Yes! I know! I read a book without any pictures! The recent news about the BBC's forthcoming The Watch based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld series inspired me to dig into my to-read pile and pull out this novel!
Unseen Academicals stars the wizards of Unseen University. Upon a review of university endowments, it is discovered that if the school does not produce a sports team soon, they will lose a hefty portion of their food budget. At the same time, in the city of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari is working behind the scenes to transform the illegal game of foot-the-ball into something a little more respectable. Thus, the mages of Unseen University now have permission to field a team. Only they must reorganize the rules into something a little less deadly... and they can't use their magic to win the game either!
Unseen Academicals introduces several new characters to Discworld. There's Trev Likely, whose father was a foot-the-ball legend, once scoring 2 goals in 1 game! We're introduced to the stern but rather lovely Glenda, the head mistress of the night shift kitchen. Lastly, we've got Mr. Nutt. He was my favorite of the new introductions. Nutt is a goblin who is relegated to the candle-making detail for the entire university. But there's more than meets the eye to this mythical creature who is literally a Renaissance man.
I Googled Mr. Nutt and it appears that this book the character's only appearance. Unseen Academicals was published in 2009. Terry Pratchett sadly left us in 2015 and it seems that he never got around to giving us more of Nutt. The way this book ended, I could have seen 1 or 2 more novels continuing the evolution of the character in other realms of the Discworld.
I devoured this book like a shark through chum. I was hungry for more Discworld and when I got my teeth on some, I couldn't put it down. Yes- I went almost a week reading nothing but Discworld. No comics or graphic novels. And I don't think my appetite has been sated yet!
A very fun book that skewers organized team sports, gender dynamics, class and status, psychology, romance and much much more!
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment