In an imaginary World at no definite point in time, a young con man is aquitted from the death penalty at the last moment by the City's overlord, and sent to revive an ancient, dilapidated post office that was once the heart of the City.

Assisted only by a watchful golem, a peculiar old Postman, and a boy obsessed with pins, Moist Von Lipwig after overcoming his initial thoughts to try and escape the place, throws all his energy in to the task.

Little does he know that in doing so he is about to become arch enemy number one to the City's resident villain who runs the rival "clacks" communications system.

But with the help of golums, wizards, helpful townsfolk, and a special young lady, can he rise to be victorious? And what does that even mean?!

People who like fantasy and off the wall fiction.

The main Golum Character Mr Pump, and the way all his words started with capital letters when he spoke.

The banshee.

The frequent and very longwinded descriptions of how the "Clacks" system functioned which I did not find very interesting. Also a lot of description about "pigeon guano".

Have my own Golum.

I chose to read this book for my January Book Group as we do not normally choose the fantasy genre, I have also never read any Terry Pratchett before, although I am aware he is a hugely popular writer. My sister is a big fan and so I asked her to recommend one of his novels for my book group which was published post 2000.

I found "Going Postal" a very odd book to read. To say whether I enjoyed, or did not enjoy the book is difficult, I suppose on balance I would have to say that I liked the book, since reading it was not a negative experience, however I found myself reading it somewhat passively, when I put the book down I did not really think about the characters or the story or have a huge desire to know what would happen next. I was very conscious of "needing to finish the book" before the date of book group, rather than just enjoying it, or not wanting it to end.

I think the advantage of writing fantasy is that you can kind of write anything - you don't have to be factually correct about places, dates, or events at all. Terry Pratchett has made the most of this here creating his own imaginary world to use as a base. Perhaps for me, this meant I did not connect with the story or the characters as I otherwise might have done; it seemed too silly, too far fetched - but then I guess it's SUPPOSED to be.

It was certainly humourous at times, but more in the way of it being nonsensical or crazy rather than being witty or clever.

As far as the writing style goes, it was easy to read, and there was a lot of imagination which went in to the characters, the setting, and certainly the "clacks" system of communication around which the story revolves - although I found the description of the latter a bit onerous to read.

I did like the ending and the way it brought together a lot of the elements of the story, I suppose I just did not really enjoy a lot of those elements by themselves....

I would give the book 3.5 stars although there is no option on the ratings for half stars. I can't say it has necessarily made me want to read more Terry Pratchett, but at least I have given his works a go and can make an informed opinion!

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Created Mar 02, 2024 at 11:39am • Submit your own review...