Ankh Morpork – DaneCobain.com

Title: Going Postal

Author: Terry Pratchett

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 353

Rating: 5*/5

Terry Pratchett – Going Postal

I’m not sure how I managed not to review this one. I read this years ago but it’s somehow disappeared from my collection, which means I overlooked it. Then I happened to notice that I’d reviewed every Discworld book on Goodreads except for this one, then I did a little detective work and realised it was missing. So then I bought it.

If I’d reviewed this straight after I first read it, I probably would only have given it a three or a four out of five. I didn’t think much of it to begin with because I never used to like Moist Von Lipwig, who’s the protagonist of this book, but as I grew older and read more Lipwig books, I found myself changing my mind. Now, I’d go so far as to say that it’s one of my favourite books in the whole Discworld series. It actually does an even better job than most of them at satirising our own world while making you laugh along the way.

Some highlights here include the Discworld’s equivalent of stamp collectors and some great dialogue from Lord Vetinari and some other Ankh Morpork stalwarts. The plot itself is a lot of fun too, although as with most Discworld stories it’s the journey rather than the destination that makes it worth reading. In fact, I’d say that this was written during a period of Pratchett’s best work when he’d really hit his stride and settled into the Discworld without starting to get jaded. That allows him to have fun with the writing, and that carries over to you as a reader.

A lot of people ask where the best place to start is with the Discworld series, and the truth is that there’s no single answer. Still, this one isn’t a bad place to start, especially if you’re interested in the postal service. Now that I’ve got a copy of it, I’m tempted to reread it, and I very rarely reread things. It’s just a sign.

Terry Pratchett

Click here to buy Going Postal.

Terry Pratchett – Raising Steam | Review

Title: Raising Steam

Author: Terry Pratchett

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 480

Rating: 4*/5

Terry Pratchett – Raising Steam

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book, but I’ve also been putting it off. It’s one of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, and because I’ve already read over sixty of his books, I’m very aware that there aren’t many more for me to work through. And now that he’s dead (I cried when I heard), there won’t be any new ones.

That’s why, when I started reading it, it felt like scratching an itch, or bumping into an old friend in a place where you wouldn’t expect it. Pratchett is on form in this book, and it’s impressive because there are so many of his regulars along for the ride, from Sam Vimes and Vetinari to Moist Von Lipwig and Sir Harry King. Those names won’t mean much to you if you haven’t read a Discworld book before, but it’s still a good read even if you’re new to Pratchett’s work. He does a great job of somehow writing standalones that also work as the latest instalment of an epic series.

In this book, the steam train comes to the Discworld, and Pratchett is able to put his typical spin on things and to look at the development of the railway in a new way. The denizens of the Disc need to find a way to develop the rails, but without the benefit of the technology that we were able to make use of here in Roundworld. Luckily, the Disc is home to such creatures as goblins, golems, trolls and dwarves, and the funny thing about the railway is that – like the clacks before it – is just seems destined to happen. It’s a technological advancement that could change the Disc for the better, for every race that calls it home.

Terry Pratchett

Of course, there are others who don’t want to see it happen, and so the development of the railway is plagued by sabotage attempts from the grags, the deep down dwarves who don’t want the world to change. And then there’s the patrician, Lord Vetinari, who wants the railway to succeed at all costs. Somewhere in the middle, we have former conman Moist Von Lipwig, who’s now in charge of the Ankh-Morpork bank and its postal service and who’s given the task of making sure that the train system succeeds. He doesn’t get much choice about it – he knows what the patrician will do if he fails him. It involves kittens.

Overall then, this is one of the better Discworld novels, and I’m definitely glad that I read it. You’d still want to start earlier on in the series before working your way up to this one, though. This is the Discwoirld’s swan song, and I like how it points to a future where technology and magic live side by side.