Unseen Academicals is the latest novel from world renowned author Sir Terry Pratchett, a comical take on all things football as seen through the eyes of the denizens of Discworld, a 'world and mirror of worlds' that serves as stage to the majority of 'Pterry's' works. More importantly, this book is New Pratchett!
After reading the series over and over until I can feel the upcoming words rolling down from my brain to meet my eyeballs I leapt at the chance to sink my teeth into a new installment in my favorite universe. I didn't care about the price tag on the hardcover copy, to me it was a worthy tax on a new addition to my self.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3a/Unseen.jpg
I won't lie, this review is striving for a balanced view against a bias so large it would be welcome in parliament. I love Terry's work, it has been the cornerstone of my development as a mind and repository of immaturity for as long as I could read and understand words with three syllables. It is a disappointment, then, that I was let down by this latest turtle-riding fantasy.
I can quantify this disappointment, however, put down your pitchforks. What sets this Discworld below my expectations is, in essence, too much of a good thing. Throughout the book a reader is presented with a parade of cameos and references, all of them wondrous callbacks to the continuity of the series and the reality of the world... but all of them together only serving to act as three extra slices of bread in a jam sandwich.
Allow me to explain; the story proper follows the events surrounding the transformation of 'Poor boyes funne', a version of football so brutal and impossible it rivals the 'Wall Game' it is meant to spoof for futility, into the beautiful game we all know and love. Serving as the backbone of this metamorphosis are the faculty of the Unseen University, albeit a little lighter, backed by a smaller cast of newer characters who are arguably the protagonists of the tale.
I love the new characters, I adore them with an instant acceptance I extended to such from-nowhere wonders as William De Word and Moist von Lipwig (Lipvig!). We have Nutt, a reclusive and hugely intelligent small... creature trying to find worth in the world, Trevor Likely, a football prodigy who refuses to play since the death of his father (A legendary footballer) and an oddly familiar but always welcome Smart homely/stunning ditzy girl duo. On their own, they are a capable and engaging cast who I feel are done injustice by what feels like a leash to Discworld formula.
This isn't a fan quibbling over specifics, it's genuinely disappointing as a reader to see a good story bent backwards over the knee of fanservice. The book reads like a well written fan tribute, cashing in on characters for a cheap smile that must surely be baffling to a new reader. One-scene wonders march in and out, perfectly in character but entirely without purpose, and instead of the warm embrace from beyond the fourth wall we have a sort of manic grin bursting through the barrier to scream 'Look, it's everyone's favorite werewolf watchmen here for 600 words!'
To compound the error we have cursory references to over-arching plotlines that go nowhere and attempts to include all one expects in a discworld book... without heed for why such things should be. And while I'm often keen to wave away such things and slap myself for staring down the gullet of gift-horse, when such things impede the plot of the story I can't help but feel disconnected from the tale. Through an over-indulgence in the rich background of the setting, Pratchett lets viewers know at every turn that they are reading a story, and the immersive world is the worse for it.
Fascinating concepts such as Nutt's past and the genuine relationships between our four new characters are left out in the cold in favor of more head-nods to series mainstays. I was gearing up for a telling reflection of British social conditioning from the girls, and was relishing the parallels as they began to emerge. I was left, however, with only my salivation and a poorly executed resolution to what could have been the most lingering notion of the book. Hell, even the football satire is hurt by the inconsistency!
For every moment of warming familiarity I experienced, such as the career of Mightily Oats, there was the clumsy inclusion of Bledlow Nobbs. It's not rocket science as to why the former works, when part of the backstory and inherent to the tale such foundations of the series serve as... foundations. But rather than anchors, shoutouts dropped in clumsily act as lead weights on the narrative.
However, it's far from all bad. There's the host of the customary Pratchett wit on display and to anyone with a knowledge of wider media you can laugh out loud at the shoutouts scattered throughout the story. The jokes and subversions are here as always, with the world's most dedicated football chant making me put down the book for fear of dropping it in a fit of choked giggling. The characters are as they always were, even if there are too many of them, and the world continues to develop while we weren't looking at it. I read Colour of Magic before I dived into Unseen Academicals... how times change...
I don't know, perhaps I really have fallen to hype backlash, and perhaps what I see as flaws in writing are my own inabilities to cope with change... but I can't see how anyone familiar with the books can see it any differently. Feel free to stuff the replies section with your assertions otherwise, though.
Verdict: It's a fantastic book, there is no denying this, but at It's heart it tries far too hard to meet a standard to which it was never held. Buy it for what it is, because that is certainly worth your money, but don't sell yourself the idea of perfection. Perhaps then you can avoid the disappointment that drives my fingers here today.
- Dean
After reading the series over and over until I can feel the upcoming words rolling down from my brain to meet my eyeballs I leapt at the chance to sink my teeth into a new installment in my favorite universe. I didn't care about the price tag on the hardcover copy, to me it was a worthy tax on a new addition to my self.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3a/Unseen.jpg
I won't lie, this review is striving for a balanced view against a bias so large it would be welcome in parliament. I love Terry's work, it has been the cornerstone of my development as a mind and repository of immaturity for as long as I could read and understand words with three syllables. It is a disappointment, then, that I was let down by this latest turtle-riding fantasy.
I can quantify this disappointment, however, put down your pitchforks. What sets this Discworld below my expectations is, in essence, too much of a good thing. Throughout the book a reader is presented with a parade of cameos and references, all of them wondrous callbacks to the continuity of the series and the reality of the world... but all of them together only serving to act as three extra slices of bread in a jam sandwich.
Allow me to explain; the story proper follows the events surrounding the transformation of 'Poor boyes funne', a version of football so brutal and impossible it rivals the 'Wall Game' it is meant to spoof for futility, into the beautiful game we all know and love. Serving as the backbone of this metamorphosis are the faculty of the Unseen University, albeit a little lighter, backed by a smaller cast of newer characters who are arguably the protagonists of the tale.
I love the new characters, I adore them with an instant acceptance I extended to such from-nowhere wonders as William De Word and Moist von Lipwig (Lipvig!). We have Nutt, a reclusive and hugely intelligent small... creature trying to find worth in the world, Trevor Likely, a football prodigy who refuses to play since the death of his father (A legendary footballer) and an oddly familiar but always welcome Smart homely/stunning ditzy girl duo. On their own, they are a capable and engaging cast who I feel are done injustice by what feels like a leash to Discworld formula.
This isn't a fan quibbling over specifics, it's genuinely disappointing as a reader to see a good story bent backwards over the knee of fanservice. The book reads like a well written fan tribute, cashing in on characters for a cheap smile that must surely be baffling to a new reader. One-scene wonders march in and out, perfectly in character but entirely without purpose, and instead of the warm embrace from beyond the fourth wall we have a sort of manic grin bursting through the barrier to scream 'Look, it's everyone's favorite werewolf watchmen here for 600 words!'
To compound the error we have cursory references to over-arching plotlines that go nowhere and attempts to include all one expects in a discworld book... without heed for why such things should be. And while I'm often keen to wave away such things and slap myself for staring down the gullet of gift-horse, when such things impede the plot of the story I can't help but feel disconnected from the tale. Through an over-indulgence in the rich background of the setting, Pratchett lets viewers know at every turn that they are reading a story, and the immersive world is the worse for it.
Fascinating concepts such as Nutt's past and the genuine relationships between our four new characters are left out in the cold in favor of more head-nods to series mainstays. I was gearing up for a telling reflection of British social conditioning from the girls, and was relishing the parallels as they began to emerge. I was left, however, with only my salivation and a poorly executed resolution to what could have been the most lingering notion of the book. Hell, even the football satire is hurt by the inconsistency!
For every moment of warming familiarity I experienced, such as the career of Mightily Oats, there was the clumsy inclusion of Bledlow Nobbs. It's not rocket science as to why the former works, when part of the backstory and inherent to the tale such foundations of the series serve as... foundations. But rather than anchors, shoutouts dropped in clumsily act as lead weights on the narrative.
However, it's far from all bad. There's the host of the customary Pratchett wit on display and to anyone with a knowledge of wider media you can laugh out loud at the shoutouts scattered throughout the story. The jokes and subversions are here as always, with the world's most dedicated football chant making me put down the book for fear of dropping it in a fit of choked giggling. The characters are as they always were, even if there are too many of them, and the world continues to develop while we weren't looking at it. I read Colour of Magic before I dived into Unseen Academicals... how times change...
I don't know, perhaps I really have fallen to hype backlash, and perhaps what I see as flaws in writing are my own inabilities to cope with change... but I can't see how anyone familiar with the books can see it any differently. Feel free to stuff the replies section with your assertions otherwise, though.
Verdict: It's a fantastic book, there is no denying this, but at It's heart it tries far too hard to meet a standard to which it was never held. Buy it for what it is, because that is certainly worth your money, but don't sell yourself the idea of perfection. Perhaps then you can avoid the disappointment that drives my fingers here today.
- Dean
