Rave Review: "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett

Quick Summary

Type: Novel, book 33 of Discworld series

Genre: Fantasy, humor

Back Cover: "Moist von Lipwig was a con artist and a fraud and a man faced with a life choice: be hanged, or put Ankh-Morpork's ailing postal service back on its feet.

It was a tough decision.

But he has to see that the mail gets through, come rain, hail, sleet, dogs, the Post Office Workers Friendly and Benevolent Society, the evil chairman of the Grand Trunk Semaphore Company, and a midnight killer.

Getting a date with Adora Bell Dearheart would be nice, too.

Maybe it'll take a criminal to succeed where honest men have failed, or maybe it's a death sentence either way. Or perhaps there's a shot at redemption in the mad world of the mail, waiting for a man who's prepared to push the envelope..."

Read Time: 5 days

Rating: 5 stars

Review

Once again, a wonderfully entertaining Discworld novel with a colorful cast and intriguing plot. I liked learning more about Lord Vetinari, and just like with Unseen Academicals, I loved the take on the development of something we take for granted in our world.

The characters were all very interesting. Moist von Lipwig was of course the most interesting, as the morally gray con man-turned-postmaster, but the crew around him was also quirky and fun to read about. I wish we had gotten just a little more of Adora Dearheart, but otherwise I felt all the characters were extremely well-developed.

And as with most of the Discworld novels I've read, I thought the climax (in which the Post Office takes on the Grand Trunk) was clever and the main issue cleverly resolved. It also managed to involve the wizards, which was nice because I was starting to miss those idiots.

So far, I have greatly enjoyed most of the Discworld novels I've read, and Going Postal was no exception. I'm looking forward to reading Making Money starring what I have to assume are some members of the Going Postal cast (Lipwig for sure, though).