Marvellous book, really enjoyable and very funny. ( )

Political Satire is one of the most difficult to write of about anything that you could decide to write. I belive that Terry Pratchett has definitely got the satire part well in hand for his writing. It bit with enough substance to be a slap to those he wished to slap, yet just gentle enough that they could laugh at themselves as they read the book.

Beyond the satircal element of the book, the storyline feels weak, the characters' third dimension feels rather thin and flimsy. The love interest is forced. The golems... I'm still undecided on the golems. Perhaps when I read the second book of this set I will be better suited to make a comment. Perhaps it will offer more insite into what I find wrong here and allow a rewrite of this review.
I'm glad this wasn't a science fiction book. Fantasy made of plausible science is good enough for this series.

Still a decent book for wasting time and lose yourself away from the world. ( )

Moist Von Lipwig is a con man with the gift of being almost totally undistinguishable who is at the end of his rope, literally. However, he doesn't hang long enough to kill him, just long enough for his various aliases to die. He is then whisked to the office of the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Vetinari. Vetinari is his "guardian angel," giving him two choices: get the long-abandoned Ankh-Morpork Post Office up and running, or walk out the door behind him. Since Moist knows what awaits him outside that door (or, better yet, what doesn't await him, like a floor), he chooses the first option. Of course, he doesn't do it completely willingly. He has a golem guarding him, willing to track him down however far he runs if he should do so. Moist shows up at the Post Office to find it almost buried in old letters, some as old as a hundred years. However, letters speak, and letters that are put together into sentences and put onto paper speak even more. They speak to Moist of their desire to get to where they are supposed to have gone. As Moist begins to make the Post Office more and more of a success, the conglomerate running the Clacks system into the ground becomes very interested. The Clacks are a series of towers stretching from one city to another so that messages can be sent quickly. Can the power of the Post ever beat the power of the clacks? ( )

The best Discworld book to come in a long time. Introduces a fresh new character in form of the fast talking Moist. ( )

This book was an excellent surprise; I love the Discworld series but was getting tired of seeing the same characters again and again in every book. Going Postal introduces an entirely new and refreshing cast; I particularly liked the main character and felt he was very well-developed.

Pratchett's books are funny precisely because he has a very firm grasp of human nature. His best work feels surprisingly profound even though you're also laughing so hard you're afraid you might break a rib. In some of the later novels I was getting more of a reused-joke feeling, and while it was still pretty funny, all the depth was gone. In this novel it's back, and I would rank Going Postal pretty high among the Discworld novels.

Highly recommended, especially to Pratchett fans who think Discworld has gotten a little stale. ( )

Moist von Lipwig, con man extraordinaire who unfortunately got caught, narrowly avoids dying...only to be practically forced into becoming Postmaster at the long-defunct Post Office of Anhk-Morpork. The task is, well, impossible - he has only two employees and a golem for a parole officer to make sure he stays in line. Maybe it's a perfect job for a con man, after all.

Though the 30th in the Discworld series, you don't need to have read any of the others to enjoy the story. I enjoyed the humor and liked the characters, and Stephen Briggs did an excellent job narrating. ( )

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (2005)

A Pratchett book is a rare confection, all political satire and morally improving cads and just desserts for the cads who won't improve. Blissfully good. ( )

Had a bit of trouble following the early middle (largely because I'm not an afficianado of the Discworld and had to let some of the stuff I didn't understand slide until later, where it all made sense).

Moist Von Lipwig is a ridiculously appealing crook/leading man and I really, really enjoyed reading about him. Looking forward to following him into his next novel.

i think its my favorite of all of prachetts books, i burned though this book in like 3 days (which is really fast for me) ( )

One of the discworld series. Very funny.

Link to a review on my personal website. ( )

Absolutely wonderful, as expected. Vetinari hires a con artist to take over the Post Office. ( )

I've enjoyed all of Pratchett's books.

This one was especially fun due to the theme. He's a clever guy, that Terry. ( )

I loved the introduction of Moist. He's an awesome character. I also loved the Discworld take on the postal system. Although I like the witches and the Watch, I also like these more stand-alone books that deal with some sort of technology. ( )

It is a story on how a con man escaped the noose and was given second chance to redeem himself by becoming the currently defunct Ankh Morpork Post Office’s Postmaster. Being the-fastest-man-to-get-out-of-town-in-the-fist-sign-of-trouble kind of man, Moist von Lipwig tried to run away from the responsibility but alas, was caught by his parole officer, a golem by the named of Mr. Pump (Who kindly remind him that he has an appointment with the Patrician tomorrow morning and the post office will be open an hour after). Moist doesn’t like the prospect and believe it is not his true nature to be working civilly as a government officer. After being a con man for so long with so many façade, it will take the true Moist von Lipwig (with the assistance of other colourful characters, of course) to change the dysfunctional Post Office into a thriving establishment and thus a journey of a condemned to die-by-hanging man to Ankh Morpork most outstanding citizen.

Going Postal is very entertaining and I enjoyed it immensely. As usual, TP thrown in a lot of jokes, satire and parodies which are so blend in with the story that there is not a page gone by without me laughing out loud. I really enjoy the jokes that TP did on collectibles items such as pins (collected by true ‘pinheads’), stamps (latest fad in collectibles) and even the noose (in which the hangman mentioned to be more valuable if it signed by the victim himself) . Despite laughing and enjoying recurring characters, hat off to TP for enriching discworld by creating new and interesting characters such as Stanley and Mr Tiddles, to name a few.

All and all, Going Postal is a great book. ( )

One of the more inspired in this excellent series. ( )

A con artist escapes hanging by agreeing to restore Ankh-Morpork's postal service. Much bamboozling, bilking, rooking, and swindling ensues. ( )

Sixty reviews? I don't think I have much to add. A good read, the main character is perky and fun. Technology on the Discworld continues to improve at an outrageous pace. Once again, some really fascinating characters get bumped off before we even get to know them. Cameos by all of our old friends. Yeah, just read it. Go read the other 28 that come before it in the series though, just for background. You won't be sorry. ( )

Brilliant: The start of the book is so absolutely worth the money just for chapter one.
Without spoiling most of the humour I will skip over how moist goes from being hanged to the end of chapter one where Lord Vetinari offers Moist von Lipwig a job, the job of Postmaster General of the Ankh-Morpork Post Office. Moist is assigned a parole officer a golem by the name of Mr Pump. Lord Vetinari has many reasons for doing this but one is that he is not happy with the Grand Trunk semaphore company (the clacks).
Moist finds that the post office has not been in operation for about 20years and is stacked to the brim with undelivered letters and pigeons plus 2 employees Junior Postman Groat (born in the PO) who lives and breaths the post office apart from his experiments in home cures and Apprentice Postman Stanley an orphan with a passion for pins.
Moist learns that in the last couple of months several people have been appointed Postmaster General and all have died, this obviously does not reassure him.
Wandering around Ankh Moist comes across a shop 'The golem trust' run by Adora Bell Dearheart later to be known to Moist affectionately as Spike for she is the 'love' interest. During his wandering Moist ends up delivering a letter and this kicks things off. For the old postmen make Moist walk the walk and he succeeds and sees the writing on the wall. Then he gets the post office up and running.
Meanwhile Reacher Gilt the man behind the Grand Trunk semaphore company is having trouble with the clacks for he has penny pinched (downsized and all that) to the point where it keeps breaking down.
Moist invents stamps.
Then the post office on a tip from the 'Smoking Gnu' runs a batch of post to Sto Lat on the day the clacks to there go down and the rivalry is on.I cannot say much more about the story without giving away serious amounts of plot and stuff. But along the way as Moist is in Ankh-Morpork you do get to meet a few of the characters you would expect to bump into if you hung around the city.This is a fantastic book with Terry Pratchetts usual humour shining through along with his swipes at several things that you often miss on first reading although I did spot the jest to do with LOTR even though it was only one line in the book. Plus you get a bit more insight into how Lord Vetinari runs the city (you have to love the bit at the party where he has to remind someone he is tyrant and can do what he likes). And the epilogue!
This book is brilliant and will be up there on my top 5 Terry Pratchett books.

http://wartaalman.blogspot.com/2008/0... ( )

When Moist von Lipwig awakens in the Patrician's office, he is understandably confused. His alias, Alfred Spangler, is dead, executed by hanging for a series of confidence crimes. And yet, Moist himself is still very much among the living. Even more surprising, The Patrician, Lord Havelock Vetinari, is offering him a job. The choice is simple: become the new Postmaster and receive a second chance at life, or don't and face...well, something a lot worse.
There are just a few things that Lord Vetinari forgot to mention. For one, the Ankh-Morpork Post Office has been closed for over 20 years and as a result, has fallen into a sad state of disrepair. It is filled to the brim with undelivered letters. Moist must also contend with the Grand Trunk semaphore corporation, which currently monopolizes the communications industry. Backing him up is a brand new cast of characters: the elderly and eccentric Junior Postman Tolliver Groat, apprentice Postman Stanley, golem parole officer Mr. Pump, and Adora Belle Dearheart (aka Killer), the girl whose heart Moist hopes to win.

I picked this up because I was looking for more Discworld to read and it was the only book on the shelf that wasn't part of a series. It was a very entertaining read and has become another of my favorite Discworld books. I enjoyed the post office setting and the new characters, particularly Moist, Vetinari, and the golems. In fact, there are so many things that I liked about this book that I couldn't possibly name them all.
The only major character that didn't really stand out much was Ms. Dearheart. She felt a bit two-dimensional, interesting but lacking in growth and development.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It's good, clean, delightful fun. If you have not yet read any Discworld, this might be a good place to start. It works well as a standalone. Definitely one that I will purchase and read again in the future! ( )

Especially droll book that takes some well-needed swipes at corporate double-speak, downsizing, and spoofs the hacker culture.

Funny, enjoyable book. Prachett's commentary on our times is right on the money. Discworld gets better and better. ( )

Going Postal is the 29th Discworld book, but it’s just as fresh and fun as its 28 predecessors. Moist Von Lipwig is technically dead. He is hung for swindling charges too many to enumerate and comes within a hair of dying on the scaffold. That hair turns out to be by the grace of Ankh-Morpork’s memorable tyrant, Lord Vetinari. It seems Vetinari needs someone to revive the defunct Post Office, which hasn’t mailed a letter in years. Everything has been taken over by “the clacks,” a system of towers that shift code to one another to get messages across Discworld at lightning-fast speed. The problem is, the clacks keeps breaking as Grand Trunk’s board tries to squeeze more and more profit from it. But initially this is the least of Moist’s worries. He takes Lord Vetinari’s option — though he did have the choice to take another, much more terminal door — and sets up as the Postmaster. He is kept in place by a persistent golem (a clay creature made to work) named Mr. Pump. Slowly Moist starts taking on responsibility and actually caring about the work he does. He tells himself that goodness is a habit like anything else and he can stop any time he wants. Riiiiight.

As usual with Pratchett, I could do without the profanity and think he could be a lot funnier without it. But he’s funny, no doubt about it. And his characters, especially Moist, are great. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a good laugh — and a little something more. ( )