SPOILER ALERT! ... ... Just finished reading it. Em...not much actually happens in the book! Premise is basically: old type of violent football replaced by new type similar to modern football. UU to play in first match. Guy & girl fall in love. She becomes a model. First Goblin in Ankh-Morpork causes bit of a stir. Not much of a storyline or excitement in the book for me! Rather disapoointing to be honest because I'm a massive fan & been waiting a year for latest book!
I haven't got my copy yet <sob> and despite the spoilers, I'm keeping a an open mind. A recent confession is... I still haven't managed to complete 'Nation' after twelve attempts, and despite great revues, I find it heavy going and totally different to anything Pterry has written previously. Can I come back later and make a more subjective post?
Felt the same way about Nation. Not my cup of tea really! Though I did finish it! Post away after you have read UA!
I have just finished reading Unseen Academicals and wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it has it was about football. Despite this I did enjoy the book but felt that it lacked some of the momentum that "Going Postal" or "Thud" had. :smile:
It started out promising but I found that it lost its way and went into strange unrelated territory*. I agree about the lack of momentum but I did enjoy it overall but its not my fave. *A friend said jokingly that Terry probably forgot what he was writing.
It's been sitting on my coffee table for nearly 2 weeks now, begging me to read it. Hopefully tomorrow when all the relatives have gone home I'll be able to barricade myself in the house, turn off the phone and read it. Hopefully... I'm looking forward to it though!
Unusual for me, it's taken over a week to read UU, but I did find some parts that fired up the spirit and humour of the other thirty odd Discworld books. I suppose, never having been a football supporter and finding the game boring at best, there just wasn't enough variety to keep me fully interested in the plot.
Just finished it two days ago and I agree with spiky. It started out so well, but seemed to lose its way towards the end. The last part especially ("They think it's all over!") seemed more like a summary than a heart racing leap to the finish. It really didn't carry the book off well. I really liked the premise though, just wished that there was more flesh to the teams aspect - it could have gone way further (imagine a match derby between a team of dwarfs vs. trolls - KV on a "foot-the-ball" pitch!) I had hoped the first match was to be the start of something rather than the finish. I really liked the description of "the Shove" though - best written representation of a match crowd I've heard for a while! As far as Nation is concerned, I really liked it first read around, both as a breath of fresh air and as an interesting story. As I mentioned before though, I do think it probably sits more as a teen novel than an adult one.
i think our expectations are so extremely high by now, really. i can't remember Eric or some of the Witch books a 100% hit, either, but I still enjoyed them. Haven't read this one yet, though, but the last thing I am going to do right now is buying another book...:razz:
I do have to say that it was better on a second reading. I still think there are too many characters and it goes down an unexpected road after the start.
