It's hard to be overly critical of any Terry Pratchett novel. His Discworld books are fabulous, mixing humor and satire beautifully. Unfortunately, the long wait for Unseen Academicals didn't produce the fabulous story I had been hoping for.

It's not that the story is bad, but the humor is on the light side. Several new characters are introduced in the story, which seems to put the focus on developing the characters rather than using familiar favorites to engage in witty banter and biting satire. The new characters are treated kindly and the story becomes more a lesson in accepting others despite differences than anything ironic. Which is fine and good, but when I read Pratchett, I want text that makes me laugh out loud. There was none of that here.

As mentioned though, any Terry Pratchett makes for a great book, so it's hard to be too critical. It's still an excellent story, just not up to par. According to his web site, it sounds like another Tiffany Aching novel is up next, so I'm hoping all the humor will be packed into that. ( )

More quietly funny and ironic than laugh out loud. The wizards of Ankh-Morpork take up football (well the Patrician tells them to) and gentle chaos and mayhem ensue.
Typical entertaining Pratchett. ( )

Foot-the-ball is one of the most watched and dangerous games played in Ankh-Morpork. Lord Vetinari is said not to like the game, but a brilliant tyrant like he must know he'd have a riot on his hands if he tried to stop it. When Ponder Stebbins discovers that the Unseen University will lose some trust funds if they don't field a team, Lord Vetinari brilliantly maneuvers to help them and to get the game under control.

So now the Discworld series has grown to 30+ books, including a few teen titles. Too late to jump in? Not at all! Characteristically of Pratchett's stories, this has a mix of fantasy, satire, and slapstick that suits my weird sense of humor. Trevor, Glenda, Juliet, and Nutt are fun characters to spend time with, and I liked seeing their relationships change (with more than a nod to Romeo and Juliet thrown in for good measure) and each of them grow over the course of the book. This one stands with Lords and Ladies as one of my favorite in the series. ( )

In spite of the widely discussed fact that Pratchett has Alzheimers, this, his latest book, gives no indication of it. It's entirely coherent, all loose ends tied up in a wholly Pratchettish way, all characters retaining their identity throughout.

This is no different to most Prachett - which means that a lot of stuff happens, some of it funny, most of it strange and/or random, interspersed with the occasional line or situation that is sheer comedic brilliance. I would quote here for an illustration, but you usually need the context to get it.

The line splashed all over the covers is "the thing about football... is that it's not about football". Apart from the fact that it took about half the book before I realised it's actually talking about soccer (these crazy Brits), I think that line is a good summary of the plot. Basically, Pratchett is satirising the myth, the dream and the reality of that sport with the black-and-white ball.

But it's also about characters, many of them becoming a bit of a Pratchett cliche, such as Glenda the cook (young, not physically attractive, matter-of-fact, loyal-to-the-death), or Nutt, (minority-species becoming integrated into the multi-everything city of Ankh Morpork in spite of prejudice and danger). We also meet old friends, including Ridcully; the Librarian; and Lord Vetinari. It was quite interesting to see the latter get slightly drunk and talkative - unusual decision of Pratchett's to do that.

I wonder what happened to the Bursar? I missed his presence at Unseen University, but I may well have missed a previous book that explains his disappearance. He was a great character in the earlier books, with his dried frog pills and entirely random bouts of craziness.

I haven't read a University type Pratchett since starting work at a university myself. I was hoping for some satire on academic life, but there was very little, if any, apart from the intense rivalry over the Dean having become Archchancellor at a rival university, and the stupid chase-the-duck tradition scene at the beginning.

Basically the usual, unremarkable latter-day Pratchett. Good, but his earlier books had more spice, humour and freshness. His books have lost the sense of discovery the earlier ones had, which is inevitable, I guess, but still a pity.

Possibly the best Discworld novel Pratchett's written since Going Postal, though there's admittedly more than a bit of damning with faint praise present as he's felt like he's been coasting for years now.

Its desire to parody the various genres (most notably romance and sports, with the usual healthy dash of fantasy) made it feel occasionally more formulaic than need be, particularly when combined with the fact that large parts of it felt formulaic (or at least derivative) with regards to Pratchett's previous Discworld books. ( )