Unseen Academicals

Football, food, fashion and wizards collide in Pratchetts affectionate satire on the foibles of sports and sports fans. . . . The prose crackles with wit and charm, and the sendups of league football, academic posturing, Romeo and Juliet and cheesy sports dramas are razor sharp and hilarious but never cruel. At its heart, this is an intelligent, cheeky love letter to football, its fans and the unifying power of sports. Publishers WeeklyFootball (aka soccer) comes to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork, upending the wizards of Unseen Universityand dividing Discworldin this wonderfully funny novel in Sir Terry Pratchetts internationally bestselling series.The wizards at Ankh-Morporks Unseen University are renowned for many thingswisdom, magic, teatimebut athletics, not so much. When Lord Vetinari, the citys benevolent tyrant, strongly suggests to Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully that the university revive its sports program and field a football team composed of faculty, students, and staffor lose the funding that pays for their nine daily mealsthe wizards of UU find themselves in a quandary. First, they have to understand what makes foot-the-ball so popular with Ankh-Morporkians. Then they have to learn how to play itand winwithout using magic.Of course, the thing about football is that it is never just about football.The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Unseen Academicals is the seventh and final book in the Wizards collection (and 37th Discworld book). The other books in the Wizards collection include:The Color of MagicThe Light FantasticSourceryEricInteresting TimesThe Last Continent