I admit it - I have read A LOT of Terry Pratchett, and enjoyed pretty much all of them, but Unseen Academicals, which I have just read in print, is an absolute tour-de-force. We have some familiar characters from the Discworld in the form of the wizards from Unseen University - but the main focus is on four new faces from "below stairs". There are two cooks - down to earth Glenda who loves her romantic novels, and the beautiful Juliet who is a bit of a airhead but sweet and innocent with it. And then there are two servants - Trevor Likely, who lives in the shadow of his famous footballing father, and the mysterious Mr Nutt - ridiculously polite and brilliant at everything he tries, but with an undercurrent of something nobody can quite put their finger on, not even him! The traditional football of the masses on Discworld bears little relation to the game we know today - all shoving, pushing, violence and very little sight of the actual ball ... then again! But this tradition comes under threat from the ruling classes who want to civilise it. The wizards are forced to get a team together to ensure the future of the University, and their opposition will be made up of the best and worst players from the traditional city teams of the city of Ankh-Morpork. With no magic being allowed during the game, it would seem that the wizards are at a huge disadvantage - but with Mr Nutt, Trevor, Glenda and Juliet on their side, the odds are somewhat evened out. With trolls, dwarfs, orcs, vampires, fashionistas and general oiks featuring too, this book has a bit of everything. I loved it and literally laughed out loud around 30 times - which will always give any book the thumbs up from me. If you are a fan of football, bizarre characters and belly laughs - then this is the book for you. Highly, highly recommended.
My STAR rating: FIVE (as if you had to guess)
Length: 541 print pages.
Price I paid: £1.50 (from a charity shop).
Formats available: print, unabridged audio, abridged audio, ebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment