A pretty strong effort from Terry Pratchett this go-around, in part because he’s mostly left his usual formula behind in a way. Which is appropriate for what’s an interesting combination of sports novel and nontraditional hero’s journey, while still part of Pratchett’s overall continuing Discworld metastory of a fantasy-world Industrial Revolution.
Unseen Academicals has no obvious villain – sure, there’s a thuggish football goon, but he’s barely a factor for most of the story. What it is instead is philosophical – of course, all of Pratchett’s books have their philosophical moments, but Academicals is very much a meditation on what creates the mentality of crowds – what’s attractive and good about it as well as what’s repellent and bad. In this book, Vetinari is doing nothing less than attempting to change crowd psychology, if only a little bit, and what’s really clever on both his part and Pratchett’s is that he acknowledges, for the first time in the entire series, that’s he’s really taking a risk. (The book also delivers, for a brief, tantalizing moment, a small insight into what actually drives Vetinari. If that alone doesn’t make you go out and get it, then you don’t read Pratchett yet.)
On a simpler level, Pratchett’s delivering a welcome mix of known quantities and new faces. Mustrum Ridcully and Ponder Stibbons are significant POV characters for a good chunk of the book (although they’re not the main characters); Ridcully in particular comes off really well, because he’s still funny good old Ridcully who gets peeved due to a rival university popping up – but Pratchett really makes it clear in this book that Ridcully is the Boss Wizard for a number of very good reasons, both external and internal, and it’s really just cool to see Ridcully get a couple of totally badass character moments.
The new faces this go-around would be, I expect, more of the William De Worde “one novel and then into background” sort rather than a continuing protagonist like Vimes or Moist von Lipwig. To give any details about Nutt and Glenda would spoil the read, so I won’t bother: I’ll just say that the former introduces a notably missing element to the Discworld’s fantasy panoply and the latter is another of Pratchett’s favored (and entirely deserving to be so) big tough girl heroes.
And, of course, this is a book about football. Because here Pratchett is having the characters of the Discworld explicitly invent football (rather than the traditional organic formation he usually goes with), it allows him to speak through his characters about why football is great, why the rules are the rules and why it’s more than just a game but a visceral experience. And he does it with good gags.
Highly recommended. It’s not as good as Nation is, but it’s a very good Discworld novel indeed. Solid A.
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Enjoyed it immensely, and agree one hundred percent with what you’ve written. It’s still the best of the Discworld books since ‘Going Postal’, which I found brilliant. ‘Nation’, of course, is its own monster, and only a few others can contend with its brilliance. Speaking of it, next month the stage adaptation will premiere here in London. I’ve already got tickets, and I’ll be sure to post a review of it as soon as I’ve seen it.
Its certainly in the Postal/Watch series hall of hame, the better of the discworld books.
Also, its almost disconcerting to see the casual swearing. Im a grown man and watch many tv shows and read many books full of explicit swearing, but reading a Pratchett book with more than one example of swearing makes me feel almost wrong.
It also has the usual Pratchett slight rewriting of established history to tell the story, and some of his “stock” characters under new names, but anyone not loving a book with swathes of Vetenari, UU (with some genuine character development for both) is a man who doesnt like DW, and a man who doesnt like football is probably just a wuss.
Or worse, North American.
I’ve heard it said that the villain of UA is the bucket of crabs, and that makes a lot of sense. In any case, it’s a better villain than the Lavishes, whose primary villainous trait was stupidity.
I thought it was good, but I think his mental/medical condition is showing up more and more in his writing. It shared some of the same structural problems I felt were present in Making Money (at which time, I don’t believe I knew about his diagnosis yet, so I just wrote it off as a lesser work), as well as a general rambling quality, a looseness of plot and dialog that I think is new to his writing in the last few volumes.
Now, I’m not nearly the Discworld devotee as, say, my wife (so she could probably refute any of the points I make above), and I’m certainly not trying to criticize it – more just making observations. I’ll take more Pratchett of any quality as long as he feels sharp enough to write them…
I’m just happy it’s better than Making Money (at least looking at the reviews, I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet). I didn’t expect it to top Nation, of course, but then again Nation was really exceptionally good.
Im not sure we can make broad statements about structure problems being related to his illness. Thats a pretty bold presumption.
There is certainly a few changes in tone I would put down to some life realisations of late, but its not like Pratchett hasnt written badly structured novels before his illness. Or just awful things, like Moving Pictures. Lots not be nitpicky alzheimer attributers to things we dont like.
I mean, in my stories, the end always turns out the Aliens we killed were Christians all along and the main character is called ItsMe Awesometron but i’m perfectly well.
I thought the pace was a little rushed, but I ended up enjoying the number of subplots that were just sort of hinted at and left for the reader to unpack on their own. Stuff that, in an earlier book, might have been the main subject, like the Goddess of Football, ended up being a sort of background throughline. Plus there’s something really interesting going on with dwarf sexuality in the background.
Also, there’s a Medusa in the Watch! I appreciate these little details.
….So, soccer, or american football?
I liked the throwaway bit where he showed why The Luggage couldn’t join the UU football/soccer team…
@Mr. Gale :
‘Moving Pictures’, awful? You, sir, must be stark raving mad. It is a work of sheer brilliance.
😀
Moving Pictures is the worst thing. I also really disliked The Truth first time round, though it has grown on me, but Worde’s FATHER ISSUES thing is awfully written.
“william seems to have issues”
“yes, FATHER ISSUES”
Is repeated like 20 times in the book.
Oort, it is about the kind of football everybody in the world but North America plays and so they kindly call “soccer”, yes. You would hardly expect the disc to pick up gridiron, would you. Not really apt.
Your opinion, and we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Moving Pictures was for a very long time my favourite Discworld novel. And so is The Truth.
I’m not particularly fond of Moving Pictures either– or Soul Music, actually; that sort of “new trend unleashes Things from the Dungeon Dimensions” plot is not really my cup of tea, and it doesn’t seems to be Pterry’s anymore, either.
Question for the class: what, exactly, is going on between Pepe and Madame?
Bearded interracial love.
I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned the Oats cameo yet. Come on, didn’t anyone else love him in Carpe Jugulum?
Yeah, you’re right. Mightily Oats. Now there’s a blast from the past!
I think it’s very interesting that Pseudopolis, at least, has gone democratic — the first real democracy on the Disc, although Verence II tries (only to be rebuffed by actual Lancrastrians).
There was a great post earlier about whether Vetinari is grooming Vimes or Moist to succeed him; I suspect he’ll try to co-opt this new ‘democratic movement’ all for his own designs, with, of course, hilarious results.
I don’t really know anything about what condition Pratchett is in now, but I’m wondering if he’ll be able to write any more after this.
I’m also wondering if I’d be able to understand any of the jokes in this one. Not only am I North American, but I have no interest in sports at all. (But please let me state for the record that soccer football is infinitely better than American football, which is about the least interesting sport I can think of [with the possible exceptions of boxing and hockey].)
“I’m also wondering if I’d be able to understand any of the jokes in this one. Not only am I North American, but I have no interest in sports at all.”
I know practically nothing beyond soccer save that you have to kick the ball from the middle to an end of the court, but that made no difference to my enjoyment (I suspect). It’s a book about mob mentality and elitism and fashion and gender roles and there’s a sensible, large, practical heroine to tie it all together.
Sooo. When did Mexico stop being part of North America?
It felt rushed, several of the loose ends were not tied together in the characteristic Pratchett manner, several of the themes were unusually underdeveloped for Pratchett (e.g. Romeo and Juliet, religion not magic), and the prose has a different style. I wondered if pages had been left out of the manuscript around Nutt’s ride out of town.
I don’t think this is due to Pratchett’s illness per se — though the scene where Nutt psychoanalyzes himself and Vetinari checks to see whether he sounds drunk have plausible antecedents — but I think it may have to do with the changes in his composition method (I believe he’s using a dictation machine now) and a sense of time pressure.
I’ve kind of skimmed, as I’ve only just started the book. But I do have one question.
Was anyone else surprised when the Librarian just casually answered a question when Glenda went down to ask him for a book, or did I miss a volume somewhere?
The Librarian has always been pretty good about helping people IF they genuinely want a book, hasn’t he?
Yeah, they established he respected her and he is always there to “provide the right book” for people, and point them in the right direction, its part of his cosmic librarian responsiblity.
@Mary Warner, well, some of the jokes are based on understanding football. Nutts pretensions and philisophy as coach (the funniest part, for me), the offside argument, some of the slang and stuff… little things like that, so you might miss the fullness of a few elements of humour.. but it doesnt make the book unreadable or unfunny if you dont appreciate footie, I wouldnt think. Just a few jokes will be lost and maybe the way the end is structured might be a bit lost on you.
As long as you get that the sport they are making is modern football over old football, only much quicker than the game actually evolved and people love football, you will follow the book. Since as a chap mentioned, its also a lot about a different subject (i wont spoil) and Vetenari’s meddling in the city, crowds and elitism and bringing structure to tradition and stuff like that as much as foot-the-ball.
I wouldnt tell anyone “you dont know football, so this will mean nothing to you.” My girlfriend is enjoying it so far and she has fell asleep during every football match i’ve ever made her watch and seems to firmly believe the players are better based on “how nice a smile they have”.
@LurkerWithout, im always willing to give Mexico honorary South American status because they seem to love the game, even if they arent great at it.
I’ve always heard how great the Discworld books were and I received “Rincewind the Wizzard” as a gift, which collects 4 of the Discworld novels starring Rincewind. I finally got around to reading it and I absolutely loved it. I just finished “Sourcery” and have “Eric” left. I’m excited that I found a series I love that actually has a ton of entries for me to discover and enjoy so, for a while at least, I’ll always have anew book I can look forward to buying and reading (next to the Dresden Files and Gentleman Bastard novels). I was wondering, is the series chronological where each book lead into another or are they all sort of grouped together in various story lines centered around specific characters? Either way, having read the four Rincewind books, could anyone point me in the direction of which books I should read next? Is there a particular order I should follow?
Randy: since you’ve already read the first four Rincewinds, read the rest in this order:
Equal Rites
Mort
Wyrd Sisters
Pyramids
Guards! Guards!
Moving Pictures
Reaper Man
Witches Abroad
Small Gods
Lords and Ladies
Men at Arms
Soul Music
Interesting Times
Maskerade
Feet of Clay
Hogfather
Jingo
The Last Continent
Carpe Jugulum
The Fifth Elephant
The Truth
Thief of Time
Night Watch
The Wee Free Men
Monstrous Regiment
A Hat Full of Sky
Going Postal
Thud!
Wintersmith
Making Money
Unseen Academicals
That’s the chronological order of the books as written, and since you’ve already skipped past the most grueling ones (Color of Magic and Light Fantastic), you might as well enjoy the progression.
Pratchett writes some of his books in distinct “subseries” for the Discworld – the “guards” books, the “witches” books, the “Death” books, and so on. Those you should read in chronological order for maximum enjoyment; the list above has you not skipping any. That having been said, if you really dig Guards, Guards! and want more Sam Vimes, you can always skip ahead to Men At Arms without too greatly disturbing your enjoyment of the rest of the series. It does make some of the relatively free-floating novels like Academicals a little rougher to read, perhaps, but not so much that you can’t still enjoy them.
So, the series are (each in chronological order):
Witches
Equal Rites
Wyrd Sisters
Witches Abroad
Lords and Ladies
Maskerade
Carpe Jugulum
The Wee Free Men
A Hat Full of Sky
Wintersmith
City Watch
Guards! Guards!
Men at Arms
Feet of Clay
Jingo
The Fifth Elephant
Night Watch
Thud!
Death
Mort
Reaper Man
Soul Music
Hogfather
Thief of Time
There are also two more Rincewind novels ahead of you yet, but there’s such a big shift from Pratchett’s earlier work to his later stuff that I think it wiser if you just let them come along.
You’ve left out the “complete” Rincewind/University series itself, albeit that’s looser than the others.
The Colour of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Sourcery
Eric
Moving Pictures (introduces the permanent University Faculty cast)
Reaper Man (significant Faculty presence)
Soul Music (likewise. Actually most of the Death/Susan books have a strong UU crossover element)
Interesting Times
The Last Continent
The Last Hero
The Science of Discworld
The Science of Discworld 2: The Globe
The Science of Discworld 3: Darwin’s Watch
Unseen Academicals
I believe Pratchett is dictating, possibly to a person who types? I’d think that would lead to significant adjustment in his editing style.
“Was anyone else surprised when the Librarian just casually answered a question when Glenda went down to ask him for a book, or did I miss a volume somewhere?”
Well, she *is* a source of excellent pies. The Librarian’s no fool.
I thought Unseen Academicals was better than the other recent Discworld novels.
And Ponder got a promotion, as well he should.
I’d have to say I never liked Rincewind. The running thing got really stale quite quickly.
Rincewind’s had a hell of a lot of character development recently. He still runs, sure, but he’s gone from genuine craven coward to one of the most competent characters in the series. In his own special way.
“Well, she *is* a source of excellent pies. The Librarian’s no fool.”
Well, yes. But he said “Ah, then I think Birdcatcher’s Discomforting Misusage will be our friend here,” and not “Ook.” And she’s not a wizard.
The Rincewind books are the only ones I haven’t finished. I don’t understand books with an unlikable protagonist. What, exactly, am I reading about him for?
Rincewind isn’t unlikeable – he’s cowardly. There’s a difference. He’s really a decent sort of person, all things considered; he’s just one of nature’s runners.
And if you have trouble with unlikeable protagonists, how will you ever read the Flashman books? Which all people should read.
@Joe
That was an assistant librarian, not The Librarian. His part was to show her the Orc book.
I always liked Rincewind. I think his narrative and internal approach to the world would fit into the later books just fine (the cynics cynic), the “change in style” Pratchett went through was the switch to a less directly parodic based world for his characters to inhabit.
@Lord Asteroth: Ah, so it was. I fail at reading comprehension. Twice even, since I went back and looked at it to get the exact quote.
@MGK: OK, I guess I don’t like cowardly protagonists. The place for a guy who runs away from everything is the comic relief, not the viewpoint character. It’s a bad sign when the luggage is a more engaging character, even when the luggage is an extraordinary case.
And what are these Flashman books?
@Joe: Rincewind becomes a much better viewpoint character starting in The Last Hero, when he finally accepts that the universe will never let him run away from anything but the most immediate danger, and he’ll always get dropped back into the thick of things until the overall situation has been resolved.
Ever since then, he’s done his best to actually fix the problem of the moment. While complaining bitterly about his lot in life, and still running away when it’s the best thing to do.
I think Last Continent or Sorcery handles Rincewind beautifully. Rincewind being forced into some noble hero role, despite and because of his constant running away from the role, sort of worked perfectly. He is a man of reason in a world of fantasy stereotypes (and comic relief) and what man of reason isnt running away from a magic kangaroo telling him he has to save the world?
Thanks MGK, I appreciate it. I’m about half way through Eric now and I should have it done in the next day or so. I was doing a search online and found that the Witches, Guards, and Death books all have their own omnibus editions (much like the Rincewind one I’m about to finish) which will make things a bit easier, especially on the pocketbook. I’m looking forward to reading them all. It’ll keep me occupied until the next Scott Lynch ( if you haven’t read the first two Gentleman Bastard books- Lies of Loche Lamora/Red Seas Under Red Skies- you should. Beautifully written, especially for a first-time writer) and Dresden Files novels come out next year.