Review: "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett is one of (in my opinion) the world's greatest authors. His books present a hilarious look at the serious issues confronting our world, and the fears, quirks, and drives that make humanity human. He combines fantasy and satire brilliantly in the Discworld series, and always keeps his writing original and fresh.

Looking at his latest book, "Going Postal", I was afraid that Pratchett might have lost some of his originality and style: the plot outline sounded vaguely similar to that of other Discworld books in which an old institution is resurrected. Reading the book, I am glad to say that this is utterly untrue. The book, a standalone member of the Discworld series, introduces Moist von Lipwig, a skilled conman and trickster who finds himself responsible for putting the decrepit Post Office of Ankh-Morpork back together.

Moist von Lipwig, while sharing some traits in similarity with other Discworld characters, has a new view of the world and a new style that's unlike the older characters of Discworld. He's a proffesional bullshit artist who knows it, and marvels at the gullibility of ordinary people. Reading along, you really understand his mentality and know why he starts walking the straight and narrow... or at least the straight-enough.

The writing is excellent, as it always is, and Terry Pratchett starts in his adult books what he has been doing in his childrens' books: dividing it up into chapters. This works well, making the book easier to divide. Pratchett's writing really shines in showing the inner workings of his characters minds, and shines everywhere else as well. Read it and see. The only problem I can see is he seems to have reduced the number of humorous footnotes, which is a recent problem that has started to show in recent books. I hope he turns around the trend: the footnotes are one of the things that make his writing uniquely funny.

One thing the book really shows is the difference between government service and private enterprise. Private enterprise is engineered for profit, while government service, even if self-supporting, is aim at delivering a service. This has recently become apparent in Queensland, where a private power companies have admitted to cutting up to $1billion of maintenance and other costs, purely in the pursuit of profit, causing blackouts and brownouts throughout Queensland. I don't believe this would have happened had the government been running the power system.

People claim that a government-run organization costs more for the customer, but I have a hard time believing that. A government, non-profit organization charges for the services, while a private organization charges for services plus a profit margin. They say it's higher because governments are more inefficient, but why do managers suddenly become more efficient when employed by the private sector. People say competition drives prices down, so let private enterprise compete with the government.

The book seems underscored with anger at private enterprise in general and venture capitalists in particular. In the book, a bunch of bankers and moneymen take over the clacks from the engineers who built it. They don't understand how the clacks works, and they don't understand engineers, so they start driving the enterprise into the ground. This book is a lot more angry than most others by Pratchett, and I can see why.