Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
Jan. 7th, 2005 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienI enjoyed this. Of course I did -- it's Pratchett, and I've been enjoying his books since I was an undergraduate and he was a little-known author being serialized on Woman's Hour. Probably the manic inventiveness of the early books isn't quite there, but the satire is deeper, more thoughtful, and it's still laugh-out-loud funny in places, and a lot less grim than Monstrous Regiment.
Like The Truth, this is an Ankh-Morpork book but not a Watch one. A couple of the Watch make very brief cameo appearances (fun to see Carrot from an outsider's viewpoint), as do the University wizards and of course the Patrician, who is getting more and more interesting. I didn't spot a Dibbler appearance. There's a central antihero -- rather more anti than usual, a charming conman given one last chance to turn his life around by saving the defunct Post Office -- and a cast of new minor characters, including Stanley, the Discworld's first stamp collector, and a black-and-white cat. There are golems, and Death, of course, puts in a brief appearance.
The stamp illustrations by Bernard Pearson-- in the endpapers of my UK edition, and as chapter decorations in the US one -- are just delightful, very reminiscent of stamps in my father's childhood collection.
Yes, this book has chapters. With old-fashioned summaries of the upcoming action at the top of each one, something I associate with books from the early part of the last century or earlier.
Some of the satire is very topical -- so much so that I wonder a little how well this will stand up for the next generation. I noticed parallels not only to the dot-com bust, but to the parlous state of the UK rail system (there's one bit I'm almost sure is a direct reference to the West Coast Main Line debacle). The 'smoking Gnu' recalls not only the free software movement but the X-Files' Lone Gunmen. There's even a LOTR gag.
I giggled at the greengrocer's apos'trophe's, though I was in a slightly fuddled state the day I read this, and did a double-take before I noticed.
Like The Truth, this is an Ankh-Morpork book but not a Watch one. A couple of the Watch make very brief cameo appearances (fun to see Carrot from an outsider's viewpoint), as do the University wizards and of course the Patrician, who is getting more and more interesting. I didn't spot a Dibbler appearance. There's a central antihero -- rather more anti than usual, a charming conman given one last chance to turn his life around by saving the defunct Post Office -- and a cast of new minor characters, including Stanley, the Discworld's first stamp collector, and a black-and-white cat. There are golems, and Death, of course, puts in a brief appearance.
The stamp illustrations by Bernard Pearson-- in the endpapers of my UK edition, and as chapter decorations in the US one -- are just delightful, very reminiscent of stamps in my father's childhood collection.
Yes, this book has chapters. With old-fashioned summaries of the upcoming action at the top of each one, something I associate with books from the early part of the last century or earlier.
Some of the satire is very topical -- so much so that I wonder a little how well this will stand up for the next generation. I noticed parallels not only to the dot-com bust, but to the parlous state of the UK rail system (there's one bit I'm almost sure is a direct reference to the West Coast Main Line debacle). The 'smoking Gnu' recalls not only the free software movement but the X-Files' Lone Gunmen. There's even a LOTR gag.
I giggled at the greengrocer's apos'trophe's, though I was in a slightly fuddled state the day I read this, and did a double-take before I noticed.