An Easy Recipe

The latest novel by Great Britain’s best-selling author Terry Pratchett is a parody on European football (soccer) and all the cultural phenomena that go along with it, such as cheerleading and football hooliganism. The book, Unseen Academicals may therefore be a bit more exciting to Europeans than to Americans.

But this novel is really about a much wider array of human follies and foibles than just football; most of which are universal, American as much as European. Other themes in the book include goblins and orcs, pies of every conceivable (and inconceivable) variety; as well as fashion supermodels and their excessive adulation by the public.

In characteristic Terry Pratchett fashion, the Discworld is like a funhouse mirror image of our own world; exactly the same, only more so. Instead of human cheerleaders, there are naiads dancing on the sidelines of the football field, and cart-tail vendors take the place of tail-gate markets.

The main character in the book is the goblin-turned-orc Mr. Nutt, who is one of only a dozen or so surviving orcs on Discworld. In a display of philanthropy, two of the world’s most powerful despotic rulers decide to take Nutt on as a project, to help not only him but his entire persecuted race.

It should be mentioned that these two enlightened world leaders, Lady Margolotta and Lord Vetinari have previously done the same to help werewolves, rock trolls, golems, and vampires become accepted members of society. Margolotta herself being one of the latter, or so rumor has it.

Mr. Nutt gets sent from Lady Margolotta’s Uberwald to Lord Vetinari’s Ankh-Morpork and assigned the task to accumulate ‘worth’ in human society. In doing so, Nutt gains many loyal friends and admirers in his workplace, the Unseen University. Co-worker Trev Likely goes to any length to defend his orc friend, and the head mistress of the Night Kitchen, Miss Glenda Sugarbean (creator of the crusty onion pie) becomes a staunch admirer, which later leads to a budding romance.

After demonstrating his knack for strategic thinking to his superiors at Unseen University, Mr. Nutt gets appointed as coach for the school’s floundering football team. And so a string of events begins to unfold.

Unseen Academicals may be a parody on the phenomenon of European football (soccer), as well as a number of other things thrown in for good measure, but soccer fan or not, this book will give you many hours of joyous reading and barrels of laughs.

Mrs. Hellman lives in Western North Carolina with her spouse and their three boys. A copywriter by profession, she writes book reviews as a hobby. Visit her web-site named after The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett, where you can order Unseen Academicals and all the other 36 novels in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.