Unseen Academicals (Discworld, #37; Rincewind #8)

På English

Publicerades 16 december 2009

ISBN:: 978-0-06-116170-4

Unseen Academicals is the 37th novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. The novel satirises football, and features Mustrum Ridcully setting up an Unseen University football team, with the Librarian in goal. It includes new details about "below stairs" life at the university. The book introduces several new characters, including Trevor Likely, a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can; Glenda Sugarbean, a maker of "jolly good" pies; Juliet Stollop, 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, a cultured, enigmatic, idealistic savant. According to the publisher, Transworld, the "on sale" date for the hardback was 1 October 2009 although the official publication date is 8 October 2009. Bookshop chain Borders included a small set of exclusive Discworld football cards with each book.The title is a play on the …

Unseen Academicals is the 37th novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. The novel satirises football, and features Mustrum Ridcully setting up an Unseen University football team, with the Librarian in goal. It includes new details about "below stairs" life at the university. The book introduces several new characters, including Trevor Likely, a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can; Glenda Sugarbean, a maker of "jolly good" pies; Juliet Stollop, 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, a cultured, enigmatic, idealistic savant. According to the publisher, Transworld, the "on sale" date for the hardback was 1 October 2009 although the official publication date is 8 October 2009. Bookshop chain Borders included a small set of exclusive Discworld football cards with each book.The title is a play on the names of rugby and football teams in the UK who have or have had a connection to educational institutions, examples being Hamilton Academical and Edinburgh Academicals. The time in between the publication of Unseen Academicals and the previous Discworld entry, Making Money, was over 2 years, making it longest time between Discworld novels since 1983's The Colour of Magic and 1986's The Light Fantastic. Between 1986 and 2007, at least one Discworld novel was published every year. This delay was in part due to Pratchett's Alzheimer's diagnosis, which led to a great deal of his time being taken up with interviews and public advocacy.

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Björn recenserade Unseen Academicals (Discworld, #37; Rincewind #8) av Terry Pratchett

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You know the sort of plot where there's something the narrator isn't telling us, because if he told us too soon there'd be no plot, but he can't actually come up with a very good reason not to tell us?

Unseen Academicals is fairly mediocre, as Discworld novels go. There's magic in it (though some of the best bits come after magic is literally removed from it), there are cameos by all your favourite characters (though they come across more as checking boxes), there are some very nice (but rather preachy) sentiments about tolerance and intolerance, mob mentality, and the like. And when it's good, it's often quite good; fans of Vetinari and Ridcully, especially, should have a lot of fun. But it's also a fairly unfocused novel, padded with half-mumbled character exposition, using Romeo & Juliet and various lads' football comics as crutches to keep the story doing anything …

You know the sort of plot where there's something the narrator isn't telling us, because if he told us too soon there'd be no plot, but he can't actually come up with a very good reason not to tell us?

Unseen Academicals is fairly mediocre, as Discworld novels go. There's magic in it (though some of the best bits come after magic is literally removed from it), there are cameos by all your favourite characters (though they come across more as checking boxes), there are some very nice (but rather preachy) sentiments about tolerance and intolerance, mob mentality, and the like. And when it's good, it's often quite good; fans of Vetinari and Ridcully, especially, should have a lot of fun. But it's also a fairly unfocused novel, padded with half-mumbled character exposition, using Romeo & Juliet and various lads' football comics as crutches to keep the story doing anything until Pratchett gets to where he really wants to go. When he does get there, it's all very serviceable, and for any other author it would be a solid novel; but I expect more of Pratchett.