Read History
2026 | Score: 8
Might have to do more discworld via audio, this one was great. Probably my favorite Discworld so far, and the first one that really made me want to dive in and fully learn about the world. Some very funny and witty lines throughout, I always love his sarcastic takes on business and politics. Not sure where I will go in Discworld next, probably to the color of magic and read a lot of the Rincewind books.
Format: Audible
Days: 9
Date: 8/10/2026 -> 8/19/2026
Summary (Spoilers)
Going Postal
Terry Pratchett
Discworld #33
Going Postal Summary
Albert Spangler, an alias of Moist Von Lipwig (con-man), has been sentenced to death by hanging. He is dropped and thinks he is dead, but wakes up in Lord Vetinari’s office. He is given the option of actually dying or taking over as Ankh-Morpork postmaster. Moist agrees since he does not want to die, but runs away at the first opportunity. He makes it to another town and thinks he is free but in the middle of the night is caught by the Golem Mr. Pum, who returns him to the post office in Ankh-Morpork.
Moist meets Mr. Groat and Stanley, the only remaining post office employees. The entire building is full of unsent letters and the postal service is basically defunct. As Moist tries to figure out what to do he notices some off things and feels like something is up with the post office. He learns that the previous five postmasters have died in the last five weeks and fears for his life. One day while exploring the post office he sees and hears images from the past, seeing the efficiency and splendor of the old days in the post office. This does cause him to almost fall to his death and he figures this is what happened to the old postmasters. Moist decides he will restore the post office and starts trying.
He goes to a golem shop where Miss Adora Belle Dearheart works and he falls in love with her, but still orders a bunch more golems to work for the post. He then reclaims some stolen post office property and works with the current owners of the old post carriages to get them to carry mail. All his success begins to get attention which bothers the shareholders of the Grand Trunk company, especially Mr. Reacher Gilt. The Grand Trunk operates the Clacks, basically a telegraph system used to communicate rapidly across the disc. They try to reason with Lord Vetinari but he backs Moist, so Reacher plans to sabotage the post office.
Moist is put through a strange ritual to become the official postmaster and his success in it brings back a lot of old postmen. He promotes Groat to Senior postman and even acting postmaster while Moist is gone, which makes him the happiest man alive. Moist has invented a new system of stamps that people can buy, and cost more depending on how far the letter wants to go. Stanley, who used to love pins, falls in love with stamps and makes them unique and prompts other stamp collectors, earning the post office money. While Moist is out on a date with Miss Dearheart, Gilt’s banshee Mr. Gryle arrives and attacks Stanley and Groat and starts a fire. Since the post office is full of old letters it begins to burn rapidly. Moist saves Stanley and Groat but goes back in for the post office cat, Mr. Tiddles. While there he manages to kill Mr. Gryles by pushing him into a magic letter sorting machine, then is saved by Mr. Pump and the other golems.
In order to rebuild the post office Moist pretends to be given a vision by the gods and goes and retrieves the 150,000 dollars he has stolen while working as a con-man. He is still being opposed by the Grand Trunk company so he challenges them to race a message to Genua, which is very far away. Miss Dearheart puts him in contact with three ex-Clacks employees who go by The Smoking Gnu. They come up with a plan to help him disable the Clacks towers and win the race, but Moist has another plan. The day of the race, with everyone watching, he instead has them send a message pretending to be from dead Clacks workers that exposes the crimes of Reacher Gilt and the other shareholders of the Grand Trunk company.
They are arrested (Except Gilt) and Lord Vetinari seizes the grand trunk and plans to give it to Moist to run. He insists it stay private property and wants to return it to Adora Belle Dearheart, since her father was the original creator and owner of the system. Vetinari eventually catches Gilt and offers him a job, but Gilt chooses death instead. THE END.