Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Going Postal (Two-Thirds Analysis)

As the title of this post may suggest, I'm right around two-thirds of the way through Sir Terry Pratchett's comic fantasy novel Going Postal.  There have been a few hiccoughs, but overall it's really great.  Allow me to elaborate.

Character is a bit difficult to critique for this story because it's written in 3rd-narrative POV.  The viewpoint never descends perfectly into any character's mind, but it gets close.  It's definitely one of the best examples of the POV I've seen.  Moist von Lipwig, the protagonist, is a solid character.  He's an anti-hero who manages to be sympathetic, incredibly proactive, and very competent (in several ways).  I would love to see this story from his POV, yet I really love getting dips into many characters' heads too.  The others are high-level as well.  They each have a lot of personality, which is key for this genre.

This setting is killer.  That's the only way to put it.  Oh, and hilarious.  And brilliant.  This is my first Discworld experience and you can tell that Sir Pratchett wrote twenty-some (I believe) novels in this setting prior to this one.

I'm pretty sure I'm nearing the climax of Going Postal, but I can't be sure.  If it isn't, the real climax is going to be amazing.  The complications have managed to tie in character and setting perfectly.  There are arcs twisted into other types of arcs.

If you want to read a light-hearted fantasy story with top-notch world-building, look no further than Pratchett's Going Postal.

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