Going Postal (Discworld)

I picked up 2 Pratchett books at the airport at the start of a long-haul 10-day holiday (always useful to have something to keep you smiling when you hit the 5-hour delay, or 3 hour immigration queue..)

I read "Monstrous Regiment" first, big disappointment. Seemed to be a one-joke book...

But "Going Postal" was a complete joy. A new character in the shape of the con-man Moist von Lipwig, a new creature in the form of the Golems, and a great story.

Not one to make me laugh out loud, in the way that early Pratchett books like the Colour of Magic, but great in a more slow-burning way.

I ended up reading this book 3 times in the course of a week, and was enjoying it more each time.

Where would I be without Terry Pratchett??! (0/0 people found this helpful)

I have been reading Terry Pratchett novels for the past 11 years, and this one is one of my favourites!!

Moist Von Lipwig (what a name) is a con artist who is offered the choice between death by hanging or a job designated by Lord Vetinari who offers him the mammouth task of turning around the Ankh Morpork post office.

With the help of a big lump of clay, Mr Pump (who you start to fall in love with very quickly), Groat (the only remaining postman) and Stanley (a pin collector - please note at this point stamps had not yet been invented) he sets to work trying to restore the post office to its old glory (and to deliver the mountains of old letters that are piled up there). What he hasn't counted on is that he has pretty much signed his own death warrant here: The people assigned to the post of Head Postmaster have a nasty tendency to die painful deaths.

Hilariously written (as always) Pratchett manages to produce yet another classic to add to the Discworld series.

Fun finance (1/1 people found this helpful)

My first Pratchet and a very entertaining experience. A rather wonderful mixture of real world finance with a dash of some of fantasies funniest creatures. Our story revolves around Moist, a (former?) conman who has been entrusted with reviving the postal service. Whilst thoroughly enjoyable I did feel the book was slightly let down by its ending. Still all in all a pleasant read.

Powerful stuff (0/0 people found this helpful)

Pratchett takes flak from literary snobs for three main reasons:

1 - He's staggeringly popular. Being liked by the masses is, of course, the worst literary sin one can commit in some eyes.

2 - The sheer volume of his output. This criticism might hold water if quantity was at the expense of quality, but at least half of his books qualify as great and nearly all the others as very good. There aren't many less prolific authors with as good a hit rate.

3 - The fact that you'll find his books in the fantasy/sci-fi section. Well, more fool anyone who thinks this disqualifies anything as literature, but in any case Pratchett's novels long since ceased to be merely silly comedies set in a daft imaginary world - if they ever were. Like all the best fantasy, the Discworld is merely a crooked, bendy mirror held up to the real world.

Going Postal is one of the better cases in point. Yes, it's an exciting story with one storming action sequence, and featuring wizards, banshees, zombies, werewolves and golems. Yes, there are welcome returns for a couple of familiar characters who have been away too long (particularly, the wonderful Mistrum Ridcully). And yes, it's the funniest Discworld novel in a while (not that that's the primary purpose any more). However, it's really about redemption, love, hope, belief, corporate greed, finance, and above all the power of words.

The depiction of the formerly-great Grand Trunk system, once run proudly by craftsmen and engineers but brought to its knees in the name of profit, will ring very strong bells with anyone who has travelled by rail in Britain recently, and has there been an angrier, more spectacular denunciation of corporate double-speak than this:

"perfectly innocent words were mugged, ravished, stripped of all true meaning and decency and then sent to walk the gutter... Meaningless stupid words, from people without wisdom or intelligence or any skill beyond the ability to water the currency of expression... the Grand Trunk was for everything, except anything... why hadn't the lead type melted, why hadn't the paper blazed rather than be part of this obscenity?"

Pratchett may look, act and appear to write as a rather genial eccentric; and he my attract the kind of fans who go to conventions and play Dungeons and Dragons, but he's also an extremely grounded, powerful and perceptive commentator on the real world - it's really time he was recognised as such.

NOT THE LAST POST! (0/0 people found this helpful)

Anyone who wonders why their letters are delivered late, go missing and turn up several years later or never arrive at all will find this book interesting - the rest of us find it comic and tragic by turns as Terry weaves another of his powerful discworld spells - the descriptions of a decrepit postal service and even more archaic employees and customs are a delight.

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

Terry Pratchett

Reader Reviews:

"Going Postal" - read it 3 times in a week and it still made me laugh... (0/0 people found this helpful)

Where would I be without Terry Pratchett??! (0/0 people found this helpful)

Fun finance (1/1 people found this helpful)

Powerful stuff (0/0 people found this helpful)

NOT THE LAST POST! (0/0 people found this helpful)

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