Going postal: a novel of Discworld

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Discworld volume 30
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English

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Arch-swindler Moist Van Lipwig never believed his confidence crimes were hanging offenses -- until he found himself with a noose tightly around his neck, dropping through a trapdoor, and falling into ... a government job?

By all rights, Moist should have met his maker. Instead, it's Lord Vetinari, supreme ruler of Ankh-Morpork, who promptly offers him a job as Postmaster. Since his only other option is a nonliving one, Moist accepts the position -- and the hulking golem watchdog who comes along with it, just in case Moist was considering abandoning his responsibilities prematurely.

Getting the moribund Postal Service up and running again, however, may be a near-impossible task, what with literally mountains of decades-old undelivered mail clogging every nook and cranny of the broken-down post office building; and with only a few creaky old postmen and one rather unstable, pin-obsessed youth available to deliver it. Worse still, Moist could swear the mail is talking to him. Worst of all, it means taking on the gargantuan, money-hungry Grand Trunk clacks communication monopoly and its bloodthirsty piratical head, Mr. Reacher Gilt.

But it says on the building neither rain nor snow nor glo m of ni t ... Inspiring words (admittedly, some of the bronze letters have been stolen), and for once in his wretched life Moist is going to fight. And if the bold and impossible are what's called for, he'll do it -- in order to move the mail, continue breathing, get the girl, and specially deliver that invaluable commodity that every human being (not to mention troll, dwarf, and, yes, even golem) requires: hope.

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ISBN
9780060502935
9780060013134
9780060824693
9780061807190

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Similar Series From Novelist

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for series you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Those who enjoy Discworld's word-play comedy, humorous social satire, and memorable characters will want to try the Myth Adventures series, which also features mythical, fairy-tale style creatures. -- Katherine Johnson
Each series creates what appears to be an outrageous fantasy world, but it is one which both skewers and comments on our current world in a way that is entertaining, thought-provoking, and a bit frightening. -- Becky Spratford
Readers who particularly enjoy Discworld books that feature the City Watch should try the Thursday Next series. Heroine Thursday works for the Literary Detective unit set in an alternative 1980s England. Both series are filled with wordplay and literary allusions. -- Krista Biggs
Religion, mythology, history and literature meet in science fiction and fantasy worlds ruled by magic. Riverworld is more thought-provoking and reflects on human nature, while the comic Discworld is more satirical. -- Kaitlyn Moore
Both are witty, humorous fantasy fiction series set in offbeat, semi-realistic, and vividly rendered magical worlds. Each employs oddball anthropomorphism, and features large casts of quirky (often recurring) characters whose stories loosely orbit one another from book to book. -- Kim Burton
These witty and fast-paced fantasy series offer a fresh spin on folklore and popular genre tropes through the stories of a queer warlock (Adam Binder) or the inhabitants of a world resting on the back of a spacefaring turtle (Discworld). -- CJ Connor
These satirical science fiction series feature funny antiheroes who go on wacky and offbeat adventures that poke fun at technology, politics, and culture. -- Andrienne Cruz
Those who enjoy word-play comedy, memorable, fairy-tale style creatures, and adventure will want to try both the Discworld and the Xanth series; Xanth's humor appeals more to younger readers, but teens enjoy Discworld, as well. -- Katherine Johnson
These series blend elements of science fiction, fantasy, and mythology to created detailed, imaginative worlds. Saga of the Well World is more idea-driven, often with a quest structure, and while both are humorous, Discworld is more broadly comic. -- Kaitlyn Moore

Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These books have the appeal factors funny, fun read, and intricately plotted, and they have the genre "adult books for young adults"; the subject "swindlers and swindling"; and characters that are "well-developed characters."
These books have the appeal factors offbeat, and they have the genres "fantasy fiction" and "humorous stories"; and the subjects "dragons" and "misadventures."
NoveList recommends "Adam Binder novels" for fans of "Discworld". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Thursday Next novels" for fans of "Discworld". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Chromatacia novels" for fans of "Discworld". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Zoey Ashe novels" for fans of "Discworld". Check out the first book in the series.
These books have the appeal factors suspenseful, plot-driven, and intricately plotted, and they have the genres "adult books for young adults" and "epic fantasy"; and the subject "swindlers and swindling."
These books have the appeal factors funny and amusing, and they have the genre "adult books for young adults."
In these witty fantasy novels, a captured con man (Going Postal) or terminally ill young woman (Long Live Evil) are granted a second chance at life... if they uphold their end of the bargain. -- CJ Connor
These books have the appeal factors funny and offbeat, and they have the genres "humorous stories" and "adult books for young adults"; and the subject "magic."
Readers who enjoy a little silliness in their fantasy novels will want to read these witty, fast-paced novels about a con man (Going Postal) or a disillusioned hero (Dark Lord) who decides to try a new approach. -- CJ Connor

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Both Terry Pratchett and Piers Anthony create highly detailed worlds populated by a variety of well-developed characters that keep the pages turning through the use of humor and lots of dialogue. While Anthony's humor focuses on punning and wordplay, Pratchett parodies literature and elements of contemporary society. -- Krista Biggs
Fans of Spider Robinson's ability to infuse humor throughout unusual situations will enjoy Terry Pratchett, who takes on fantasy cliches and parodies them with aplomb. His willingness to play with genre standards will be welcome by Robinson readers. Both authors appeal to teen readers, as well. -- Katherine Johnson
Both Terry Pratchett and Robert Asprin use world-building fantasy/science fiction to comment on the real world in a witty, engaging style. Their novels and series are filled with quirky characters, bazaar settings, and offbeat adventures. Pratchett's writing is more descriptive and character-driven; Asprin's more fast-paced and plot-driven. -- Matthew Ransom
Eoin Colfer and Terry Pratchett both create fast-paced fantasy worlds laced with humor and populated with interesting characters. Colfer's characters tend to be sassy and comedic, while Terry Pratchett's characters provide a more satirical commentary. -- Kathy Stewart
Jack L. Chalker and Terry Pratchett both write fast-paced, imaginative books incorporating fantasy, science fiction, and elements of mythology. Readers who enjoy engaging, plot-driven series set in detailed worlds might enjoy both authors who share a witty tone. Pratchett's books are more comic and fantastic than Chalker's science fiction. -- Kaitlyn Moore
Although slightly more grounded than Terry Pratchett, K.J. Parker, a pseudonym of British author Tom Holt, shares the same penchant for mixing humor and philosophical insights about human existence. Both authors create thought-provoking stories populated by engaging characters, but Parker's work is a bit grittier and the humor more subtle. -- Ashley Lyons
Both authors write witty speculative fiction books that take the usual fantasy tropes into new and thought-provoking directions. Terry Pratchett writes for children and adults; David R. Slayton mainly writes for adults. -- CJ Connor
Although Terry Pratchett writes with a lighter, more humorous than Fritz Leiber, Leiber has his own dry wit, including coining the name of the genre in which they both write, "sword and sorcery." Pratchett also follows Leiber in frequent use of a vast city, Ankh-Morpuk, influenced by Leiber's Lankhmar. -- Michael Shumate
Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt both mix humor, fantasy, and satire. Their stories move quickly with lots of shifting between characters and locations. The novels are full of puns and other wordplay, and use fantastical settings to comment on contemporary society. -- Krista Biggs
These authors' works have the genre "humorous stories"; and the subjects "wizards" and "witches."

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

Alfred Spangler is dead. Moist von Lipwig, formerly known as Alfred Spangler, is presented with a choice: certain death or reviving the Ankh-Morpork post office. Lord Vetinari is persuasive, and Moist is an intelligent if dishonest fellow, so he finds himself with a job and a golem for a parole officer. But the postmaster generalship is harder than Moist expected; for one thing, no mail has been delivered in years, and the entire building is buried in letters and pigeon guano. His postmen are a youth mad for pin collecting and the obsessively dedicated, elderly Mr. Groat. Moreover, the undelivered letters want to be delivered, and they're being distressingly vocal about it. Now the owners of the Grand Trunk clacks company, profit-minded above all else, want Moist dead because, well, they can't take the competition, even with the clacks towers running ragged. Whenever the towers fail, Moist is on the job, getting messages out of Ankh-Morpork. Moist is positively inspired (he takes a certain pleasure in out-scamming Reacher Gilt) and becomes an example to the postmen, even going so far as to deliver a letter 40 years old, after which he sends them out to deliver the rest. Moist will go to almost any length to do his job, from hiring golem postmen to challenging the Grand Trunk to an impossible race; along the way, he even manages to overcome his fear and ask Adora Belle Dearheart (aka Killer) out to dinner. Instead of revisiting old characters, Pratchett again takes on the task of further rounding out his already beautifully imagined Discworld, doing it with his usual blending of good laughs and unexpected depths. --Regina Schroeder Copyright 2004 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

British fantasist Pratchett's latest special-delivery delight, set in his wonderfully crazed city of Ankh-Morpork, hilariously reflects the plight of post offices the world over as they struggle to compete in an era when e-mail has stolen much of the glamour from the postal trade. Soon after Moist von Lipwig (aka Alfred Spangler), Pratchett's not-quite-hapless, accidental hero, barely avoids hanging, Lord Havelock Vetinari, the despotic but pretty cool ruler of Ankh-Morpork, makes him a job offer he can't refuse postmaster general of the Ankh-Morpork Post Office. The post office hasn't been open for 20 years since the advent of the Internet-like clacks communication system. Moist's first impulse is to try to escape, but Mr. Pump, his golem parole officer, quickly catches him. Moist must then deal with the musty mounds of undelivered mail that fill every room of the decaying Post Office building maintained by ancient and smelly Junior Postman Groat and his callow assistant, Apprentice Postman Stanley. The place is also haunted by dead postmen and guarded by Mr. Tiddles, a crafty cat. Readers will cheer Moist on as he eventually finds himself in a race with the dysfunctional clacks system to see whose message can be delivered first. Thanks to the timely subject matter and Pratchett's effervescent wit, this 29th Discworld novel (after 2003's Monstrous Regiment) may capture more of the American audience he deserves. Agent, Ralph M. Vicinanza. (On sale Sept. 28) Forecast: Despite sales of more than 35 million copies of his books worldwide, Pratchett has yet to become a U.S. bestseller. This one may finally break him out of category. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
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School Library Journal Review

Adult/High School-When petty con man Moist von Lipwig is hung for his crimes in the first chapter of this surprising and humorous novel, it appears to be the end. But this is Discworld after all, a world "a lot like our own but different." Moist awakes from the shock of his hanging to find that the city's Patrician, Lord Vetinari, has assigned him a government job (a fate worse than death?) restoring the defunct postal system. Of course, there is much more to restore than the flow of letters and packages. Justice as well as communication has been poorly served by a hostile takeover of the "clacks"-a unique messaging system that is part semaphore, part digital, and under the monopoly of the Grand Trunk Company. Before Moist can get very far into the job, he encounters ghosts, the voices of unsent letters, and a ruthless corporate conspiracy. In this quickly escalating battle, the post office is definitely the underdog, but, as the author notes, "an underdog can always find somewhere soft to bite." Fortunately Moist has friends: the determined Miss Dearheart, a golem with more than feet of clay, and a secret society of unemployed and very unusual postal workers as well as a vampire named Oscar. The author's inventiveness seems to know no end, his playful and irreverent use of language is a delight, and there is food for thought in his parody of fantasyland. This 29th Discworld novel, like the rest of the series, is a surefire hit for fans of Douglas Adams and Monty Python.-Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Library Journal Review

Convicted criminal Moist von Lipwig has a terrible choice: he can hang, or he can try to reform Ank Morpork's post office (where one postman is 18,000 years old). Discworld keeps growing. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

Pratchett satirizes the modern telecom business in a deeply satisfying comedy about a man sent to a fate worse than death: the post office. Fans of Pratchett's Discworld series will be happy he's returning to the city of Ankh-Morpork - after the Balkan War-esque madness of Monstrous Regiment (2003)- though it's not to the familiar environs of the Watch or Unseen University. This time, Moist Von Lipwig, a scam artist with a host of aliases, has just been hanged for his crimes - except that he hasn't, due to some trickery with the rope. It seems that the Duke wants a man everybody thinks is dead to take over the city's long-moribund post office. That's no easy task, what with only two employees left, both pretty much insane, puttering around the massive, dead-letter-stuffed edifice, not to mention the competition with the clacks towers. Pratchett follows Moist's attempts to resuscitate regular mail service as he goes up against the evil hegemony of corporate toadies running the clacks towers, a once-impressive series of semaphore towers that, when they work, can send a message hundreds of miles in no time at all, but at a hefty price. With the exception of a few heavy-handed statements about the public good versus private profit, Pratchett slides the satire in around the edges of the primary action: watching a career criminal transitioning rather quickly to earnest civic flunky, all under the watchful (glowing red) eyes of a monstrously powerful and patient government-employed golem. Although Moist seems a little too eager to leave his bad ways behind, it's almost shamefully enjoyable to watch him restore the mail routes, invent the idea of stamps, and go toe-to-toe with everything from rapacious businessmen to bloodthirsty banshees as he shows how to deliver letters over 40 years late. Sharp-edged humor and wonderfully executed. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

Alfred Spangler is dead. Moist von Lipwig, formerly known as Alfred Spangler, is presented with a choice: certain death or reviving the Ankh-Morpork post office. Lord Vetinari is persuasive, and Moist is an intelligent if dishonest fellow, so he finds himself with a job and a golem for a parole officer. But the postmaster generalship is harder than Moist expected; for one thing, no mail has been delivered in years, and the entire building is buried in letters and pigeon guano. His postmen are a youth mad for pin collecting and the obsessively dedicated, elderly Mr. Groat. Moreover, the undelivered letters want to be delivered, and they're being distressingly vocal about it. Now the owners of the Grand Trunk clacks company, profit-minded above all else, want Moist dead because, well, they can't take the competition, even with the clacks towers running ragged. Whenever the towers fail, Moist is on the job, getting messages out of Ankh-Morpork. Moist is positively inspired (he takes a certain pleasure in out-scamming Reacher Gilt) and becomes an example to the postmen, even going so far as to deliver a letter 40 years old, after which he sends them out to deliver the rest. Moist will go to almost any length to do his job, from hiring golem postmen to challenging the Grand Trunk to an impossible race; along the way, he even manages to overcome his fear and ask Adora Belle Dearheart (aka Killer) out to dinner. Instead of revisiting old characters, Pratchett again takes on the task of further rounding out his already beautifully imagined Discworld, doing it with his usual blending of good laughs and unexpected depths. ((Reviewed September 1, 2004)) Copyright 2004 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2004 Booklist Reviews.
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Library Journal Reviews

Convicted criminal Moist von Lipwig has a terrible choice: he can hang, or he can try to reform Ank Morpork's post office (where one postman is 18,000 years old). Discworld keeps growing. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

British fantasist Pratchett's latest special-delivery delight, set in his wonderfully crazed city of Ankh-Morpork, hilariously reflects the plight of post offices the world over as they struggle to compete in an era when e-mail has stolen much of the glamour from the postal trade. Soon after Moist von Lipwig (aka Alfred Spangler), Pratchett's not-quite-hapless, accidental hero, barely avoids hanging, Lord Havelock Vetinari, the despotic but pretty cool ruler of Ankh-Morpork, makes him a job offer he can't refuse postmaster general of the Ankh-Morpork Post Office. The post office hasn't been open for 20 years since the advent of the Internet-like clacks communication system. Moist's first impulse is to try to escape, but Mr. Pump, his golem parole officer, quickly catches him. Moist must then deal with the musty mounds of undelivered mail that fill every room of the decaying Post Office building maintained by ancient and smelly Junior Postman Groat and his callow assistant, Apprentice Postman Stanley. The place is also haunted by dead postmen and guarded by Mr. Tiddles, a crafty cat. Readers will cheer Moist on as he eventually finds himself in a race with the dysfunctional clacks system to see whose message can be delivered first. Thanks to the timely subject matter and Pratchett's effervescent wit, this 29th Discworld novel (after 2003's Monstrous Regiment) may capture more of the American audience he deserves. Agent, Ralph M. Vicinanza. (On sale Sept. 28) Forecast: Despite sales of more than 35 million copies of his books worldwide, Pratchett has yet to become a U.S. bestseller. This one may finally break him out of category. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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School Library Journal Reviews

Adult/High School-When petty con man Moist von Lipwig is hung for his crimes in the first chapter of this surprising and humorous novel, it appears to be the end. But this is Discworld after all, a world "a lot like our own but different." Moist awakes from the shock of his hanging to find that the city's Patrician, Lord Vetinari, has assigned him a government job (a fate worse than death?) restoring the defunct postal system. Of course, there is much more to restore than the flow of letters and packages. Justice as well as communication has been poorly served by a hostile takeover of the "clacks"-a unique messaging system that is part semaphore, part digital, and under the monopoly of the Grand Trunk Company. Before Moist can get very far into the job, he encounters ghosts, the voices of unsent letters, and a ruthless corporate conspiracy. In this quickly escalating battle, the post office is definitely the underdog, but, as the author notes, "an underdog can always find somewhere soft to bite." Fortunately Moist has friends: the determined Miss Dearheart, a golem with more than feet of clay, and a secret society of unemployed and very unusual postal workers as well as a vampire named Oscar. The author's inventiveness seems to know no end, his playful and irreverent use of language is a delight, and there is food for thought in his parody of fantasyland. This 29th Discworld novel, like the rest of the series, is a surefire hit for fans of Douglas Adams and Monty Python.-Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
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