Going Postal

[owl]

It's always a good thing to remember when you've pre-ordered books from amazon.co.uk.

Anyway, I now possess the paperback of Going Postal. I've seen people saying that it's a The Truth clone: young man founds/revives Ankh-Morpork institution, meets girl, gets into trouble, gets out of trouble. I don't think that's true. I liked it a lot, more than any other recent book except for Night Watch.
I thought it was more 'mystic' than a lot of DW books: the dead ships sailing past Anghammarad, the dead linesmen 'sending home' and remaining in the Overhead. The dead ships really hit me, because it's the sort of thing you can almost believe on the Roundworld.

I couldn't help liking Moist. By the time he'd undergone Vetinari's version of occupational therapy and been almost hanged, you had to feel a bit of sympathy for the guy. And I suppose one of the things in the book was the difference between him and Reacher Gilt (what a great name!): that moist had the sense to take the chance of redemption when it was offered. Oh, and 'Twelve and a half percent'? Hilarious!

It was good to get some of the inside workings of the clacks. (The operators reminded me, rather, of software engineers). I was interested to see how fast the technology's developed from the semaphore arms in T5E. how much time, in Discworld terms, had passed between the two books? It's not a coincidence that the Internet was rising madly in the Roundworld at the same time.

I liked the little glimpses of old friends: Dr Lawn's Lady Sybil Free Hospital (where people 'sometimes get better') and Sacharissa (now married, no prizes for guessing to whom). One thing that bothers me a little about that is the sheer numbers of the Ankh-Morpork cast; Vetinari, the Watch, the University, Foul Ole Ron and the crew, the Times, and now the Post Office and the clacks. With all these pushing in, will future books set in Ankh-Morpork start to seem like an extended cameo list? Vimes and the Times even appear in MR.

Comments

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Oh, and 'Twelve and a half percent'? Hilarious!
I don't get it. Care to explain?
Same for "Reacher Gilt", really...
*waves "English isn't kmy first language" sign*

[owl]

12.5%=1/8 Pieces of eight is what pirate's parrots say. And Reacher Gilt--gilt is fake gold that you put over something else. Quite appropriate with all the buying his ancestors and burying the dodgy past, really.

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)
I got the "gilt" part; I thought there was more to it.

[caragana-leaves.livejournal.com]

I don't think they're so much cameos as just parts of Ankh-Morpork which have grown to the point where you can't weave a significant plot through the city without bumping into them. I, for one, am always glad to see them. :P

"Going Postal" is certainly One Of The Good Ones. I like it better than "The Truth", if only becaue Moist is such a delight (if you'd told me before I read Pratchett that I'd have a crush on a guy named Moist... *sheepish*) and Adora Belle Dearheart is one of my favorite of Pratchett's women.

I LOVED what you're calling the mystical elements of the book. The tradition of "sending home" and "they're never really dead as long as their names are spoken" made me rather misty-eyed.

And... so THAT'S what's up with twelve-and-a-half percent! *shakes head* A rocket wizard at math, I am most certainly not.

[housellama.livejournal.com]

Don't feel bad, I didn't catch it the first time around either. That one was fairly obscure. Though when I did get it, I laughed and laughed and laughed.

A lot of pirate references in that book.

-Tug

[owl]

Clues that the Grand Trunk has, in fact, been pirated. :)

[owl]

I think I liked it better than The Truth too. Moist, being less shiny round the edges with idealism, is more interesting than William IMO.

The clacks and the "mystic"-ness (channelling Vimes here) were also el

[hidden-gaurdian.livejournal.com]

Since I'm a computer geek I may be reading more into the book than is there but the clacks is the definitely an allegory for the computer world. The Grand Trunk represents big buisness computing (MS mostly, IBM Apple and others to a smaller extent). Both drive up prices, provide oft-times crappy service and generally mess people around. The Smoking Gnu represent the Linux movement. "Cracking" is an actual computer term used to describe people who get into computer systems and mess around with them and ...The Woodpecker is a computer virus. GNU (interestingly a self-recursive acronym meaning GNU's not Unix) is the basis of the Linux operating.

To make a short story long, yeah the linesmen are kinda like software engineers. :)

[mrslant]

I was interested to see how fast the technology's developed from the semaphore arms in T5E. how much time, in Discworld terms, had passed between the two books?

It says in GP that the Grand Trunk Co was founded "four years ago".