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Terry Pratchett

The wonderful thing about Terry Pratchett is his ability to combine the familiar, so we get a warm glow, with enough novelty and unpredictability to keep the pages turning, and with Going Postal he has done it again big time.

The familiar Discworld characters are mere bit players (with the exception of the Patrician) - centre stage is ex-con man and now Postmaster Moist von Lipwig. The other big character is the baddy, also a con man in his own way, but in this case the sort that runs big business - and does so by running his businesses into the ground.

Sadly the female lead is much more cardboard cutout - she has been given a few oddities to give her character (like chain smoking and being ultra-cynical) - but she is almost entirely incidental to the plot, which is a bit of a shame.

But that's about the only negative. (Actually there's one other. Pratchett has never used chapters, and has demonstrated well they just aren't necessary in his books - now we get both chapters and irritating Victorian-style headings describing the main events in the chapter. Why?) Pratchett's description of the rebirth of the Post Office, a collapsed relic, and its fight against the semaphore towers (clacks) is masterly. The birth of the whole concept of stamps and its quick emergence as a collectable, pushing pins aside, is wonderful. Best of all, though, is Moist's superb grasp of conmanship - the constant push towards the edge, and his ability to promise the impossible then deliver in an unexpected way is a delight.

This is, without doubt, one of the best Discworld books, for once not driven so much by its cast of rich characters as by Pratchett's usual sharp insight into human nature.

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Copyright © Creativity Unleashed Limited 2006 Last update 13 September 2006

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