradition out of not observing another tradition, that's doubly traditional." Ofcourse, that's not such a weird comment in a society whose adages include "the leopard may change its shorts" and "thirst springs eternal."A witty addition to the long-running fantasy series.\ \ \ \ \ "Thirty-seven books in and ... Discworld is still going strong...and doing so with undimmed, triumphant exuberance. "\ \ \ \ \ "In short, this is as busy and as daft as any other Discworld yarn, which means it is the quintessence of daft. Nobody writes fantasy funnier than Pratchett."\ \ \ \ \ "It’s a triumphant effort"\ \
