I was really pleased with Going Postal by Terry Pratchett.

The depth of his writing is questionable at times, but the tongue in cheek nature of his humor most of the time dark and brooding provides for hours of entertainment.

With great flow, and story telling that gives just enough description for you to use your imagination is why this man has been around for so long.

A must read for any of Pratchett's fans.

Very enjoyable read. Moist is a superb character, and the plot, rebuilding of the Post Office service and competition against "The Grand Trunk", is a work of genius. Great humour, great characters and great fun.

I saw this book at a grab-a-book, leave-a-book cafe. I hadn't read Pratchett before, but I had heard the name around and decided to give him a try.

I thought the author had a basic gift for storytelling - this was basically a fun read, the plot moved along smoothly, the main character was interesting and I wanted to see him succeed, and there were a few funny, memorable turns of phrase. So I hope to have a look at a few more of the Discworld Novels.

However I just have to believe there's other Discworld Novels, better than this one - the story here was often very sloppy. Plot points were just dropped, or were given far too much attention, or just shouldn't have been there - perhaps as a well-established author he feels he doesn't need an editor, but I'd have to strongly disagree.

A few examples: the whole bit about letters talking didn't fit and was embarassing, really, and then he ditched that in the middle of the book by having a fire wipe out all the old letters anyway. The whole part about GNU and crackers needing to crack and so forth was probably appreciated by his target audience of nerds, but wasn't funny and felt forced. The clacks system was basically an interesting idea, but he concentrated on its details way more than I cared to read about. And after setting up the climax very well, it didn't really amount to much, and the story just sort of quickly petered out.

Junior High School students, who would probably best enjoy this novel, may find the satire of the novel very insightful - basically, he calls businessmen and politicians liars and crooks a thousand times. But there's no meat behind any of this, because the bad guys are all somewhere between one-dimensional and character sketches. So it comes off as prattling, more than anything.

Oh, and the fact that the author has a website where he sells Discworld fanboys Discworld postage stamps is truly pathetic, on too many levels to properly discuss here.

The charismatic swindler (forced to take on the Ank Morpork Postal System as the only alternative to a hanging) Moist von Lipwigg ("I'm Moist, please don't laugh...) is right up there with Captain of the Night Watch Samuel Vimes in my list of Terry Pratchett's top characters.

The brilliant, narcissistic and ambitious Moist (I still can't get past that name) is saved from the gallows through a lucky--but not altogether uncalculated--reprieve from Lord Vetinari, and soon finds himself trying to shovel the old post office out from its present heaps of undelivered 50-year old mail, and similarly bounteous piles of pigeon guano.His aided by Mr. Groat, descendant of the Olde post office families and with an eye for regulations and knack for natural remedies, and by Stanley, an orphan raised by peas (don't ask) and an avid collector of pins (ditto on the asking). Moist soon finds himself in a bitter rivalry with financial pirate Mr. Gilt and his Grand Trunk Company, a Discworld version of an unreliable internet provider that constantly overcharges. Things come to a hilarious head when Moist challenges the Grand Trunk to race his own post-coach to Genoa ("good luck coding those pictures in binary"). The most quotable quote is when Stanley finally goes "unpinned", and holds much relevance to all collectors of random junk": "Ahh! They're all just pins!"

Terry Pratchett continues his bizarre, hilarious, and above all readable commentary on modern society, blurred slightly through the lens of a parallel universe. Fans won't be disappointed, and newcomers should be delighted as well.

Although only my second foray into Mr. Pratchett's Disc World series, GOING POSTAL has enough wit, interest, and modern day parables to make it a read worth anyone's while.

My first introduction was with Thud! A tremendous achievement, THUD! had enough quirks in terms of setting and characters to make it a thoroughly enjoyable read (I gave it 5 stars). And although Going Postal can claim its own level of quirkiness, it doesn't quite measure up to my first experience.

Equal parts comedy, fantasy, and crime-drama, Going Postal takes its lead from our current day use of email over the post office. But in the city of Ankh-Morpork, this is taken to an entirely new level. When Moist von Lipwig (don't ask) is given the option of death versus government service as the new postmaster, he has to think about it; that's how bad it might be. But enjoying a heartbeat and being able to breath, Moist accepts the new job only to find out that he has to compete with the Yahoo/Google masters of electronic communications known as the "clacks" which is a series of digital/semaphore towers run by the corrupt Grand Trunk Company.

But trying to get the post office sorted out is a job in itself. The use of old mailmen, stolen equipment, wizards, and a seemingly magical golden suit all hold sway within the postal walls. Oh, and so do tons and tons ...and tons of undelivered mail. So much mail, in fact, that it can talk. Words have power and unless they are delivered to the appropriate address, they may very well drive you mad.

Moist, having been a criminal himself, uses his skills to further the post office. And finding that he actually likes helping people comes as a shock! His first delivered letter helps bring two old lovers together and launches him on a path of destroying the man he once was.

Fires, Golems, vampires, and geeks all aid or damage Moist's hopes for a future postal service that city-dwellers can depend on. And love between Moist and a tough reporter might also blossom, given enough time.

This isn't your standard fiction fodder for those not-in-the-Pratchett-know. But it is fun reading. Light enough to lift spirits, but dense enough to keep your interest and make you think, Going Postal might have you licking stamps instead of clicking send the next time you communicate with friends or family.