Top 60 Novels of 2000-2009 Countdown, No. 33

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Finally, we get to one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. This one features a Golem, one of my favorite mythical figures (making cameos in Daniel Handler's Watch Your Mouth and Michael Chabon's Amazing Adventuers of Kavalier and Klay) and contains a brilliant contemplation of the power of words, at least when they're piled up in a nonfunctioning post office. I like Moist, the protagonist, almost as much as Commander Vimes, and the way he handles the monopoly of the Claques is terrific. I became a fan of Discworld in 2002, when I listened to Thief of Time when I drove from Reno to the early music festival in Berkeley; since then, I've always thought of Berkeley as Ankh-Morpork, even though they're nothing alike. One of these days, I'm going to go back and read the early books, like The Colour of Magic. My daughters Rachel and Olivia also like Pratchett's work; Rachel reads both his adult and young-adult titles, and Olivia enjoys listening to the Tiffany Aching books on CD.