Going Postal
ISBN 0-385-60342-8 | | |
Preceded by | A Hat Full of Sky | |
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Followed by | Thud! |
Going Postal is a
The book was on the shortlist for both the Nebula and Locus Awards for Best (Fantasy) Novel.[1] It would also have been shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, except that Pratchett withdrew it, as he felt stress over the award would mar his enjoyment of the Worldcon.[2][3] This was the first time Pratchett had been shortlisted for either award.
Plot
As with many of the Discworld novels, the story takes place in
In his office, Vetinari then presents Moist with two options: he may accept a job offer to become Postmaster of the city's rundown Postal Service or he may choose to walk out of the door and never hear from Vetinari again. As exiting through the door in question would lead to a fatal drop, Moist decides to accept the job.
After a thwarted attempt at escape, Moist is brought to the Post Office by his parole officer Mr Pump, a golem. It turns out that the Post Office has not functioned for decades, and the building is full of undelivered mail, concealed under a layer of pigeon dung. Only two employees remain: the aged Junior Postman
Meanwhile, Vetinari is holding a meeting with the board executives of the Grand Trunk Company, a company that owns and operates a system of
As Moist attempts to revitalise the postal service, he discovers that over the few months before taking the job, a number of his predecessors have predeceased in the building within weeks of each other in unusual circumstances. He also discovers that the mail inside the building has taken on a life of its own, and is nearly suffocated as a result.
Moist introduces postage stamps to Ankh-Morpork, hires golems to deliver the mail, and finds himself competing against the Grand Trunk Clacks line. He meets and falls in love with the chain-smoking, golem-rights activist,
The unscrupulous Clacks chairman,
Gilt is soon arrested and finds himself in front of the Patrician, offered a similar choice to the one Moist faced in the beginning of the book: run the mint or exit the room. Gilt, however, chooses to walk through the door to his death.
TV adaptation
Sky One produced a two-part television film, Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, which aired on 30–31 May 2010.
Legacy
Based on a plot idea in this novel, after Terry Pratchett's death some websites remember him via a special HTML header line.[4]
References
- ^ "2005 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 28 September 2009.
- ^ Dave Langford (5 September 2005). "Ansible 218".
- ^ The 2005 Hugo Nominees (fiction)
- ^ Kessler, Emanuel (2 April 2024). "GNU Terry Pratchett: Eine Hommage für Eingeweihte an den Scheibenwelt-Erfinder - Golem.de". golem.de (in German). Retrieved 20 August 2023.
External links
- Going Postal title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Information from L-Space.org
- Going Postal at Worlds Without End
- Going Postal at IMDb