Going Postal

Title: Going Postal
Author: Terry Pratchett

What it's about: Moist von Lipwig is a conman whose luck has run out, or so it seems. He's encountered a benevolent angel (though angels usually don't come in the form of Assassins Guild-trained tyrants) who has offered him a second chance at life. If Moist accepts the offer, he gets the job of Postmaster for the Ankh-Morpork Post Office and the task of reforming the postal system of the city. Figuring it to be better than death, Moist takes the offer. He doesn't realize he'll have to deal with a golem parole officer, a pin-obsessed apprentice postman, a chain-smoking golem advocate, and an even smoother operator than himself who holds the reins of the clacks system and thus is an enemy of the revived post office.

What I thought: What a great book. It incorporates all the developments that have occurred in Ankh-Morpork, like the clacks and the Ankh-Morpork Times and the expanded City Watch and freed golems. We also get a look at the city from a new point of view; Vimes and crew in the Watch books see things from a copper's point of view, but Moist has his own shrewd way of seeing the world, and this is good for laughs and for the insights into human character that Pratchett is so good at delivering. I liked the looks into the culture of the clacks towers and their operators and the comparisions to computer programmers.

Overall: A great new entry into the Discworld series.