Going Postal: A Discworld Novel

Terry Pratchett

Sep 2023 · Moist von Lipwig Book 1 · HarperAudio · Narrated by Richard Coyle, Bill Nighy, and Peter Serafinowicz

About this audiobook

“Pratchett’s books are almost always better than they have to be, and Going Postal is no exception, full of nimble wordplay, devious plotting and outrageous situations, but always grounded in an astute understanding of human nature.”—San Francisco Chronicle

A splendid send-up of government bureaucracy, corruption, the postal system, and everything in between in this ingenious entry in Sir Terry Pratchett’s internationally bestselling Discworld series.

By all rights, Arch-swindler Moist von Lipwig should be meeting his maker at the end of a noose. Instead, Lord Vetinari, supreme ruler of Ankh-Morpork, has made him the city’s Postmaster General. Death may be preferable to fixing the Postal Service—a creaky, outdated institution beset by eccentric employees, mountains of old, undelivered mail Moist swears is talking to him, and a dangerous secret order. To restore the postal service to its former glory, Moist accepts the help of the tough talking and very attractive activist Adora Belle Dearheart.

But to succeed, Moist must overcome two formidable foes—new technology and the greedy chairman of a communication monopoly who will stop at nothing to delay Ankh-Morpork’s post for good . . .

The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but Going Postal is the first book in the Moist von Lipwig series. The series, in order, includes:

Going Postal

Making Money

Raising Steam

Ratings and reviews

This was my introduction to the Discworld series, and I quite enjoyed it. There is a lot of humor that reminded me of Douglas Adams, which, I'm not sure there is much higher praise from me than that. It is a fantasy novel, but it doesn't always feel like that. It could honestly be set in the early 1900s in an alternate universe where magic exists, so that also worked well for me as I'm not a huge fan of some of the sword and sorcerer novels where the protagonist is always some messiah type figure. This was a dramatic departure from that and ended up being much more a satirical critique of both bureaucracy and unfettered capitalism.

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About the author

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) is the acclaimed creator of the globally revered Discworld series. In all, he authored more than fifty bestselling books, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.