Going Postal (Discworld)

Paperback, 480 pages

English language

Published June 26, 2007 by Corgi.

ISBN:
978-0-552-15432-1
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OCLC Number:
233788177

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4 stars (8 reviews)

Suddenly, condemned arch-swindler Moist von Lipwig found himself with a noose around his neck and dropping through a trapdoor into ... a government job? By all rights, Moist should be meeting his maker rather than being offered a position as Postmaster by Lord Vetinari, supreme ruler of Ankh-Morpork. Getting the moribund Postal Service up and running again, however, may prove an impossible task, what with literally mountains of decades-old undelivered mail clogging every nook and cranny of the broken-down post office. Worse still, Moist could swear the mail is talking to him. Worst of all, it means taking on the gargantuan, greedy Grand Trunk clacks communication monopoly and its bloodthirsty piratical headman. But if the bold and undoable are what's called for, Moist's the man for the job -- to move the mail, continue breathing, get the girl, and specially deliver that invaluable commodity that every being, human or otherwise, …

21 editions

Review of 'Going Postal' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

If this book had been published in the 1950's, and Sir Terry was at the time in the United States for whatever dumb reason, he'd have been hauled in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee so fast that the relativistic blueshift would make him look like a Nac Mac Feegle. And if you thought that [a:Bertolt Brecht|26853|Bertolt Brecht|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1390896781p2/26853.jpg]'s testimony before HUAC was pretty funny, imagine someone who's a brilliant comic writer being fed setup lines by gormless American politicians.

Why? Because this book is a scathing indictment of the wicked world of high finance. Our protagonist, the hilariously-named Moist von Lipwig, is a small-time scam artist who is offered[1] the post of Ankh-Morpork's Postmaster. Our antagonist, the also-hilariously-named Reacher Gilt, is a big-time scam artist who operates the Discworld's telegraph system, which he acquired through the time-honored system of massive financial fraud.[2]

In an almost-picaresque style, Moist takes on …

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Subjects

  • Fantasy
  • Modern fiction
  • Fantasy - General
  • Humorous
  • Fiction / Fantasy / General
  • Fiction - Fantasy