He notes that since they have taken full control, the quality of service had gone down considerably. Meanwhile, Vetinari is holding a meeting with the board executives of the Grand Trunk Company, a company that owns and operates a system of visual telegraph towers known as 'clacks'. Only two employees remain: the aged Junior Postman Tolliver Groat and his assistant Stanley Howler. 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. As exiting through the door in question would lead to a fatal drop, Moist decides to accept the job.Īfter a thwarted attempt at escape, Moist is brought to the Post Office by his parole officer Mr Pump, a golem. 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. The protagonist of the story is Moist von Lipwig, a skilled con artist who was to be hanged for his crimes, but saved at the last moment by the cunning and manipulative Patrician Havelock Vetinari, who has Moist's death on the scaffold faked. This was the first time Pratchett had been shortlisted for either award.Īs with many of the Discworld novels, the story takes place in Ankh-Morpork, a powerful city-state based on the historical and modern settings of various metropolises like London or New York City. 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. The book was on the shortlist for both the Nebula and Locus Awards for Best (Fantasy) Novel.

The title refers to both the contents of the novel, as well as to the term ' going postal'. These chapters begin with a synopsis of philosophical themes, in a similar manner to some Victorian novels and, notably, to Jules Verne stories.

Unlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels, Going Postal is divided into chapters, a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the Science of Discworld series. Going Postal is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the 33rd book in his Discworld series, released in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2004.

2005 Finalist nominee for Nebula Award for Best Novel

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