Yuffie's Book Reviews

Going Postal - by Terry Pratchett

THE PLOT

When a con artist about to be put to death for his crimes is given another chance, he's in for a little shock about what his second chance entails:

becoming postmaster to the post office, which hasn't been in working condition for almost a century.

The place has literal mountains of undelivered mail flooding every hallway, room, and corridor. The only place the almost sentient mail hasn't reached was the basement, where lives Junior Postmaster Groat, an old man who puts sulfur in his socks to keep him "well"; Stanley, a guy with some mental instabilities and is obsessed with pins; and a cat.

This is a world where snailmail has become obsolete and now messages are sent by the clacks. The con artist-turned-postmaster, Moist von Lipwig (yes, that's actually his name) has his work cut out for him if he's going to get this place up and running again.

If he tries to run (and he did), a golem known as Mr. Pump will inevitably drag him back.

Armed with a lifetime of scamming knowledge and about 5000 personalities for every occasion and more, Moist is actually the perfect man for the job. His conniving flare and love of dramatics makes him quickly rise to almost a godlike status among the people as he does one impossible feat after another, leading up to a brilliant finale—his best scam ever.

But with new competition, the owner of the Grand Trunk, the company that owns the clacks system, wants Moist and his post office out of the picture.

So basically, the plot is a m a z i n g. Holy crap, I love it when authors make some mundane thing epic (read: Sanderson making chalk drawings epic), and boy, did Pratchett turn mailmen into heroes!

THE CHARACTERS

Wow. Just... wow. I really don't have words for how wonderful the cast was. The crackpot characters were by far two of the most sympathetic and awesome and unique gems of people I have ever read about. Moist was a great leading man with his flashiness and flare. His leading lady owned a company that hired off golems. She was awesome, this normal looking woman with an army of giant clay people following her around.

And IGOR. Igor was the star for me (even though he was in like... 2 scenes). Dude this guy (actually Igor is a whole species of Igors, all named Igor). Ahahah I laughed so hard whenever he came in the scene. You just... you gotta read it for yourself. I won't spoil the magic that is Igor (I'm probably one of the only super Igor fangirls, so don't take me too seriously) :P He's obviously a satirical take on the stereotypical hunchback creeper you picture when you hear the name Igor, but yeah I love this guy.

But let's look at Moist: he made for a great protagonist. He wasn't too out-there of a character like some of the others in the cast, so he could appeal to a wide spectrum of readers. Because he was a criminal, we got a feel-good redemption story of criminal-turned-postmaster.

If I were to nitpick anything, it would be that I would've liked to see Moist's character development dig a little deeper—hit a little harder on the fact that he changed from a criminal to a postmaster and he's actually enjoying the job. However, while it wasn't stated outright, it's obvious he's really loving his job. Probably because he ended by conning everyone again... so maybe he didn't really change all that much. But this is just the first book with him in it to my understanding, so maybe we'll see more growth from him later.

Oo, and honorable mention of the University of Wizards. xD I love those guys! No one messes with wizards, and it's so hilarious what happens when some idiot talks back to the headmaster.

THE WRITING

Hilarious. I couldn't stop smiling as I read this book. The narration is witty and laugh-out-loud hilarious (you can probably assume the light-hearted tone of the book from the name Moist von Lipwig). His descriptions and prose may not be hauntingly beautiful or something, but Pratchett is a master of wit, and that makes this his writing style fantastic.

This book was honestly a pleasure to read from the first sentence to the last. The last time I laughed so hard at a book (in a good way), was The Three Musketeers. Going Postal is easily my favorite modern novel. I can't wait to read more of the Discworld series.

5/5 stars