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!