Unseen Academicals

By: Terry Pratchett

Narrated by: Stephen Briggs

Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork - not the old-fashioned, grubby pushing and shoving, but the new, fast football with pointy hats for goalposts and balls that go glowing when you drop them. And now, the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match, without using magic, so they're in the mood for trying everything else.

The prospect of the Big Match draws in a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, 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 (and no one knows anything much about Mr. Nutt, not even Mr. Nutt, which worries him, too.)

As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed forever. Because the thing about footballï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football.

Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!

©2009 Terry and Lyn Pratchett (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"At its heart, this is an intelligent, cheeky love letter to football, its fans and the unifying power of sports." ( Publishers Weekly)
"In short, this is as busy and as daft as any other Discworld yarn, which means it is the quintessence of daft. Nobody writes fantasy funnier than Pratchett." ( Booklist)

Stephen Briggs

No idea why they are pushing Tony Robinsons and these new peoples narrative. Nigel Planner and Steve Briggs did a great job.

Always a joy

Terry Pratchett is always a good choice, and Stephen Briggs is great to listen to.

A strange, but good book

This book is well VERY different, but I still liked it. The wizard series is Ldiffrent.

Typical Pratchett...

...in that, he never takes a book off. Every once in a while, I see a title from him and it gives me pause "Football... or, in American culture, soccer...?" But, its Pratchett telling the story, and I read on. I was not disappointed in the least. UA is funny, entertaining and has the hallmark real-world undercurrent, this time its social justice, which always give his stories weight and substance. Since Terry has no peers, and thus it is impossible to compare his work against anything other than his previous work, I would give this book an 8 out of 10 on the Pratchett scale. Read it. In fact, read them all.

Punch-in-the-arm fun

While not as laugh out loud funny as Thud or Going Postal, this latest Discworld romp skewers the worlds of academic tenure, sports, and high fashion, and has its fair share of chuckles. The dry, witty voice of narrator Briggs is uniquely suited to the material. Two thumbs and two big toes, straight up.

amazing

I've listened to a lot of discworld and this one is definitely one of my favorite books. fun story, light and serious all at once.

Stephen briggs is amazing!!!

I always enjoy his wonderful readings of Pratchetts work. the already entertaining story just comes to life! looking for more !

Foot The Ball and Mr. Nutt reign

Another wonderful romp through the word smithing of Pratchett. Great story and well narrated.

Great as always, but not Pratchett's usual theme

First off let me say that I love almost everything Terry Pratchett has ever written, and this book is no exception. It has his trademark whit and humor.

That said, I was very surprised by this books overall theme of "It's great to go along with the crowd and do stupid, dangerous things to impress people." which is pretty much the exact opposite message of every other "Discworld" book. In fact, there are a lot of elements in this book that are held up as positive that are exactly the same things Prachett lampoons in his other books: fanatical devotion to a group; trendy fashion; heated rivalry based on arbitrary differences. I guess going along with the crowd is only bad until it's a crowd who likes the same thing Pratchett does.

It's not bad, it's just surprising. I would never have pegged Terry Prachett as a sports guy.

Jolly good fun.

The late Sir Terry Pratchett was a remarkable comedic story writer. This book, written while Sir Terry was already suffering the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease, does not lack anything. His genius wit, his comedic timing and sardonic sense of humor all add to the brilliance as Stephen Briggs narrates and performs the audio novel, with flawless diction.