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 gloing 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.
Book Review:
Less of a fully fledged review, more of a musing on the latest Discworld Novel from Terry Pratchett UNSEEN ACADEMICALS.
The quote on the back sort of says it all "The thing about football - the IMPORTANT thing about football - is that it is not just about football". Now I will admit I'm not a football (in any incarnation) fan. Can't stand the hype. Can't stand the carry-on. Can't stand the games themselves. So I was a little intrigued by this book - how would a Terry Pratchett treatment of the dreaded awfulness work? I was certainly intrigued enough to put aside my up until now tendency to purchase immediately and horde for the future any Discworld novels (what can I say - I'm a bit weird - I'm doing it with a few of my all time favourite authors).
Needless to say, football does get a lot of the Pratchett / Discworld treatment and there are some wonderful digs, jabs and observations about football, football fans and the way that this sort of game is regarded. There are some great characterisations, and some cameo performances by many of the Wizards of the Unseen University and thankfully some fantastic politics in their ranks.
Perhaps there is a little less focus, sharpness, snappiness in the story telling. Maybe this is because of the known health problems of Mr Pratchett, maybe it's just that every now and then a book gets a little more reflective, a little less paced and fast and furious. Who knows, and frankly, who cares. UNSEEN ACADEMICALS is another entrant in the Discworld series, and even if it's not the best ever book in a series of best ever books - it's a Discworld novel.
Did it make me laugh enough to wake up the long suffering husband (who keeps saying that a Discworld book on the nightstand should immediately instigate a move to the spare bed)? It did indeed. Did it make me care about football? Miracles don't happen in these parts. But I do think the next time somebody asks me who I barrack for, I'll be nominating the Unseen University.
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 gloing 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.
Opening Lines:
It was midnight in Ankh-Morpork's Royal Art Museum.*
There is a hint of Armageddon in the air. According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (recorded, thankfully, in 1655, before she blew up her entire village and all its inhabitants, who had gathered to watch her burn), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. So the Armies of Good and Evil are massing, the four Bikers of the Apocalypse are revving up their mighty hogs and hitting the road, and the world's last two remaining witchfinders are getting read to Fight the Good Fight. Atlantis is rising. Frogs are falling.
Book Review:
GOOD OMENS is a collaboration between Pratchett and Gaiman. According to the introductory interview with them at the start of the book, it came about because Gaiman wrote half a short story, but he didn't know how it ended. He sent it to Pratchett, who didn't know either. But he did know what happened next. So half a short story became one very very good book.
Originally published in 1990, GOOD OMENS was written as a collaborative novel in the days before high speed internet connections - in fact according to the same interview a 1200/75 baud modem (yes kiddies, we used to use them - and we had electricity and everything), was eschewed as a communication method as it proved slightly less efficient than underwater yodelling and instead a bizarre method of messages in different working times exchanged via Ansaphone's was employed. (Yes - we used machines with little tapes in them - in the house - to record phone messages.)
The problem with a Divine Plan is that there's always somebody that forgot to read the requirements specification. Nun's can get it wrong. Avenging Angels (who can be such fussbudgets) and Fast-Living Demon with a passion for posh cars don't have to look forward to the coming Rapture. When you've lived amongst Humanity for quite a while now and you're fond of the cushy gig, you may actually decide to interfere with the Plan. So as unlikely a pair as they seem, Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop this silliness - even if they do have to kill the AntiChrist (who at this stage is really nothing much more than a naughty little boy). If they can only find him.
Obviously when you're writing high comic fantasy, the time in which the reader picks up the book becomes less problematic. But what really gives GOOD OMENS a life forever is that the central theme - the great battle of Good versus Evil - works no matter when you pick it up. Having said that, reading GOOD OMENS again in late 2007 / early 2008 and bingo - a timeframe in my human history at least - where the occasional consideration of Good and Evil, Frogs and Witches, Hogs and Devil Children - well lets just say between the hysterical laughter, just occasionally you read something that makes you go hmmmmm.
This edition of GOOD OMENS isn't the first one I've read. But it was absolutely no chore to read again. And again. And I might just pick that book up on a more regular basis for a bit of a re-read. For a collaborative novel it's hard to pick the who wrote what bits. As a novel about Good and Evil it works. As a reminder of Queen's Greatest Hits it was truly sobering. It's also dark and funny and pointed and clever and a darn good book!
Overnight the Guardian have published a story on Terry Pratchett's health that's ... well ... in Terry's own words "An Embuggerance". A rare form of ealy onset Alzheimer's but Mr Pratchett is careful to point out - he's not dead yet.
The origins of the Battle of Koom Valley between the Trolls and the Dwarves is obscure and the subject of much debate, but every year, the anniversary celebrations of the battle spark off tensions between the two communities. This year, this celebration, tensions are rising in Ank-Morpork.
Dwarf extremists are undermining (literally) the city and the Watch is starting to fall apart. When extremist leader Hamcrusher is murdered deep underground in the mines, seemingly by a Troll, Vimes must hold together the Watch; investigate the murder; prevent an outbreak of war between the Trolls and Dwarves of the city; keep the peace between Angua and a new Watch Member who just happens to be a vampire; and be home by 6.00pm every night to read "Where's My Cow?" to his young son Sam. Just to complicate matters, not only has The Patrician forced Sam to take on Sally, the vampire, he's also called in a pencil pushing bureaucrat to audit the Watch's operations. Needless to say Sam Vimes is on a pretty short fuse and it's not helped one tiny little bit when matters escalate and his own family is threatened.
In the true nature of any Terry Pratchett novel, there are more twists and turns than there are windy passages in dwarf mines in THUD!. Commander Vimes is a dedicated commander who takes his position in Ankh-Morpork very very seriously and his management of the Watch is part inspiration, part perspiration and part sheer lunacy. All the supporting cast of Watch members are here in all their assorted oddness, although, to be honest, as you read these books these characters are less odd and more realistic and endearing.
Whilst it almost seems impossible for Terry Pratchett to write a bad entry in the Discwold series, THUD! is undoubtedly one of the best books to come out of the eccentricity that is the Discworld recently.
