Unseen Academicals: A Discworld Novel Book

The first novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (The Colour of Magic) was published in 1983 so it's no surprise that I feel like I've been following the series for my whole life. Pratchett is one of the best-selling authors in the UK and is a prolific writer - Unseen Academicals is the 37th novel set in Discworld - but his standards never slip.

In Unseen Academicals Pratchett focuses on life above and below stairs at the Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork and turns his satirical eye on the world of football. The faculty of wizards at the Unseen University are faced with a difficult decision - either survive on only three meals a day or form a football team to compete in a tournament that would ensure funding for the University from a wealthy family of patrons. They are not keen to lose their meal privileges. Unfortunately for the wizard, football in Ankh-Morpork is a particularly dangerous sport and deaths are common. The wizards therefore team up with Lord Vetinari, beloved dictator of the city, to compile a set of official rules for football, which includes the banning of handling the ball and proscribes the use of unofficial balls. The rules might well make the game somewhat safer, but they're certainly not enough to guarantee the wizards victory in the tournament.

While the wizards are concentrating on training and tactics, four ordinary citizens of Ankh-Morpork are becoming mixed up in some shady footballing business. Mr Nutt is a candle dribbler who must shake-off his race's reputation for being mindless killing machines when he is appointed as trainer for the wizards ahead of their big match. Mr Nutt's co-worker and friend, Trev Likely, is the son of the most famous deceased footballer in Ankh-Morpork but has unfortunately promised his mum that he will not play in the match. Glenda is a friend of both Mr Nutt and Trev and works in the Unseen University's Night Kitchen making the best pies in the whole of the Discworld. Juliet works for Glenda, fancies Trev and might just be the best fashion model to ever grace the Disc. These four disparate characters all end up advising the wizards during the build-up to their epic match against the former street footballers of Ankh-Morpork.

With Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett has written yet another cracker of a Discworld novel. I'm not a big fan of football myself so I wasn't sure whether I would find the set-up here to be as interesting as the previous novels but it was quickly clear that Unseen Academicals is a satire on the old formula of 'team of no-hopers coached by a washed up, one time great player must play and beat the favourite team' and the situation of the wizards having to win using official non-magic rules in order to guarantee the continuation of their slothful lives is just as hilarious and entertaining as the previous satirical Discworld novels (Pratchett having parodied the post office and banking, amongst other famous British institutions, in recent novels). I've always enjoyed witnessing life in the Unseen University and several well-loved characters from previous novels (such as The Luggage and Rincewind) crop up again to great effect in Unseen Academicals. Each of the four new characters introduced in this novel were strong and likeable and help to drive the plot forward. I particularly liked the enigmatic and stoical Mr Nutt. The plot knits together well through a series of amusing happenstance and the pace of the story is lively. The tone here is less dark than that of the more recent Discworld stories and there are many laugh-out-loud moments.

I can't wait to see what will be happening in the Discworld next!