Returning to Unseen University for book thirty-seven, we find out that they need to field a football (soccer) team to meet the conditions of a valuable endowment, or they won’t be able to keep eating nine meals a day, and no wizard worth his pointy hat can tolerate that!
The UU faculty are mostly well-known to us by now, although we find out very early on that the Dean, one of the most enjoyable faculty members, has moved on, causing some consternation for archchancellor Ridcully. In addition, we have of course the Patrician who was not happy with how violent street football had previously been and seeks to use the wizards to make things less destructive and violent. This does not sit well with everyone as street football is a popular sport, and some of those involved like the game because of that violence. The timing of the wizards needing an excuse to field a football team with Vetinari wanting to make it safer is serendipitous to both parties and sets the stage for the primary situation of this book.
We also know about Mrs. Whitlow from earlier books, and how she runs the understairs staff of UU quite well, but with a bit of an old-fashioned bent. This book introduces us to more of that crucial but largely unsung group of people that ensures the wizards can focus on what matters: eating several meals and snacks every day and avoiding as much actual work as possible. This new staff includes the very unusual Nutt, Glenda Sugarbean who is one of the nicest people ever, her friend the gorgeous but ditzy Juliet Stollop, and Trevor Likely, usually just called Trev, who is essentially Nutt’s boss and a huge football fan as well as the son of a famous footballer, Dave Likely. Dave scored a whole four goals in his lifetime, before succumbing to his injuries shortly after that fourth goal.
Trev falls hard for Juliet early on, and their relationship is one of many factors that help him grow as a person throughout this book. I’ve often mentioned how well Sir Terry demonstrates character development, and we get a veritable flood of it here. Trev becomes more responsible and considerate, Glenda becomes more assertive while maintaining her work ethic and helpfulness, Nutt is a very odd one that has many surprises, but he both learns and teaches a lot in his interactions with other characters, and while Juliet still mostly gets by on her looks, she too becomes more than just the sexy but thick one.
We also get to meet a colorful array of secondary characters as well. Andy Shank is a horrible person that causes a lot of problems for our main crew and is a particularly loathsome individual. Pepe is a human that designs clothes for dwarves and is such a great character for the little we get to interact with him, he’s also the one that largely convinces Juliet to seek a career in modeling, even if she has to wear a fake beard since she’s modeling for dwarves. Madame Sharn is a powerful figure in the burgeoning dwarf fashion industry and she’s in the book even less than Pepe, but she’s great fun too; her negotiation with Glenda for Juliet’s fee was both enjoyable and a key to character growth for those two.
Nutt, or Mr. Nutt as he prefers, has a very odd and dark past. This of course comes to the fore during the book, as this kind of thing usually does. His situation is so interesting that I will not go into any great detail, as the revelations about who and what he is are crucial to the story, and I leave those intriguing tidbits for the reader to discover as I don’t want to lessen their impact. He starts as a simple candle dribbler, since wizards require properly dribbled candles, but he’s certainly so much more even from our first introduction that it’s obvious that he’s not as simple as he appears. He’s so crucial to almost everything going on in this volume of the Disc, that it’s almost as much about him as it is about football.
With UU being crucial to the Patrician’s desire to make football more compatible with a safer Ankh-Morpork, we spend a lot of time with our favorite wizards. Even the initially missing Dean becomes a part of the situation, although not quite as he was before. We meet some new faculty too, in the guise of Dr. Hix who runs the department of necromancy post-mortem communications and is allowed by UU statutes to be a bit of a bastard, although not too much of one, of course. Rincewind is mentioned, mostly for his speed when they are building a team for official football, but not much more than that. The Librarian is wonderful here and makes the best goalie I’ve ever seen as well. Nutt has his hands full with this lot, but his unusual situation makes him the perfect coach, and we see why as things come to a close, and the Unseen Academicals, UU’s eponymous team name, has to play against some of the rougher elements of the previous footballers.
This volume of the beloved Discworld isn’t quite as fun as I had hoped it would be. Enjoyable as they all are, but not up there with the very best. It has brilliant moments, and as I previously mentioned, the character development is top-notch, but the overall experience isn’t among the best. For those already invested in this wondrous series, you can’t go wrong, but I’d advise new readers to start elsewhere. For those that need more Ankh-Morpork in their lives, you won’t leave disappointed, as it’s still Sir Terry, so still a splendid tome.
3.625 wizards playing football out of 4.
Some fun quotes:
“The female mind is certainly a devious one, my lord." Vetinari looked at his secretary in surprise. "Well, of course it is. It has to deal with the male one.”
Juliet's version of cleanliness was next to godliness, which was to say it was erratic, past all understanding and was seldom seen.
The Librarian was not familiar with love, which had always struck him as a bit ethereal and soppy, but kindness, on the other hand, was practical. You knew where you were with kindness, especially if you were holding a pie it had just given you.”
Morella is a Gen Xer who likes strange things a bit too much.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We love comments! Just note that we always moderate because of spam and trolls. It's never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.