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Unseen Academicals cover art

Unseen Academicals

By: Terry Pratchett
Narrated by: David Jason,Jon Culshaw,Mathew Horne,Josie Lawrence,Jaime Winstone
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Summary

Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork - not the old fashioned, grubby pushing and shoving but the new, fast football with pointy hats for goalposts and balls that go gloing when you drop them. 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. 

The prospect of the Big Match draws in a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a dim but beautiful young woman who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been, and the mysterious Mr Nutt (and no one knows anything much about Mr Nutt, not even Mr Nutt, which worries him, too).

As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed for ever. Because the thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football.

This Audible Original multicast dramatisation is directed by the multiaward-winning Dirk Maggs, best known for his adaptations of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere for the BBC.

Starring Tom Alexander, Samantha Béart, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Mark Benton, Stephen Briggs, Stephen Critchlow, Jon Culshaw, Phil Davis, Ray Fearon, Tony Gardner, Edward Harrison, David Holt, Mathew Horne, David Jason, Josie Lawrence, Toby Longworth, Harry Myers, Maggie Service, Andrew Spooner, Steven Webb, Keith Wickham and Jaime Winstone.

©2018 Terry and Lyn Pratchett (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

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What listeners say about Unseen Academicals

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Terrible adaptation of a wonderful book

Terry Pratchett fans beware, this is a complete insult to the Discworld series. Beloved characters and book specific characters alike have have been changed beyond belief. Within the first few minutes I found myself perplexed by the characterisation of Angua, then utterly confused by Lord Vetenari. Then there’s the complete change to the actual story and to characters like Trev and Nutt.

Its as if the writer read the blurb of the book, a list of characters and never read any other discworld book or even this one. Don’t waste your money on what is a terrible adaptation.

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166 people found this helpful

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Very disappointing

I was very excited when I saw this was coming and pre-ordered it as soon as I saw it. when it was released I listened to it in one sitting on a long car journey. Sadly my levels of anticipation beforehand were only to be matched by my level of disappointment afterwards.

I love the book and I loved the unabridged audiobook of it, but this dramatised version changes the story so much it was barely recognisable. The character subtleties and developments that are such a key feature of Sir Terry's work are gone, to be replaced with 2D characters and storyline. All the subtle wit is gone.

If you've not read the book and / or are not a huge Sir Terry Pratchett fan then you may well enjoy this, but otherwise steer clear, you WILL be disappointed ☹️

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144 people found this helpful

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STP fans beware

If you're a Sir Terry diehard I doubt youll enjoy this. The story has been changed a bit- sacrilege!- but worst of all some of the characters become almost unrecognisable- for instance Trev is a complete bully at the start.

However there are other issues- this is about 60% narration, and i think thats a fairly conservative estimate. Great as David Jason is, this makes it an odd hodge podge between a reading and play, and neither is entirely successful. The brilliant character actors therefore arent trusted to do their jobs, and it makes it feel quite clunky overall. One of only two titles ive ever returned.

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128 people found this helpful

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Made me go back to the book!

Well, I got up extra early yesterday to download this book as I was so looking forward to it. Sadly, Audible have treated this in the same way Peter Jackson treated The Hobbit (which also made me re-read the book). Lost are the charm, wit and humour of Sir Terry and in its place are a some elements of the book with one character taking on several characters actions from the book.

Please leave these stories alone, Audible! The reason I bought this 'adaptation' was that I enjoyed the book. I didn’t need to listen to a story loosely based on the book - and by loosely, I mean some of the characters had the same name.

That said, I thought the cast did a sterling job with the material they had. I only wish they had stuck to the book a bit more faithfully, as I found it very hard to enjoy anything about it, and spent the four and a half hours mostly shaking my head in despair..... the only good this to come of this is apthat at least I shall enjoy re-reading the book.

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120 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

This is an extremely poor adaption of one of Terry Pratchett's best books.

This version of Unseen Academicals is not a patch on the original version narrated by Stephen Briggs. This audio book only follows a general outline of the original book changing the context and character out of all recognition. The back story and character development are all missing so that you don't come to love the individual characters and get really involved in what happens to them.
This audio book is probably fine for those people who are not Terry Pratchett fans but for those of us who eagerly awaited each new addition to the Disk World it is a traversty and not a decent tribute to one of the greatest writer of modern fiction.the

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Avoid If you are a Discworld fan

Disgusted that this was marketed directly at Pratchett fans. Characters bent out of shape, story unrecognisable. It just grinds my gears so much I never got past Chapter 3.

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95 people found this helpful

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Stick with the original.

Unfortunately the adaptation has removed almost all of Terry’s wit and wisdom. Not the performers fault at all, but very disappointing.

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72 people found this helpful

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Disgraceful!!!!

How can you use Terry Pratchett's name? This bore almost nothing of the original book! I looked forward to it but find myself very disappointed. Terry's loyal fans should be warned!

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51 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Abomination unto Nuggan

If you're going to adapt a Terry Pratchett novel DON'T MESS WITH THE STORY LINE OR THE CHARACTERISATION!
The narration and the performances are fantastic though.

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This is terrible in every aspect

It is just plain downright awful. There are no two ways about it. I cannot recommend it on any level there is no redeeming factor. Narration poor. The story is as if the person has been asked to write the most stereotypical two-dimensional characters. The joy of a play is the dialogue between the characters, but this is almost non-existent. Instead, there is some Dad quality of reading from David Jason. It is disappointing. Buy something else.

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44 people found this helpful