Going Postal
Although I enjoy all of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels (I’ve read all of them in paperback except for the latest kid’s one), some characters and settings I like more than others. I quite like the witches of Lancre and the wizards of Unseen University, for instance, while I’m lukewarm at best to Death.
But, perhaps because they’re not being designed as franchise players, I seem to like Pratchett’s standalone story characters best. Sure, we see that the journalists of The Truth are still around and there are enough references in the other books to let us know the events of Small Gods happened, but for the most part, those characters were created to stand on their own, and that focus, if that’s the right word, really makes them shine for me.
And so it is that another one of Pratchett’s apparently standalone works, Going Postal
Pratchett has always had a real ear for conmen and hucksters, and Moist is an engaging protagonist faced by a series of obstacles, magical and mundane, including Discworld’s heliograph system, the Clacks, finally taking center stage after being mentioned in several books.
The author also restrains himself, and doesn’t throw too many ideas into the cooking pot at once. Other than giving Moist a very film noir femme fatale figure to relate to, the real world parodies and references are kept to a minimum this time, helping the book with its narrow focus.
Going Postal gets the highest possible recommendation for fans of Discworld, fantasy or, heck, stamp collecting.
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