Going Postal

By Terry Pratchett

A Novel of Discworld


The Post Office of Ankh Morpork is in disrepair, no one uses it, and it's Post Master Generals keep dying. And don't ask about the New Pie. They don't like to talk about it. Bergholt Stuttley (Bloody Stupid) Johnson was involved, which if you know anything about Ankh Morpork, should tell you quite a bit. Anyway, things went very bad, until the Post Office was where you put letters if you never wanted to see them again. Lord Vetinari wished to restore it to its former glory, make it useful again. And so, he appointed the best sort of man for any government job. A convicted criminal.
Now, Moist Von Lipwig ( Yes, that is his name. It is pronounced Lip Vick, and Moist is a perfectly common name in Uberwald) has never killed anyone, or even physically hurt anyone. All he ever did was trick people who though they were tricking him, and forge a few papers. His motto is "Never look back, you never know who might be catching up." He was a very successful conman until the police caught him, and sentenced him to be hanged. Which he was. He then woke up with a choice between honest employment, and the option of actually having the execution be SUCCESSFUL, if a bit late. He ran for it and was dragged back by a golem (huge clay man, literally fiery eyes, NEVER stops, EVER). So now he is the Post Master. And between all that buisness with the clacks, and the men on the roof, and the letters talking to him, and the secret organisation of postmen, and Moist's runaway mouth, adrenaline addiction, and instinct for conning people... well, things could get interesting. Oh, and the girl.
Well, Terry Pratchett has done it again!  Yet another book, yet another few hours straight of hysterical laughter, yet another set of fantastic characters and caricatured reality. This book goes straight to the top of my reread list again and again, and again and again I love it. The mad genius of humor has brought forth another fabulous creation, and if I don't wind up reading it until I have large sections memorized, it won't be for lack of trying.

The Color of Magic

By Terry Pratchett

A Novel Of Discworld


Ankh-Morpork has just recieved its first tourist--Twoflower from the Agatean Empire--and the notoriously inept wizard Rincewind has volunteered to be his guide. Well, sort of volunteered, in the sense that he could, if he so chose, leave Twoflower to his fate, and he is not going to get paid for being his guide. He could leave the tourist, that is, if Rincewind wanted to die, as Lord Vetinari made perfectly clear. Now, Rincewind is not a wise wizard, nor powerful, nor brave. What he is, is so cowardly that he can survive almost anything, and he also has one of the Great Spells hanging out in his brain, causing him to be unable to learn any other spell and to be expelled from the Unseen University. So he is really the perfect guide for Twoflower. For, as Rincewind put it, "if complete and utter chaos were lightning, then [Twoflower would] be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armor shouting [uncomplimentary things about the gods]." After a misunderstanding in which Twoflower accidentally causes all of Ankh-Morpork to be burnt down, the tourist and his reluctant guide set off across the Disc, narrowly escaping dragons, Bel-Shamharoth*, trolls, and falling off the edge of the Disc. Of course, they do get--oops, can't tell you that, it would spoil the story. Go read it and find out for yourself.

Technically the first book in the Discworld series, The Color of Magic won't really give you any information on Discworld that you wouldn't get from starting with any other book in the series, so it really doesn't matter which you read first. Anyway, I loved (of course) this book! It is over-the-top funny, and just generally awesome! Terry Pratchett, as always, seems unable to write a single paragraph that doesn't poke fun at the world in general, and humanity in specific. The Discworld is a beautifully realised world with fantastic characters and well satirized cliches.Love it, read it, tell other people to read it, re-read it, repeat!

*Also known as the Soul Render, the Sender of Eight, and "the flip side of the coin of which Good and Evil are but one side." Whatever it (he?) is, it has too many tentacles for comfort.

Monstrous Regiment

By Terry Pratchett

A Novel of Discworld

On the Discworld, the small country of Borogravia is at war. Again. Borogravia has a long history of making war on pretty much everyone around it, a ruler who no one is sure is even alive, and a god who has Abominated practically everything and who may be either insane or dead.Polly Perks has decided to disguise herself as a boy and join the army to find her brother, who joined up and then disappeared. She joins the Ins-and-Outs, and quickly discovers not only does her regiment include a vampire, an Igor, and a troll, along with humans, but she may not be the only one with a secret. They are shipped out to the front immediately with no training and bad, secondhand weapons and armor. Now they must rely on each other, the fat, famous, and possibly insane or demonic Sargent Jackrum, and sheer luck to survive. SUCH a good book. SOOO funny. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! I laughed hysterically right through it. I absolutly love Terry Pratchett's books, and this one is no exeption.

Thief of Time

By Terry Pratchett

A novel of Discworld

What's going wrong in Discworld now? It's quite simple really. Some idiot has been commissioned to build the perfect clock. If this clock  is started, Time will stop. This is bad. Therefore, the Monks of History have sent the famous Lu-Tze and his new apprentice Lobsang Ludd to stop it. Death (yes, Death, you know, tall, skeletal, wears black, carries a scyth, shows up when you die? Ring any bells?) has also taken an interest in the clock and it's effect on Time. He has asked his granddaughter, Miss Susan, to investigate and see what she can do. She is most definitely Miss Susan, not Susan, or Sue, or anything else, and is a schoolteacher. This is a very good book and is very funny. Read it, enjoy it, and above all always remember Rule One. Heheheh.

Small Gods

By Terry Pratchett

A novel of Discworld

What do you do when your incredibly bossy god tells you that it has been trapped in the shape of a tortoise and that you are the only person who can hear it? This is what happens to the novice Brutha. Om (the god), has becom trapped in tortoise shape because Brutha is the only one who actually believes in him anymore even though thousands of people worship him! When no one believes in a god they sort of fade away into the deserts and deep forests. Om may soon be joining those small gods if Brutha doesn't do something. Unfortunatly Brutha, despite an enormous memory, is kind of dumb. He can, however follow orders well and as nobody but him really believes in Om any more, Brutha is all the god has to work with. Terry Pratchett does not disappoint in this hilarious book. FUNNY, really, really, really FUNNY is a good description of this book. I loved Om and Brutha, and have always been pretty interested in the gods of Discworld.

Jingo

By Terry Pratchett

A Discworld novel

Watch Commander Sam Vimes has a lot on his plate. He is trying to find out who shot the Klatchian ambassador when an island rises out of the sea, Ankh-Morpork and Klatch decide to go to war over it, and Corporal Angua is kidnapped. Admittedly this isn't as bad as it sounds, she is a werewolf after all, but it is still worrying, so they go after her. I love Terry Pratchett's writing, he is funny, but deals with serius issues like war, murder, and opera. Every now and then he slips in a sentance that you have to read again to make sure you read it right the first time or a deep philosophicla idea. His books are very, very funny. My favorites so far are the ones about the Watch. Discworld is a flat, round, disc which is held up by four elephants which are standing on the back of a giant turtle as it moves through space. In my opinion you don't have to understand it completely to enjoy it.