s if to indicate that you can never have too much of a good thing, British writer Terry Pratchett begins his latest Discworld novel, Going Postal, four different times. In the first opening, a character named Anghammarad sits at the bottom of the sea, watching dead ships and dead sailors go by. In the second, the operator of a "clacks tower"—part of a low-tech semaphore/telegraph message-relay system—meets a messy and clearly not accidental fate. In the third, convicted embezzler Alfred Spangler learns that his hope of escaping execution for his crimes is an illusion, concocted to keep him occupied until sentence is carried out.
But things finally start falling together in the fourth beginning, as con man par excellence Moist von Lipwig is brought before Lord Havelock Vetinari, ruthlessly efficient ruler of the huge, wild city of Ankh-Morpork. Vetinari gives Moist a simple choice: Accept a government job, or walk through a door and never hear from Vetinari again. However, the door actually leads to a very deep, very dark pit...
Moist still takes some convincing before he decides he can't just run and hide. But eventually he finds himself saddled with the title of postmaster general of Ankh-Morpork. His responsibility: run a post office that has long since fallen into utter disrepair and disuse, and that's almost completely buried under undelivered, decades-old letters. His entire staff consists of an ancient crackpot and an addle-witted boy. His competition is the clacks, which can, in an hour, transmit a cross-continent message that would take the post office two weeks to deliver. And if that weren't enough, the last four postmasters all died horribly, for reasons unknown.
But like so many of Pratchett's heroes—particularly William de Worde in The Truth and Sam Vimes in various Discworld books centering on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch—Moist can't quite help rising to a challenge. Before long, the post office is enjoying a brief renaissance. Which just earns Moist a new set of rich, powerful and efficiently murderous enemies ...
Breezy, easy and a lot of fun
Pratchett's Discworld series (now numbering more than 30 books, counting the young-adult and picture-book volumes) has shown the Discworld, and particularly Ankh-Morpork, following a very fast path toward cultural enlightenment: Its chaotic, violent, immensely dangerous urban environment has rapidly gained a functioning police system, an independent newspaper, a well-organized ruler who makes sure the trains run on time, a growing sense of tolerance among races and a highly efficient communications system, among other things. Each subsequent book seems to improve life significantly for Discworld's inhabitants, usually thanks to determined, lucky or just plain talented characters like Moist von Lipwig.
So it's particularly intriguing to see the clacks, one of the great technological innovations of Discworld books gone by, actually serving the villains of a piece instead of making things better for all. The system's rapid, behind-the-scenes decay puts a dark new spin on what was rapidly becoming a fairly optimistic series, in spite of its increasing grimness.
Not to say that Pratchett isn't still capable of pessimism, or of hilarious and unexpected humor, for that matter. But while Going Postal does have the usual Pratchett comic edge, that edge is edged out in favor of a serious and exciting caper/con-man story, a what-will-he-do-next? knuckle-biter in which Moist faces higher stakes in every chapter. It's an exciting, quick-moving and thoroughly enjoyable book that does what Pratchett does best: It puts a colorful new spin on familiar concepts, bringing both drama and humor into the mix. About the book's only flaw is that it blows by so quickly that some bits seem a little too simple or facile. Moist is a great character, and his two-man staff is suitably creepy, but virtually everyone else, from his mortal enemy to his love interest, seems a bit glossed-over.
But not to worry—Pratchett is as prolific as he is talented. Readers will barely have time to regret how breezy this book is before another one comes along. And given the way he works, it would be surprising if we never see these characters again. Pratchett rarely misses the chance to expand on a good thing.
