Satya's blog - Unseen Academicals

Unseen Academicals is apparently Terry Pratchett's latest work. I must have set my expectations too high. It was luke-warm. Perhaps not as bad as FaustEric. It just seemed like he had crammed every character in there, stopping just short of including the witches. It read like a fanfic. A good fanfic, but still. And people seemed just slightly out of character. Vetinari talked too much. The Arch-chancellor wasn't out of it (didn't appear to be out of it, I should say, he's never actually out of it) as much as usual. Ponder was assertive. Rincewind didn't run away. Mister Vimes was *nice*. Okay, I'm nit-picking, but the bit about Vetinari certainly grated. I suppose he's getting old, maybe?

All the minor characters, one-offs, mentioning the bank and post office, all felt like name-dropping.

They never explained how the opening scene tied in with everything.

What's with the cover? Is that a basketball? I don't see any pentagons. And they're *handling the ball*. I know that Ankh-Morpork street football is closer to rugby but that looks like a post-Vetinari football they're trying to catch. But it isn't a (soccer) football! Rugby meets soccer, maybe?

I did like the confusion caused by the offsides rule, and the other little touches. The underlying fabric of a Discworld novel is there, and it kept me up till late at night, but it lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. Just slightly off-balance.