Unseen Academicals

By: Terry Pratchett

Narrated by: Stephen Briggs

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

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)

A winner from Sir Terry

I loved this book and I'm not sure why. maybe because I've had Andy's in my life and wish them the same.
To know that if you do your best you have worth.
Regardless a great over and over again. Buy this book.

As always, fabulous!

What did you love best about Unseen Academicals: Discworld #32?

Terry Pratchett never fails to entrance and delight me. Great characters, great story, pointed satire ... what's not to like?

Have you listened to any of Stephen Briggs’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Stephen Briggs is uniformly, consistently brilliant!

Great moments on the Disc

a story of Mr Nutt, his evolution, and growth of him and the game of Foot the ball. And... micro'-maille... it doesn't chafe! Love Briggs as reader.. I will only listen to him read Disc World books.

Great book!

I love Terry Pratchett's books, they always cheer me up when i need a good laugh.

HILARIOUS!

Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors. He is unbeatable in his execution of balance in writing.

Best for Soccer Fans

I'm still looking for the Discworld novel as good as Going Postal. This wasn't it. Also, I think it helps to be a soccer fanatic to truly appreciate the humor here. Because of the soccer story line, it took a while for me to warm up to this, but in the end I enjoyed it.

excellent humor

I love Terry Pratchett and the disc world novels, but this was my first time listening to one rather than reading it. At first, I thought I wasn't going to enjoy it - the novel jumps 'round and it is hard to keep track without the novel in front of you to see the breaks. BUT, as the characters developed, I became so wrapped up in the story that I could disregard it. Great humor typical of Pratchett and a great listen.

Pure Pratchett - a stealth classic.

The first time I listened to this I dismissed it as not one of his best - nothing of consequence was happening; no wars, murders, dragons etc. But when I listened to it again with out the expectation of momentous events, I was enchanted. Pratchett's humor and love for his quirky characters comes through on every page. This is very much worth a quiet listen.

Fun Fun

Pratchett was always a master!! You will enjoy this great story and the production was fantastic.

A great later Discworld book.

One of my favorite Discworld books. Good plot, characters, character development, and humor. Surprisingly intense for a book ostensibly about a sport.