Apart from Good Omens, which he wrote with Neil Gaiman, I have only ever read two novels by Terry Pratchett, and those were the first two Discworld books – pressed onto me by a friend who was (still is) a huge Pratchett aficionado. That was 16 years ago (doesn’t time fly) and although I found them amusing I didn’t have the urge to pick up any more. Then three things happened:

  • a really good adaptation of Hogfather appeared on TV here in the UK
  • followed by a pretty good adaptation of the two books I had read
  • followed by my remembering that the Book God had bought me a copy of Going Postal because I thought the title was funny

So I decided to give Terry another go because I really, really like the man and do so want to enjoy his books, and I admit that I’m glad I did because this is really very good indeed.

Moist von Lipwig is a conman who has been “rescued” from his execution by Lord Vetinari, the ruler of Ankh Morpork, in order to rejuvenate the Post Office. A simple premise, but so much else is going on in the background, far too much to mention here without spoiling the story. The jokes are good, particularly if like me you have ever worked in the post office or collect stamps – the whole subplot about how stamps and the hobby of collecting them comes about was very enjoyable. And there are Golems – I like Golems, and Mr Pump (Moist’s parole officer) is a great character. There is a love interest, triumph and disaster and a happy ending. I can really recommend this one if you like humourous fantasy, and although there have been mixed reviews I’m going to look out for the sequel Making Money when it comes out in paperback.

This was my fourth read for the Once Upon a Time II challenge.