MAIL TALES : GOING POSTAL

Also, The Truth depicts the invention of a printing press and the subsequent introduction of widespread newspapers into society. Satire deals with the wholesale acceptance of lies when ink-validated. William de Worde he-he is the city's first investigative journalist, sleuthing out possible murder and a plot to overthrow Lord Vetinari. Finally, Moving Pictures introduces the film industry to the eager citizens of Ankh-Morpork. This book does not include Moist Von Lipvig. I didn't care as much for it, but it's brimming with satire and some scenes are great.

This chart is great for finding your way around the sub-series within the multitude of Discworld novels: Feb 07, David rated it it was amazing Shelves: Okay, so this wasn't brilliant or incredibly original or anything that a 5-star novel should normally be, but it was funny and fast-paced and hugely entertaining. Pratchett's Discworld, with its hodge-podge of technologies, cultures, and magic, into which he shoehorns whatever anachronistic notion works for the story, shouldn't work as well as it does, but somehow you suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the ride.

Starting with the cringeingly-named protagonist "Moist von Lipwig," Going Postal i Okay, so this wasn't brilliant or incredibly original or anything that a 5-star novel should normally be, but it was funny and fast-paced and hugely entertaining. Starting with the cringeingly-named protagonist "Moist von Lipwig," Going Postal is a farce with a heart.

Lipwig is drafted into running Ankh-Morpork's moribund Post Office, finds himself in competition with the evil Grand Trunk clacks company, and uses all of his evil, swindling, scheming tricks to do good, quite against his will. The book takes shots at government employees, private corporations, finance, hackers, university politics, and all sorts of other things, all in the guise of being a humorous fantasy novel.

I'm not usually a big fan of humor, though I am a fan of satire, and I hate puns, but Pratchett's puns actually made me laugh.

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So do his clever wordplays, even when he's being self-indulgent. And underneath the satire and the tongue-in-cheek worldbuilding, it's a good old-fashioned "bad guy makes good, saves the day, and gets the girl" romance. Highly recommended as a good, fun, light read. Dec 29, Nicole rated it really liked it Shelves: The length of time it took to read this book is not a reflection upon its quality. This one includes two things I have soft spots for: He brilli The length of time it took to read this book is not a reflection upon its quality.

He brilliantly plays people as if he were a virtuoso and they were violins. Although Lord Vetinari, the tyrant of Ankh-Morpork, is also a con artist in his own way. The man is a genius, several moves ahead of his opponents; and while he may be ruthless in some ways, I also have to admire him. While I use e-mail and sometimes text messages, I still enjoy writing and receiving old-fashioned paper letters.

It makes me sad that a large portion of the current population under 20 years old has never handled a postage stamp. Anyway… The plot hinges on Moist being forced by Vetinari to take over the post office, which has fallen into disrepair, in part due to a new way of sending messages called the clacks. The clacks uses towers and a type of semaphore and light method of passing along messages; the description of the clacks towers at night struck me as quite beautiful. The clacks service is also suffering from problems, due to its unethical owners.

Pratchett works his narrative magic yet again, managing to satirise and also humanise. While there is a rivalry between the post office and the clacks, neither is held above the other in the end; both serve a purpose, both employ good people. Elements of it are familiar, but there are some wonderful twists and turns.

There is also a satire of fanatical collecting, starting with pins--and represented by young postal employee Stanley--and turning to stamps. If he has one of the most cringeworthy character names in Discworld, she has one of the cutesiest--Adora Belle Dearheart. Of course, this being Pratchett, she is smart and steely and embittered, chain-smokes, and works for an enterprise that hires out golems.

She has a particularly fun scene involving use of her high-heeled shoe to deal with an overly-friendly drunk. It works well as a stand-alone despite its connections to other Discworld books. Going Postal is the first book in the Moist von Lipwig subseries of Discworld , which is also associated with the Industrial Revolution subseries. The post office in Ankh-Morpork has effectively been out of commission for a while, with tons of undelivered letters sitting around. However, lately there have been issues with the Clacks -- mismanagement, downtime, and maybe even murders.

Vetinari also had some good moments in this book. The story itself held my interest really well. In fact, I think this may be the first Discworld book for which I actually stayed up a few minutes past my bedtime one night because I wanted to know what would happen next. I enjoyed the ending, and I particularly liked the choices Moist made it the end. He backed off from his original plan that would have effectively destroyed the Clacks until they could be rebuilt, realizing that they fulfill a vital role and also that there were a lot of good people involved in the industry who would suffer.

Instead, he found a way to deal with the corrupt management that was the root problem. View all 8 comments. Sep 27, Got My Book rated it it was amazing. Also posted on my blog Got My Book. His fantasy has layers inside it's layers. This is the first Discworld book about Moist von Lipwig, and is one possible among many starting point for newbies. Terry Pratchett is in a category all his own. His writings can be nothing more than a fun romp, or they can be insightful statements on the human condition, depending on what you're looking for and willing to invest.

I especially like this one for two main reasons. First, unlike many other Discworld novels, there aren't multiple intertwined plots. I've never been a big fan of those. Second, because of the way he deconstructs the "harmless conman" character I have always had a problem with making criminals out to be heroes. A favorite scene is where Mr. Pump tells Moist who has always insisted he is just moving numbers around: You Do Not Know Them. For Sport, Mr Lipvig. A conman who has based his career on the fact that nobody ever really sees or notices him.

A main theme of the book is that he must learn to see himself for what he truly is never a comfortable thing. Don't let the name her parents gave her fool you. She is fondly known as Spike, or even Killer. She sees through Moist's patter and calls him on it.

He himself isn't quite sure what he see in her, but I think it's the fact that she actually sees him. She is someone with whom he can be himself. My favorite supporting character is Mr. Pump , the golem. Discworld is a large world consisting of more than 40 books, many of which take place in the city of Ankh-Morpork as does this one. However, new readers will still be able to get along just fine. Moist is not a native citizen, and that makes it possible to comment on the various quirks of the city without it seeming awkward.

The main setting of the book is the abandoned Post Office. It is wonderfully atmospheric and inhabited by extremely quirky character.

The book has many beginnings. It has a year prologue, a 1 month prologue, and then introduces Moist and his situation. Although some of this material might be viewed as unnecessary or could have been placed elsewhere, it serves as on-ramp into the sideways world that is Discworld and an analogy for the layers in the writing. Although there are additional books, this one has a complete ending with no cliffhanger. Discworld is not a fluffy fantasy setting despite being extremely humorous.

The underworld is often the standard world. Sep 16, Ron rated it it was ok Shelves: Cute, but kind of stale--like Seinfeld. It's superficially funny, but you get the feeling it's been done before. In light of 's financial crisis, Going Postal might be taken as a timely reminder of the fallibility of humans, especially those entrusted with wealth or power.

Quite a while ago I picked up Colour of Magic and read it intermittently without ever really getting into it or thinking it was anything too special. I was given Going Postal as a gift a couple of years ago and finally picked it up and attempted it due to my keenness to get into the Discworld series. I'm glad I did! The first few pages were a bit tricky for me to get into and intially put me off but after a good session I couldn't stop thinking about it. The characters are great with some witty dialogue and scenarios and some of the set-pieces where great.

I was hooked at the end and really wanted to find out what happened and how things were going to play out. I read it in a couple of days and for me that is a good effort! This won't be my last outing in the Discworld series and I'm keen to see how Moist Von Lipwig worst name ever? It worked and I'm eagerly looking forward to getting Mort.

Oct 19, Jared rated it it was amazing Shelves: In Going Postal , the enlightened despot of Ankh Morpork, Lord Vetinari, rather forcibly recruits a con man, Moist von Lipwig, to take over the running of the venerable and deserted post office, where letters have been accumulating for years -- if not decades -- without delivery. Moist steps reluctantly into the moldy shoes of the Postmaster, only to discover that the previous three occupants of the position died grisly deaths in the execution of their duties and I use the term "execution" advis In Going Postal , the enlightened despot of Ankh Morpork, Lord Vetinari, rather forcibly recruits a con man, Moist von Lipwig, to take over the running of the venerable and deserted post office, where letters have been accumulating for years -- if not decades -- without delivery.

Moist steps reluctantly into the moldy shoes of the Postmaster, only to discover that the previous three occupants of the position died grisly deaths in the execution of their duties and I use the term "execution" advisedly. Complicate the situation with a Golem parole officer trying to buy his not its own freedom, a chain smoking female advocate of Golem rights, and the corrupt owners of the "clacks" system that can send messages across great distance very quickly by semaphore, and you have an ingenious showdown that has to be read to be believed.

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Terry Pratchett brings his characteristic humor to the story, so you're guaranteed a good chuckle -- if not out-loud belly laugh -- every few pages. Jan 06, R. I care about mail, embezzlement, greedy businessmen, and a main character named Moist. I wish there was a word for that kind of accomplishment. Los chistes y los gags. Samozrejme je to Lord Vetinari.

Dosta je direktniji u prozivkama pojava koje ga zuljaju. Going Postal - book and TV 2 10 May 12, Going Postal 2 51 Apr 13, Going Postal di Terry Pratchett 2 21 Jan 16, Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. Set up a giveaway. There's a problem loading this menu right now.

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Not Enabled Word Wise: Enabled Amazon Best Sellers Rank: Amazon Music Stream millions of songs. Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers. Moist confesses his past misdeeds to Adora Belle just as the post office is set afire. Moist sets his own safety aside and runs into the burning building to rescue Stanley Howler. Before finding Stanley, he encounters Mr Gryle, a banshee assassin, who confesses that he killed the previous four Postmasters on behalf of Gilt. Just as Gryle is about to strike, Moist calls on the haunted letters in the post office to stop Gryle, which they do.

The burning of the post office means that the people of Ankh-Morpork are turning back to the "Clacks" for sending their messages, so Moist comes up with a plan to draw people back to the post office by pretending that he has experienced a vision telling him where the gods have buried money to help repair the post office in reality the money was a hidden stash from his past cons. This succeeds, so Moist announces a new long distance delivery service. Meanwhile, Adora Belle Dearheart is working on a way to jam up the Clacks with the help of a group of hackers clacks-crackers called "The Smoking Gnu" which they succeed in doing temporarily.

The Clacks' chief engineer, Mr Pony, finds a way of preventing the jamming process, but Pony begins to see that working for Gilt is wrong and presents Adora with evidence to prove that Gilt had the past four postmasters, as well as Adora's brother, killed. When an attempt to jam the Clacks fails Moist challenges Gilt to a race to the city of Uberwald, Clacks versus post office. The message to be sent is a biography of Havelock Vetinari. Moist and Adora employ a disused Clack tower to intercept and successfully change the message from a biography to the content of Gilt's ledgers, providing evidence of the hired murders, which is witnessed in Ankh-Morpork.

Gilt flees before he can be arrested and Adora is made manager of the Clacks and begins a relationship with Moist. At the end of the story Gilt, having been tracked down by a Golem the same way Moist was, is awoken in Vetinari's office who asks Gilt if he knows anything about angels. When a postman played by Terry Pratchett later arrives at Vetinari's palace to deliver a letter to Gilt, Vetinari implies that Gilt killed himself by falling down the deep pit.