Review: Going Postal (Discworld Book 39 of 49ish)

8:37 pm 12 April 2017
Going Postal (Discworld, #33) - Terry Pratchett

Going Postal is the first book in the Moist von Lipwig subseries of Discworld, which is also associated with the Industrial Revolution subseries.  In the case of this book, it’s maybe a little more of an “Industrial Counterrevolution”.

 

The post office in Ankh-Morpork has effectively been out of commission for a while, with tons of undelivered letters sitting around.  Meanwhile, over the past several books, we’ve seen the development of a faster and more efficient method of communication called the “Clacks”.  However, lately there have been issues with the Clacks -- mismanagement, downtime, and maybe even murders.

 

The main character, Moist von Lipwig, was a fun character of the “lovable rogue” archetype.  I wasn’t too sure about him at first, but he grew on me as the book went on.  Vetinari also had some good moments in this book.  The story itself held my interest really well.  In fact, I think this may be the first Discworld book for which I actually stayed up a few minutes past my bedtime one night because I wanted to know what would happen next.  I only stayed up about 15 minutes late, but I take my bedtime very seriously so this isn’t a common occurrence for me. :)

 

I enjoyed the ending, and I particularly liked the choices Moist made it the end. 

 

To be more specific, I liked that he looked at the bigger picture and considered the greater good.  He backed off from his original plan that would have effectively destroyed the Clacks until they could be rebuilt, realizing that they fulfill a vital role and also that there were a lot of good people involved in the industry who would suffer.  Instead, he found a way to deal with the corrupt management that was the root problem.

(show spoiler)

 

fantasy completed series