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ALL SORTS OF REVIEWS
BOOK - GOING POSTAL Terry Pratchet (August 11, 2008)
Bought this book a couple of years ago because W H Smith's had a load of half price offers (book for a couple of quid - that's me!). Could never quite bring myself to read a book about the Post Office. Yes, THE Post Office. Haven't we all been there? Standing in a great long queue while the old dears in front decant all the past weeks happenings in the village to every single person in sight, then they have to put every single penny away in the various purses in their various bags (that would be AFTER they have forgotten the pin for their pension card, THEN got it wrong TWICE). So - know where I am coming from?
Well the thing is - if YOUR Post Office was run by Terry Pratchett, there would be golems, and pigeons, and gold suits, and dwarfs, and staircases that lead into the past and silly promises (opps, that's the here and now!): OK, you get the picture - I need not have put it off for so long - this is Disc World so it's all going to be . . . . well, odd, really.
This is a stand alone book, so you won't have to know about the Disc World, it's workings and who's who, but there are loads of references to other stories and characters to fill the atmosphere if you do know this place. The story revolves around a seriously good con artist (Moist Von Lipwig) who is caught, hanged and sent to revive the (totally deceased) trade of the Post Office - yes it does make sense. Not willingly, I might add, but he has a new 'best' friend - a golem, and golems never sleep, and, always do their duty: so that means Moist has to as well. So he gets hooked on scamming the public for a good result (but this is the Post Office remember, so the 'good' is a bit vague).
This is Pratchett at his very best. It is a huge doorstep of a book but the story unfolds and carries you along with it so smoothly you don't notice the time passing. The language is easy and accessible, there are no confusing parts or words - just words and meanings turned on their heads. The prose is elegant and controlled and fits together like a good jigsaw puzzle should. I hugely recommend this book and only wish I had got to it sooner instead of putting it off for so long. Princelet is next in line for it, and I know he is going to love it too.
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