Unseen Academicals cover art

Unseen Academicals

Discworld Book, 37

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Unseen Academicals

By: Terry Pratchett
Narrated by: Colin Morgan, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Over 1 million Discworld audiobooks sold – discover the extraordinary universe of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld like never before.

The audiobook of Unseen Academicals is read by Colin Morgan (Merlin; Testament of Youth; Belfast). BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually; Pirates of the Caribbean; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) reads the footnotes, and Peter Serafinowicz (Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace; Shaun of the Dead) stars as the voice of Death. Featuring a new theme tune composed by James Hannigan.

'We play and are played and the best we can hope for is to do it with style.'

Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork. 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.

To do so, they recruit an unlikely group of players: Trev, a street urchin with a talent for kicking a tin can; Glenda, the night chef who makes a mean pie; Juliet, the kitchen hand turned world's greatest fashion model; and the mysterious Mr Nutt, who has something powerful, and dark, locked away inside him . . .

And 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!

Unseen Academicals is the seventh book in the Wizards series, but you can listen to the Discworld novels in any order.

The first book in the Discworld series - The Colour of Magic - was published in 1983. Some elements of the Discworld universe may reflect this.

'This isn't just football, it's Discworld football. Or, to borrow another phrase, it's about life, the Universe and everything' The Times

'No one mixes the fantastical and mundane to better comic effect' Daily Mail

©2009 Terry Pratchet and Lyn Pratchet (P)2022 Penguin Audio
Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Humorous Fiction Fantasy Comedy Funny Magic Users Wizardry
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What listeners say about Unseen Academicals

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Not the finest delivery or story in the set

Much as I loved the thick Morporkian accents, I couldn't get over the weirdly high Ridcully. The story is not one of Pratchett's best, though it is perfectly good and has it's moments.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Classic

Can’t fault this version at all. Every character played to perfection and engaging. Loved it. Now for another.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

good story, not so good narration

a good story as always, but the New narration is not good, hard to understand dialects and voices. i hope they switch it back to the old ones

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

How does he keep all the voices straight?

Extraordinary performance of the book, with such versatility. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
I do hope he has done some more of the books!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Weak narration

I'm familiar with this story and thought I'd give the new version a go.
It felt to me as if this narrator didn't get some of the jokes that TP made in the text, and spoiled them by saying them wrongly.
He also kept emphasising the wrong word in sentences, diluting their meaning. Perhaps other people are more open minded than I am about that - it's my pet hate.
And his characterisation of some of the main characters was just off, as well. Ridcully with a reedy little voice? No! And Trev was barely understandable.
A real shame.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A typical Disc World offering, but not Pratchett's best.

What marks Terry Pratchett out is originality and wit; dry, wry, ironic and sarcastic. This offering, offers little of either, seems more formulaic than others I've read, but is nonetheless engaging.

The reader has a good tonality in general reading, and does some good accents, but has imbued some of the characters with rather odd forced voices rather than accents. I found this rather detracted from the listening experience.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent!

This is the pinnacle of the wizard books for me. I'm a huge Pratchett fan, so it's a given that the book is wonderful but, Colin Morgan adds a whole new dimension with his vocal characterisations. He brings everyone to life as a whole person. There is no caricature "fat girl" to the brilliant Glenda. Everyone is defined and real.
I loved it!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Narration isn't good, bring back Stephen Briggs

Narration is really grating, Stephen Briggs does it much better, at least give us the option

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome story not sold on some of the voices

I love this book and I’m not a football fan at all. I also love Colin Morgan; his breadth of voices for the characters is truly commendable…but…in my own personal opinion he hasn’t voiced some of them how I read them, so am struggling with this one. Big fan though and am working my way through all of them. Delighted that TP’s work lives on for a new generation

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Excellent book. I'd forgotten that it's not really suitable for younger school children though. Shame.

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3 people found this helpful