Book:Unseen Academicals

Unseen Academicals
Cover art by Paul Kidby
Co-author(s)
Illustrator(s)	Paul Kidby
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	13 Oct 2009
ISBN	0385609345
Pages	320
RRP	£18.99
Main characters	Mr. Nutt, Trevor Likely, Glenda Sugarbean, Juliet Stollop
Series	Ankh-Morpork Series
Annotations	View
Notes	The 37th Discworld novel and the longest
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Cover Blurb

"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.

The prospect of the Big Match draws in a likely lad with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a dim but beautiful young woman who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been, and the mysterious Mr Nutt. (No one knows anything much about Mr Nutt, not even Mr Nutt, which worries him, too.)

As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed for ever. Because the thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football.

Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!"

Characters

Major Characters

Locations

Ankh-Morpork
- Unseen University
  - The Night Kitchen
  - The vats
  - Uncommon Room
- Dolly Sisters
- Dimwell
- Tenth Egg Street
- The Hippo
- Lady Sybil Free Hospital (mentioned)
- Patrician's Palace
- Shatta
- Treacle Mine Road
Genua
Pseudopolis
- Brazeneck College
Sto Lat
Uberwald (mentioned)
- AKA The Evil Empire (mentioned)

Things and Concepts

Bu-Bubble
Cabinet of Curiosity
Compendium of Odours by Brakefast
Dark War
Discomforting Misusage, by Birdcatcher
First Prodostian War, lost by the Maranids
Five Hours and Sixteen Minutes Among The Goblins of Far Uberwald
Furies
Goblins
Grapeshot's Therapeutic Squeezer
Hex
Hunt the Megapode
Micromail
Orcs
Pex (mentioned)
Retribushium
Ritual Aggression in Pubescent Rats
The Shove
Slood
The Speech of Trolls by Postalume
The Ankh-Morpork Times
Trespassers' Society of Ankh-Morpork
Trumpet of Equestrianism by Spout
We Can Rule You Wholesale
Beauty Arising from the Pease Pudding Cart Attended by Cherubs Carrying Hot Dogs and Pies
The whistle of Evans the Striped
Blit
Crab Bucket

Foot-the-ball sides

The Angels
Dimwell Old Pals
Dolly Sisters Football Club
Unseen Academicals
Ankh-Morpork United
Treacle Mine Tuesday ("the Miners")
Cockbill Boars
Pigsty Hill Pork Packers
Naphill United
Whopping Street Wanderers ("the Whoppers")
Lobbin Clout

Gameday Iconograph

Lineup

Front: Librarian
First Row, from left: The Luggage-The Chair of Indefinite Studies- Mr. Nutt
Seated: Dr. Hix-Ponder Stibbons-The Lecturer in Recent Runes-Trevor Likely
Standing: Glenda Sugarbean-Senior Wrangler-Bengo Macarona-Mustrum Ridcully-Rincewind-Havelock Vetinari-Juliet Stollop

Roundworld comparisons

That hack from Stratford-on Avon wrote a play about horny teenagers in Verona, Italy. This Discworld story centers on horny teenagers (well, not Glenda) who are fans of different foot-the-ball sides, but then again it doesn't. The name Dimwell seems close to Millwall, area and football club in London noted for the belligerence of their supporters. Uberwald is a roundworld reference to Germany. The orcs are symbolic for modern Germans. All books that Nutt cites have German titles. Today, Germans have problems with their place in history, because of their role in the war, just like the orcs, even several generations afterwards. Uberwald actually translates as over the forest as does Transylvania. The books have German titles because Freud is the father of psychology.