Football Wizards

[vovat]

It's been a while since the last Discworld book, but since Terry Pratchett HAS had to deal with early onset Alzheimer's, I suppose that's understandable. The newest one, Unseen Academicals, came out not too long ago, and I don't see any real decline from other recent books in the series. In fact, I think there's considerably more substance to it than there was to Making Money. Or maybe it's just that I tend to prefer books featuring the wizards. This time, the status quo of Unseen University is shaken somewhat by the Dean leaving to become Archchancellor of Brazeneck University in Pseudopolis. I liked Rincewind making a few minor appearances at part of the faculty; I think Terry had reached the point where he was getting a little tired of writing books with Rincewind as the main protagonist, but he works well in a supporting role. We also finally get to see some of the University staff other than the wizards and Mrs. Whitlow, including the first orc to appear in the series. The football theme was explored in a context similar to those that other innovations have been examined in earlier books, with more of an emphasis on team loyalty and audience mentality than on the game-playing itself. It didn't seem to contain as many inside jokes on the subject as the books devoted to movies (Moving Pictures), rock music (Soul Music), and newspapers (The Truth); I'm not sure if this was because Terry himself isn't that fond of sports, or if the fact that I'M not that fond of sports meant I didn't catch them. Another thing I noticed was that there seemed to be more callbacks to earlier books than there were in most of the series. That's not really a good or bad thing, though, just an observation.