View source for Going Postal

{{Short description|2004 Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett}}
{{Other uses}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{Infobox book
| name         = Going Postal
| image        = Discworld Postal.jpg
| image_size    = 
| caption= First edition
| author       = [[Terry Pratchett]]
| illustrator  = 
| cover_artist = [[Paul Kidby]]
| language     = English
| series       = {{ubl|''[[Discworld]]''|33rd novel  &ndash; 1st Moist von Lipwig story}}
| subject      = {{ubl|[[Fantasy]], redemption, post office, finance/speculation|'''Characters:'''|[[Moist von Lipwig]]|'''Locations:'''|[[Ankh-Morpork]]}}
| genre        = [[Fantasy]]
| publisher    = [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]
| pub_date     = {{start date|2004|09|25|df=y}}
| awards       = 2005 Finalist nominee for [[Nebula Award for Best Novel]]
| isbn         = 0-385-60342-8
| preceded_by  = [[A Hat Full of Sky]]
| followed_by  = [[Thud!]]
}}
'''''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. Unlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels, ''Going Postal'' is divided into [[chapter (books)|chapters]], a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the [[Science of Discworld]] series. These chapters begin with a synopsis of philosophical themes, in a similar manner to some [[Victorian literature|Victorian]] novels and, notably, to [[Jules Verne]] stories. The title refers to both the contents of the novel and the idiom '[[going postal]]'.

The book was on the shortlist for both the [[Nebula Award for Best Novel|Nebula]] and [[Locus Award|Locus]] Awards for Best (Fantasy) Novel.<ref name="WWE-2005">{{cite web
| url        = http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=2005 
| title      = 2005 Award Winners & Nominees
| work       = Worlds Without End
| access-date = 28 September 2009
}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.ansible.co.uk/a218.html|title=Ansible 218|date=5 September 2005|author=Dave Langford}}</ref><ref>[http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/sf/Hugo2005.htm The 2005 Hugo Nominees (fiction)]</ref> This was the first time Pratchett had been shortlisted for either award.

==Plot==
The story takes place in [[Ankh-Morpork]], a powerful city-state on Discworld. The protagonist of the story is [[Moist von Lipwig]], a skilled [[Confidence trick|con artist]] who was to be [[capital punishment|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.

In his office, Vetinari 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. Moist learns 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 [[Discworld characters#Tolliver Groat|Tolliver Groat]] and his assistant [[Discworld characters#Stanley Howler|Stanley Howler]].

Meanwhile, Vetinari is holding a meeting with the board executives of the Grand Trunk Company, a company that owns and operates a system of [[semaphore line|visual telegraph]] towers known as "clacks". He notes that since they have taken full control, the quality of service had gone down considerably. Despite unnerving most of the board, Vetinari fails to make headway, especially with its chairman, [[Discworld characters#Reacher Gilt|Reacher Gilt]]. It is rumored that Reacher Gilt plans to usurp Vetinari as Patrician.

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 [[Death (Discworld)|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 in a "letterslide".

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 [[Discworld characters#Adora Belle Dearheart|Adora Belle Dearheart]], and the two begin a relationship by the end of the book. Dearheart is the daughter of the Clacks founder Robert Dearheart, though the company was taken away from her father and the other founders by tricky financial manoeuvring. She still has useful contacts amongst the clacks operators.

Gilt sets a banshee assassin (Mr Gryle) on the Postmaster, but only manages to burn down much of the Post Office building. The banshee dies when he is flipped onto the space-warping sorting machine. Lipwig makes an outrageous wager with Gilt that he can deliver a message to [[Discworld geography#Genua|Genua]], 2000 miles from Ankh-Morpork, faster than the Grand Trunk can. "The Smoking Gnu", a group of clacks-[[hacker|crackers]], sets up a plan to send '...the woodpecker' {{sic}} (a Discworld equivalent to a [[killer poke]]) into the clacks system that will destroy the machinery, halting the message that Lipwig will race against. Lipwig talks the Gnu out of it, doubting its effectiveness in the face of professional clacks operators and wanting to leave the semaphore towers standing. Instead, Lipwig and the Gnu, using Trunk documents in Adora Belle's possession, intercept the message and replace it with a fake message from the dead which reveals the crimes of Gilt and the Grand Trunk board of directors. This plan succeeds.

Gilt is eventually arrested and finds himself in front of the Patrician, who offers 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 [[HTTP]] header line.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.golem.de/news/gnu-terry-pratchett-eine-hommage-fuer-eingeweihte-an-den-scheibenwelt-erfinder-2308-176188.html|title=GNU Terry Pratchett: Eine Hommage für Eingeweihte an den Scheibenwelt-Erfinder - Golem.de|last=Kessler |first=Emanuel |language=de|access-date=2023-08-20|website=golem.de|date=2 April 2024}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote|Discworld#Going_Postal_.282004.29|Going Postal}}
* {{isfdb title|153324}}
* [http://www.lspace.org/books/reviews/going-postal.html Information from L-Space.org]
* [http://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?ID=675 Going Postal] at Worlds Without End
*{{IMDb title|qid=Q2447613|title=Going Postal}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-other|[[Discworld reading order|Reading order guide]]}}
{{succession box | before = [[A Hat Full of Sky]] | title = 33rd [[Discworld#Novels|Discworld Novel]]  | years=  | after = [[Thud!]]}}
{{succession box | before = ''None'' | title = 1st [[Discworld reading order#Moist von Lipwig|Moist von Lipwig story]]|years  = Published in 2004 | after = [[Making Money]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Discworld books}}
{{Terry Pratchett}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:2004 British novels]]
[[Category:2004 fantasy novels]]
[[Category:2000s in comedy]]
[[Category:British fantasy novels]]
[[Category:British comedy novels]]
[[Category:Fantasy comedy]]
[[Category:Novels about con artists]]
[[Category:Novels about politicians]]
[[Category:Novels about postal systems]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Fantasy novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Comedy novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:Discworld books]]
[[Category:Doubleday (publisher) books]]