The Sir Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge - Going Postal

In a strange way, I started by reading Making Money, where Moist von Lipwig. Now, I went back to the beginning by reading Going Postal, the book that introduces us to Moist.

Here, Moist starts off as a condemned criminal who's given a second chance by Lord Vetinari. The only catch is that he has to take over the role of the Postmaster General of a more-or-less dead post office. And he has a golem following him around to make sure he doesn't try to escape.

Of course, escape is the only thing on his mind. But the longer he spends in the post office, the more he grows to like his role as a postmaster (or you know, he's slowly going insane). At any rate, by the end of the book, Moist is going to be proud to be who he is.

And what's a book without conflict? In this book, the enemy is Reacher Gilt, the man in charge of the clacks (a.k.a Telegram). There's some shady sabotage, which leads to a dramatic confrontation and a rather fitting ending.

Again, I'm astounded by my lack of Discworld knowledge. Why didn't I know about Moist before? He's clearly not a one-book character (I've read Making Money and I thought he was really endearing). Going Postal is the first book Moist appears in, which means that this is where his character develops.  All you should glean from this bit of information is that he's even more endearing in this book than Making Money. Terry Pratchett has gotten the "rogue with a heart of gold" stereotype down pat.

He's even managed to include hacker's into the plot! Personally, I'm very very bad at things like coding (I know, they've tried to teach me) and lots of things computer related, but it appears that Terry Pratchett has successfully taken the hacker stereotype and twisted it to fit Discworld. They're both familiar and unfamiliar, and in the light of Anonymous and Lulz, relevant.

 I really wanted to give a Ridcully quote, but it lasts several pages due to the fact that it's a series of conversations. But even if you don't like Moist, it's worth reading this book just to see Ridcully explode in anger (for the Unseen University fans) and to marvel at Lord Vetinari's methods of running a city (for the Lord Vetinari fans. I know you guys exist).