Hello, it's Reviewsday Tuesday, and it's time for a new episode of Discworld Discourses.
Today I'm going to be talking about Unseen Academicals
Which is the 37th book in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, first published in 2009.
This book sees the wizards of Unseen University setting up their own football team.
The story also follows four friends and workers at the University,
The mysterious Mr Nutt, his friend Trev Likely,
Head of the Night Kitchen, Glenda Sugarbean, and her friend Juliet Stollop.
The wizards weren't my favourite characters when I first read the Discworld series
I found that the books featuring Unseen University were some of my least favourite in the series
But as I've mentioned in Discworld Discourses before, I've got on far better with the wizards this time round.
I remember when I first read Unseen Academicals, it was one of my favourites of the Rincewind/wizards series
And that's still the case, although all of them I like more now.
I really enjoy the football story, the coming together of the team,
I'm a sucker for a group of people coming together for one goal.
But I like all of the fun references and satire
It also features heavily, Unseen University figures who I already like a lot,
For instance Ponder Stibbons, the Librarian, Mustrum Ridcully,
Hix, Dr Hix.
Also lots of Vetinari in this book, similar to the last.
We get to see yet more sides to the character.
And also a lot of the focus of the book is on the four characters below stairs
And I really like all of them, as a group and separately.
Even though we have met characters similar to all of them, I think, previously in the Discworld series.
One of the sad things about us having got near to the end of the Discworld series now
Is knowing that we won't be seeing so many of these new characters again.
Previously in the Discworld series when you met new characters
It was pretty likely that you were going to see them again
Either in a book further down the line where they would be important again,
Or else have a cameo appearance,
Or even just be mentioned again, so you'd know what they're up to and what's been going on.
For instance, William de Worde was back in this book,
Main character of The Truth, in this book has a cameo.
Another example, Mightily Oats, who we haven't heard from for ages,
Is pretty important to the plot of this book, even though we don't see him, himself.
But this is the last we get to see Mr Nutt and his friends.
And this book finishes pretty open-mindedly, there are allusions to things to come.
There is a future goal and role for Mr Nutt
And we won't know what happens, and that's a bit sad.
Yes, I think Unseen Academicals is a really good book.
It's funny, it's got good characters, it's got good plots.
There's plenty to enjoy when you're reading.
I would say that it felt relatively consistent throughout,
It feels like it stays at one level.
That's not really a bad thing, it means there aren't really any dips,
Areas of the story that you think are pretty boring and you're waiting for something to happen,
But to me there aren't those pockets of brilliance that you get in Discworld books
Where everything is suddenly amazing for a few pages
And you're just left in awe of Terry Pratchett and this world he's created.
There are plenty of great quotes in Unseen Academicals
But I didn't have that many of those stand-out moments
It stayed on one level for me, a good level, but the same level.
Oh, and I really enjoyed the Shakespeare references, mainly to Romeo and Juliet,
I can't forget to mention that!
I will give Unseen Academicals 4 out of 5.
It's not one of those books that I love, it's not my favourite for anything in particular,
But I like it a lot.
I would really love to know what you think about Unseen Academicals if you have read it.
Especially if you have no interest in football.
Football is very crucial to the plot
And I often wondered when reading if anything would be lost in translation almost
If you have either no knowledge of football or are from somewhere else
Because I think a fair amount is relevant specifically to English football.
I got a fair amount of fun out of this parody of our national game,
It's always fun to get the references, you know.
The book also pretty subtly covers racism and prejudice in the sport,
Which I think is important, it didn't romanticise the game,
It didn't romanticise football culture in this country.
Anyway, if you liked Unseen Academicals, what should you read next?
Maybe you could try one of the previous wizard-related books, like Hogfather,
Or one of the ones that delves into mob mentality
The way Ankh-Morpork works and the way people are manipulated,
Like The Truth or one of the Moist von Lipwig books.
If you didn't get on so well with Unseen Academicals
Then the next Discworld book is I Shall Wear Midnight
And we will be returning to Tiffany Aching.
Some facts about Unseen Academicals.
This book was published over two years after the previous book, Making Money,
The longest gap between books since The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, the first two in the series.
This was in part due to Pratchett's diagnosis with Alzheimer's,
And his increased work on advocacy and raising awareness of the disease.
This book was due to be adapted for Sky One
Following Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, and Going Postal.
However, it never came to be, and the rights were not renewed.
Audible made an audio adaptation of the book in 2018
Directed by Dirk Maggs.
The cast included Josie Lawrence, Matthew Horne, and Tony Gardner.
It was also adapted as a stage play by Stephen Briggs in 2015.
The book store Borders released Discworld football trading cards with copies of the book.
That is it for today, thank you so much for watching!
The next Discworld Discourses will be on 4th August and I'll be talking about I Shall Wear Midnight.
The full list of Discworld books and when I'm planning on reviewing them will be linked in the description below.
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I hope you have a wonderful day, and I will see you soon!