Going Postal

Going Postal is one of the first Discworld books that I remember reading. Or, more accurately, listening to as an audiobook during a family road-trip when I was a child. This was in the era before the proliferation of online audiobook services, so we got the book as a bundle of CDs from the local library, and had to swap in new discs every time we would reach the end of the one in the player. I wouldn’t trade those memories for the world.

And now, after buying a potentially irresponsible number of Discworld books on Humble Bundle, I’m making my way through the setting, starting with Going Postal.

After Finishing

Wow! I finished the book in less than a week! I can not think of any kind of recent book I have read nearly as fast. Discworld brings me such nostalgia and joy, I am finding my motivation for reading thoroughly reinvigorated.

And now, on to the book! Going Postal is a perfectly witty and sarcastic entry to open my reading of Discworld. The characters are distinct and memorable, and the story, while fairly straightforward in the end, is still gripping and enjoyable.

Serial con-man Moist Von Lipwig is thrown into a job he is wholly unprepared for and must do his best with what he is given, uncovering rivals and obstacles at every turn that he must deal with. His new job? Postmaster for the Ankh-Mopork Post Office. And he must move the mail.

The jokes and the way the world was built up were very compelling. I can’t find much else to say about it, because when I have written longer reviews in the past it has been to find flaws, or aspects I did not expect. Going Postal was a warm, comforting descent back into a setting I have enjoyed all my life. I do not need it to be any more than that.