The Lost Symbol

"The Lost Symbol" is the most recent of Dan Brown's Robert Langdon books, and it suffers similar problems to his previous two, "Angels and Demons" and "The Da Vinci Code": somewhat bizarre pacing, two-dimensional characters, and the big one, Brown's apparent constant need to pontificate and to show how bloody smart he is, which gets annoying fast. There also the very good possibility that the veracity of what he says is doubtful (there's a reason why the TV Tropes page for making an error that anyone who knows anything about the field you made the error in is called "Dan Browning"), but that's excusable because I found myself taken up on the thrill ride enough that I didn't really care how accurate what he says about the Masons, the Bible, and Noetic Science is.
The plot of "The Lost Symbol" has Robert Langdon being called to Washington by a man claiming to be the assistant of Peter Solomon, a friend and mentor of Langdon's who manages to Smithsonian museums and also happens to be a high-level Mason. It's only when he arrives in DC that Langdon discovers that the man he talked to was not who he said he was: he's a mysterious psychopath who has kidnapped Solomon and wants Langdon to find for him an ancient treasure hidden by the Masons that could revolutionize everything.
The rest of the novel is Langdon trying to figure out clues to the Ancient Mysteries that the mysteriously evil Mal'akh desires. Joining him is Peter's sister Katherine, a physicist exploring something called Noetic Science, which basically postulates that the human mind can shape the world around it. There's also the CIA, who also want to find Mal'akh for reasons they refuse to explain, and who may have an agenda all of their own.
The book is a fast paced and fun read, and most of the puzzles are fun to figure out. I also like that at least once Brown is self-deprecating enough to have Langdon figure one out based on a "mediocre novel" he once read. Believability wise, it's not that out there--everything seems to be things that could theoretically happen. The ubiquity of Mal'akh is a little weird, that he would be able to have set up what he does in comparatively little time, but that's my only gripe vis a vis the plot.
However, this book also suffers what the two previous Langdon books did, to a certain extent at least. The plot is often disregarded in order for a character to pontificate about the Masons, Noetic science (which is particularly aggravating, because it pretty much boils down to "the human mind can change the world around it," and it gets old pretty quickly), and how the ancient works of various religions supposedly reference modern-day science. At least Langdon isn't the only one doing it, but that just makes whoever does do it appear to be an annoying and smug character, which in turn made me not really like a lot of the characters. There isn't that much different between them, at least for the good guys, and that made it pretty hard to care about any of them. Similarly to the constant reiteration about Noetic Science, langdon's constant whining about how the Ancient Mysteries are not real and just a legend gets annoying fast. Mal'akh is so evil it's hard to take him seriously, especially because he's covered in tattoos and more often than not wears only loincloths and robes. it's just silly. I liked that katherine wasn;t the romantic lead, but really she's just a more impulsive and female version of Langdon.
All in all, an entertaining read but I have no real desire to read it ever again. Check it out of the library and read it if you want to just enjoy a fun romp, but I wouldn't suggest buying it unless you find it cheap in a used book store or the like.

On Paradise Drive

I wasn't sure I would like this book, so I was pleasantly surprised that I did in fact enjoy it. Written by conservative writer David Brooks, this book's mission is to explore America as it is today. Now, I was kind of expecting this to result in a bit of bashing of those Americans who live on the coasts in favor of the life in the center, and there is a bit of that, but it's mostly satirical joshing and Brooks mocks the more "heartland" types just as much.

No, most of what Brooks writes about in this book is what makes America stand apart from other nations, and what he comes up with is interesting, to say the least. America is a country driven by hope, that if you work really hard you'll achieve your goals. Brooks also doesn't shy away from the dark side of that statement: Americans can also overwork ourselves, be narrowmindedly fixed on some minute detail that doesn't actually matter, or rationalize unfairness in the system.

As well as being a thought provoking book, it's a funny one. The first chapter has Brooks taking a road trip from the hipster inner city to the sprawling exurbs, stopping along the way to tease every neighborhood he encounters. Doing this also exposes the great variety of ways of life of people throughout America, seeing what we have in common and where we differ.

All in all, I really liked this book. I wasn't expecting that from a book by a conservative writer, but I think Brooks is more interested in exploring his subject than drawing any conclusion from it. I'd suggest reading it if you have any interest in thinking about the American experience.

Jewtopia

I decided to buy this book for $1 at Borders (rescued from the discount shelves), because I'm Jewish, and I thought it would be fun. I was right, mostly, although some of it was a bit tastless in my opinion.

the two authors, Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson, had previously collaborated on a Broadway play, also called "Jewtopia," that also dealt with stereotypes surrounding Judaism. This book is an extension of that, dealing with the Jewish reaction to pretty much everything.

The book is divided into 8 chapters, which deal with History before Christ, History after Christ, Holidays, Food, Jewish Life, Travel, Stereotypes, and Conspiracy Theories. Each chapter ends with a conversation about its content each of the authors has with his respective mother. These are some of the funniest bits, as their mothers worry about the boys offending their sponsors, freak out about a mugging that happened 20 blocks away, or be concerned their little men will get some sort of disease--typical Jewish mother stuff, but it works well enough.

As for the content, it's mostly hit with some miss (a page on Jewish poop being perhaps the most egregious miss in my opinion). I haven't encountered some of the stereotypes they deal with--being fussy over what table to be seated at or altering a dish to the point where it's unrecognizable, to give two examples--but some of them sound remarkably fun, and it's all done with good humor. the two authors do well with images to underline the comedy, and i found myself entertained. I especially like how the humor changes from gentle teasing to brutal satire when Wolfson and Fogel shift from mocking their fellow Jews to mocking white supremacists and anti-Semites in the chapter on Conspiracy Theories.

That said, I suspect only Jews and those who love us would really appreciate this book. It's kinda preaching to the crowd, which is kinda odd as some of the jokes can be somewhat over-explained to a Jewish audience. Some of them definitely went over my generally secularly raised head.

All in all, if you're Jewish, check it out, especially if you can get it cheap like I did. If you're not, check it out if you're interested in a humorous take on Jewish pop culture.

Dead@17

"Dead@17" is a strange comic book series, to say the least, and I'm not quite sure exactly how I feel about it. Some parts are amusing, and it, unlike "Shadowmancer," manages to include pseudo-Christian mythology and have it not appear really stupid. But it's also a bit too fanservicey to the point of distraction, and I disliked how each story arc seems to start over from scratch, not allowing some interesting characters to be fully developed or used. I guess it was a fun enough read, but it could have been much better.

The version I have, entitled the "Ultimate Edition," is made up of 4 storyarcs. the first, just called "Dead@17," introduces us to our main character, a teenage girl named Nara Kilday...who is promptly killed by a mysterious intruder 4 pages into the story. The focus shifts to Nara's best friend, Hazy, who discovers that Nara had been acting strange secretly for the past year or so. Then the town is attacked by zombies, and Nara comes back to life...

It is revealed that Nara is one of the Resurrected, young women chosen by God to fight the forces of evil. It's very "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," actually, although with less snark and more fanservice. Anyways, Nara, Hazy, a male friend of theirs named Elijah, and a mysterious man named Raddemer have to fight off the evil cult that caused the zombie plague and wants to use Nara's body as a vessel for their demonic leader Bolabogg.

The next storyarc "Blood of Saints," takes place several months after the last arc ended. Nara and Hazy are living together, with Nara in disguise whenever she goes out because she's supposed to be dead. Unfortunately, things get complicated as another girl, Violet Grey, is driven to suicide and becomes a Resurrected. The problem is that Bolabogg gets to her first, and Violet is insane and evil. making things significantly more complicated.

The third storyarc, "Revolution," introduces us to Heaven's Militia, a terrorist group devoted to fighting the demonic forces of Bolabogg, led by a third Resurrected, Joan. They want to kill a US senator running for president, who secretly is the human form of Bolabogg. Heaven's Militia recruits Nara to help them, and it all devolves into a Battle Royale, with a surprising twist at the end.

The fourth, "the 13th Brother," is the most unlike the other three. After the events of "Revolution," Nara is no longer available to fight demons, so our main character (at least for the first half or so) is a new character, a troubled teen named Asia. Killed in a car accident as a comet streaks across the sky, Asia becomes a Resurrected as members of a demonic army try to free their leader. But there are more than a few plot twists before the story is over...

"The 13th Brother" is both the most frustrating and the most fascinating. Part of this is the character of Asia, who seems quite different from Nara, especially as she approaches being a Resurrected. But we don't get much in the way of character development for her, at least not before it all becomes moot and Nara returns. I also was troubled by the blatant way that the writer and illustrator of the comic, Josh Howard, models the antagonists of the storarc after Hamas terrorists: they wear bright green bandanas and ski masks, and refer to their leader as "the Prophet." It's really not at all subtle.

I didn't really find the characters all that engaging. Nara is somewhat of a cypher, which is problematic as she's the main character. Hazy is a bit more understandable, but that's problematic too as she isn't really given all that much to do that's of any interest, except in the first storyarc. Raddemer is actually fairly interesting, and we do get to understand him pretty well, which is good, as who we expect him to be is not quite who he turns out to be. Aside from those three, we don't get to know many of the other characters, except the evil Bolabogg, whose motivation can be summed up as "being evil." I wanted to know more about Elijah especially, who simply disappears from the story, and Nara's mysterious mentor Malachi, who remains mysterious even as he is written out of the story. Asia as I mentioned is actually more interesting than Nara, but is again not used as much as she could or should be. We never actually learn anything about Violet, which is unfortunate, as I was interested in what she was like when she wasn't posessed and brainwashed.

It's possible that some or all of these might be answered in later volumes, and I plan to keep an eye out for them if they exist, because it is a fun series. I just wish it had more to recommend besides "fun to read." It's not particularly clever, or original, and as I remarked its characters are either criminally not explored or not that interesting. But if you see it being sold cheap, it's worth a look.

Shadowmancer

I first heard about "Shadowmancer" when it first came to the US, a British import that was, at the time, thought to be the next "Harry Potter." However, the buzz about "Shadowmancer" died down pretty quickly, and I forgot about it until I saw it at Borders in the discount bin and decided to buy it on a whim.

Well, now I've read it, and I can safely say it is not the next "Harry Potter." It's awkwardly written in places, its trio of young protagonists are nowhere near as likable as Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and its plot is just silly. It's not a terrible book, but it's not worth your time.

"Shadowmancer" is set in 18th or 19th century Yorkshire, in the town of Bayton, under the tyrannical rule of the book's villain, Vicar Obadiah Demurral. As well as exploiting the townsfolk to work in his alum mine, Demurral has decided to attempt to seize enormous supernatural power, through the possession of two holy artifacts known as Keruvim. The book opens with him acquiring one of them, a small gold statue. He uses it to summon a sea monster to sink the ship carrying the other one.

However, the other Keruvim is not a statue, but a young Ethopian man named Raphah, the guardian of the first Keruvim. Raphah survives the ship wreck and encounters our other two protagonists, a young boy and girl named Thomas and Kate. Thomas is an orphan, his father dead and his mother in a hospital slowly dying, while Kate has a father, but a distant one who doesn't pay much attention to her. Raphah quickly convinces the other two of the importance of his mission and gets them to help him.

I didn't like any of the characters so far. Demurral just seemed ridiculous to me, so obviously evil that I saw no point in making him a vicar, a person one would think would at least pretend to have a shred sanctity, but he's a cookie-cutter cartoon villain. Raphah, on the other hand, is too sanctimonious, patronizing in his faith in Riathamus, who is pretty transparently the Christian God, and he grated on me. Thomas and Kate just didn't make much of an impression on me: there's nothing to particularly distinguish them from the standard "orphaned child protagonist" package. About the only character I did like was a fifth main character, a smuggler named Jacob Crane. Crane is cynical, morally grey, gruff, but has a good heart under all of his bluster. I also like that he reacted perhaps the most realistically of all the characters in the face of the supernatural occurrences: he is suspicious, but doesn't deny the evidence of his own eyes.

As mentioned, Riathamus is pretty transparently the Christian God. In addition, the supernatural force that Demurral attempts to deal with, Pyratheon, is pretty obviously Lucifer. Possibly these two name changes are because the author, G.P. Taylor, is himself an Anglican vicar, and bringing God and the Devil into the story might have been considered blasphemous, but every time someone referred to them, I groaned on the inside. On a related note, a lot of the invented terminology Taylor uses for various supernatural things (Keruvim, Seloth, Glashan, Varigal, etc.) just sound stupid. I'm guessing that Taylor was trying for words that sound vaguely Hebrew, but it just seemed stupid.

From Taylor's introduction, it's clear that he loves and knows a lot about the folklore of Yorkshire. In early chapters, you even get hints at this, as characters refer to local fairies and the like, and the introduction of a family of characters identified as boggles, but all of that is dropped once we hit about the halfway mark, and replaced with aforesaid stupid cosmology.

Finally, the writing just isn't good. Dialogue especially can be clunky, and more often than not I completely forgot about a chapter after moving on to the next chapter. It's not painfully bad, but I didn't feel particularly motivated to finish it.

"Shadowmance" isn't a terrible book, it's just not a good one. I do not plan to read this book again, nor do I plan on reading its sequel, nor any other book by Taylor. I would advise not reading it.

Why I Hate Saturn

"Why I Hate Saturn" is an odd but fun graphic novel written and drawn by Kyle Baker back in 1990. It has as its protagonist Anne Merkel, a twentysomething writer and columnist for Daddy-O, a magazine for overly hip New Yorkers. She's snarky, bitter, and contemptuous of pretty much everyone around her. But somehow she's still likable--there's something about her patheticness that makes it hard for me to hate her, despite everything. Her snarkiness is oddly charming.

The plot really starts kicking when Anne's younger sister Laura appears on her doorstep with a gunshot wound, needing a place to stay. Laura is significantly more functional than Anne--neat, a good worker, and able to get a man--except for her insistence that she is the Queen of the Leather Astro-Girls of Saturn. The irritating perfection of her sister, despite her insanity drives Anne crazy, until a fight with her causes Laura to leave in a huff.Anne is OK with letting her go, but when a very mysterious and powerful man named Murphy comes to her door looking for Laura and not taking "no" for an answer, she discovers she can't just ignore the problem of her sister....

The best thing about "Why I Hate Saturn" is the tone. It's snarky and breezy, floating from one plot point to another. I'm not sure I'd like to live in the world portrayed in "Why I Hate Saturn," a world cruel and cynical full of horrible people, but it is remarkably funny. All of the characters are almost unbelievably snarky, always with a quick witticism. and I liked how the final plot twist takes the story into the realm of insanity with no warning at all.

It's a fun ride, if not a particularly hopeful one. I would definitely read this story over and over again. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a slice of life story with fun characters and an unpredictable plot that goes places you might not be expecting. All in all, it's great.

Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor vol. 1

Harlan Ellison was always one of those speculative fiction writers that I wanted to read more of. I encounter other author's references to him as well as appearances on shows like Prisoners of Gravity and the like, and he always struck me as being both incredibly knowledgeable and very opinionated. A person like that, you just have to see what he's got to say.
I'm not sure if, before this book, I had read anything of his, but after finishing it, I'm definitely interested in reading more of his stuff. "Dream Corridor" is a collection of comic book adaptations of various Ellison stories, interspersed with passages of the author himself acting as tour guide of sorts to the Dream Corridor, the strange and ever-changing realm of Ellison's imagination. I hadn't heard of any of the stories in this volume (although, again, I'm less informed about Ellison and only know the titles of maybe five of his stories anyways), but I felt they showed an extreme variety: there are comic stories here, and scary stories, and stories of suspense, wonder, and stories that just plain made me think.
All the stories do have some things in common: a sense of cynicism regarding humanity, while simultaneously expressing an optimism towards what people might strive to do. Ellison seems to be a person who hopes people will surprise him, while still not expecting them to. It's a rather interesting perspective, all things considered.
Some of the stories did leave me a little confused. Ellison can insert a supernatural element into a story that seems to come out of nowhere, leaving me scratching my head as to what was supposed to be going on. Some of the comic adaptations probably would have left me even more puzzled if there wasn't accompanying images. All in all the stories were good, but sometimes I just wished for a little more.
I really liked this collection. Harlan Ellison comes up with interesting ideas for stories, and the comic adapted them beautifully. I'll defintely be looking for volume 2.

The Book of Genesis Illustrated

This is a comic book version of the first book of the Bible, as done by famed cartoonist R. Crumb. Crumb's comments are in the back, and it becomes clear upon reading them that Crumb has done a lot of research to prepare himself for this task. His commentary helped me to get an interesting interpretation of B'reshit, one where a struggle in early Judaism (before it was Judaism) between patriarchy and matriarchy is encoded into the relations of the Matriarchs and Patriarchs. Why does Abraham ask Sarah to pretend to be his sister twice, and why does Isaac have Rebekah do the same thing once? What is with the oddly humorous contest between Leah and Rachel to see which one of their handmaids can give Jacob more children? Crumb's analysis on this is quite interesting.
Crumb did especially well for what could have been one of the slower parts of the book: the genealogies. Creating a picture for every single descendant must have taken a lot of effort, but it looks beautiful. It's also intriguing: I found myself wondering about the history of all of these people mentioned in passing and then never again. there are so many stories in the Bible hinted at but never explored, it's both frustrating and glorious.
Crumb's art style, stylized but realistic, really works. All of the people, buildings, and clothing look just right--again, he must have done a ton of research. He recreates a world that's been dead for milennia and makes it seem real and alive once again. His portrayal of God as a man with an enormous white beard is a little cliche, but it does capture the essence of God as a rather distant deity, who more dictates what he wants than consults with or ask his followers as to their needs.
This is a real treasure. Unless you are either an evangelical Christian or a rampant atheist, this book will almost certainly intrigue you for its interesting portrayal of the many stories of the first book of the Bible. I'm looking forward to Crumb's version of the Book of Exodus next!

Holy Sh*t!!: the World's Weirdest Comic books

This is, as you can probably tell from the subtitle, a collection of profiles of some of the weirdest comics out there. From the exploitative (comics with names like "Leather Nun" and "Amputee Love) to the cynically commercial (comics for products like Greyhound buses, Borden's Milk, and Wall's Ice Cream), to the just plain bizarre (title such as "Godzilla Vs. Charles Barkley", "The Gospel Blimp", and "My Friend Dahmer"). It is truly fascinating to see what some people tried to get people to buy in comic form. While quite a lot of it is utter crap (an evangelical Christian comic about "Hansi, the Girl Who Loved the Swastika," for example, or the bizarre-looking issue of "Babe, Darling of the Hills" wherin the eponymous hillbilly girl is kidnaped by centaurs and forced to serve as a mount), some of it is actually interesting. The collection chronicles the efforts of a variety of African American writers and artists who tried (and failed, mostly) to depict blacks in the comics, and profiles artsy comics like "Longshot Comics," which has the conceit of depicting all of its characters as miniscule dots. Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury, the two authors, seem to take great joy in their bizarre product, and their profiles acknoledge the stupidity of some of the ideas behind some of the comics, while never being too glib about them either. I found it to be both an educational and fun read.

Bourbon Island 1730

"Bourbon Island" is a graphic novel by French comic book artist Lewis Trondheim and writer Appollo that I read this morning. Like the graphic novel "Northwest Passage," which I also enjoyed but neglected to write an entry for, this is very heavily based on a historical place and time that isn't very well known.

The title gives both the time and the place: it takes place in 1730, on the French colony known then as Bourbon Island and now as Reunion. 1730 was towards the end of the great age of pirates, and the story revolves around the very last of the great pirate captains, a man named Buzzard, who has been captured and is scheduled to be executed. although Buzzard himself never appears, everything that happens revolves around him. Some of the characters want to free him, others want to hang him, and still others want Buzzard to tell them where he buried an enormous island. The island is populated with a fascinating cast of East India agents, reformed pirates, escaped slaves, the Maroon hunters sent to capture them, and two Parisian orthinologists trying to capture the elusive Bourbon Island dodo, also known as the solitaire. Bourbon Island is a richly textured and complex place, and if this book ever gets a sequel I'll look forward to reading it.

The book doesn't exactly have much in the way of a plot, merely having its characters meander about, discuss Buzzard and pirate lore, and try to figure out what to do. But that is alright: it works very well as a snapshot of a precise time and place.

All of the characters are interesting. I especially liked Raphael, the younger of the two ornithologists, who is obsessed with pirates, and Victoria, the daughter of a prosperous planter (and former pirate), who is herself obsessed with the Maroons, the escaped slaves who live in the hills. The two characters' disputes over which subject is more worthy of admiration is very interesting, especially in comparison to the decidely unromantic examples of both pirates and Maroons we are also introduced to. I also quite liked Rapier, a former black pirate who leads one of the bands of maroons in the hills, who comes across as a character who has lived quite a bit longer than he ever expected to, who is just as smart as the whites around him, but resents being treated as unequal.

All in all, a very interesting and rich work. I definitely want to read more of what both artists have to offer, expecially a sequel to this. It is awesome and fub, and tought me about part of the world I knew almost nothing about. NowI want to learn so much more...

The Lovely Bones

This book caught me off guard. I didn't expect a book so fiercely beautiful and so powerful when I opened it. It'd been sitting on my shelf for the past few years unread, I only began reading it because the film based on it had just come out. But I'm really glad I did.

The story revolves around Susie Salmon, a fourteen year old girl who is murdered in 1973 by a serial killer neighbor. The book deals with the lives of the people close to Susie and how they change as time goes on. There's Susie's father Jack, who becomes obsessed with solving her murder, Susie's younger sister Lindsey, who tries her best to be strong, Susie's mother Abigail, who drifts away from the family, and Rayand Ruth, a boy and girl at Susie's school who both in their way loved Susie and are drawn together by it. And of course there's Mr. Harvey, the murderer himself. Susie, watching in heaven, serves as an omniscient but biased narrator, delving into the thoughts and experiences of the other characters.

Some of the early chapters, dealing with Susie's murder and the various characters attempting to deal with it, are very emotionally powerful and because of it are somewhat hard to read. It can be hard not to be overcome by the grief and pain the characters and Susie experience. But conversely because they are so emotionally powerful that some of these chapters are my favorites in the book. It feels so real that I myself miss Susie and feel sympathy for the characters who are lacking her.

I liked all of the characters, but especially Ruth and Ray, who are drawn together by their common love of Susie. There was just something so powerful and interesting about their relationship, which is completely atypical from the stereotypical relationships one usually encounters in stories. As for the other characters, it is interesting to see how they all evolve over time, how obsessions and traumas over Susie in the short run transform their characters into something different over time, so that when the novel ends 10 years after it starts they no longer resemble themselves from the beginning of the novel. It made them feel like real people to me. Even the psychotically insane Mr. Harvey becomes more sympathetic than you would imagine as the reader is allowed to see what goes on inside his tortured psyche.

The fantasy elements of the story are significantly thinner than I was expecting. We do get some descriptions of the heaven where Susie lives (which is apparently made up mostly of everything you wanted in life), and Susie herself is able to effect certain small events in the narrative occasionally, but the focus is on the living characters mostly and Susie's observations about them. Therefore anyone leery about reading a fantasy novel shouldn't worry abut this one.

I really liked this novel. It has great characters and is immensely emotionally powerful. I reccomend it to anyone willing to deal with the painful emotions it can evoke in the early chapters, as it is a true masterpiece.

Unseen Academicals

"Unseen Academicals" is the latest Discworld book, a series that I can say that I truly love. Terry Pratchett writes complex and interesting stories, that manage to both be laugh-out-loud funny and incredibly emotionally powerful. Even though he's approaching 40 Discworld books, each one is still as awesome as the last.

However, because there are so many books, Pratchett lately has been focusing more on new characters, with old favorites reduced to supporting cast roles or mere cameos. This actually creates some really interesting effects, as for instance, the Watch, who we know of from the books featuring them as intelligent, conscientious people upholding the law in a city where that task is extremely difficult are seen as brutal and abusers of the law when the viewpoint characters are on the other side of the truncheon, as it were.

"Unseen Academicals" does have some important returning characters. As you could probably guess from the title, the faculty of Unseen University features heavily in the story, especially four of them: Archancellor Ridcully,Ponder Stibbons, The Librarian, and the man who used to be the Dean, who has quit and become Archancellor of a competing university. Ponder Stibbons especially receives a great amount of character development, as his position of being the only sensible man at UU has caused him to have gained quite a lot of power unnoticed, and he no longer seems like the Butt Monkey for the rest of the faculty's schemes and exploits. The other major recurring character is Lord Vetinari, the tyrannical but benevolent ruler of Ankh Morpork, who serves his typical role as the Chessmaster manipulating everyone else to achieve his own goals. Although he's served this exact role in the last three or so books, he fills it well, and this book gives him some wonderful scenes, such as one where the reader finally finds out what Vetinari is like drunk.

In addition to the recurrers, we have our new characters, who are all members of the staff of Unseen University. Glenda is the head of the Night Kitchen and a maker of truly outstanding pies, and a sensible young woman, a foil to her friend Juliet,a brainless but incredibly beautiful girl who has great things ahead of her. Trev Likely is a young man who runs the candle vats, a street kid whose father was an infamous football star, who might even surpass his father except that he's terrified of playing. Finally, there's Mr. Nutt, a strange and resourceful creature who also works in the candle vats, who is unbelievably intelligent and capable of doing pretty much everything. He's also shy, has some pretty serious hang-ups, and is for some reason incredibly important to various other characters.

The plot revolves around the sport of football, a raucous violent spectacle enjoyed by many citizens of Ankh-Morpork, where each neighborhood has a fanatical loyalty to their football squad. Two events bring our characters in: the faculty of UU discovering that they need to play a game soon or lose a significant chunk of their funding, and the discovery of an ancient vase depicting how the game used to be played, bringing it to the interest of Vetinari.

From there, the plot takes off in a variety of directions, not all of them having to do with football. Perhaps the most interesting is the concept of the crab bucket that Pratchett plays around with. This is the concept that one does not need to put a lid on a bucket of crabs: those at the bottom will pull down those at the top. Similarly, the common folk of Ankh-Morpork will pull down any who excel, claiming that they have "put on airs" or denigrating them for not doing "real work." Glenda both experiences this, feeling social pressure to stay in her position, while simultaneously inflicting it upon Juliet, whose great beauty could allow her to become a superstar model if Glenda didn't denigrate the work. As Glenda defies social convention, and allows Juliet to do the same, we are also introduced to the concept of the metaphorical hammer, that if you act as if social pressures from above holding you down don't exist, that those above you will be unable to enforce them, and it is awesome to see both girls gain confidence and excel, because they wish to.

The only underwhelming part of the story is the revelation of what Mr. Nutt actually is. We're told early on that he may be a goblin, but the revelation about 3/4 of the way through the book of his actual identity led me to think "Yeah? So what?" It's supposed to be shocking or horrifying, but to me it wasn't that much of a twist. Mr. Nutt himself is quite good, having perhaps the most interesting and complex character, who changes the most of probably anyone in the story. He was definitely my favorite character in the book.

"Unseen Academicals" was a fun book all in all. I loved Pratchett's writing, full of humor and power. Even though it has a plot somewhat reminiscent of a lot of recent Discworld books (social outcast reforms disrespected institution), Pratchett makes it all fresh and interesting. I loved it, and I look forward to the next thing Mr. Pratchett can dish out!