Let's go
Ab die Post (original title: Going Postal ) is the thirty-third Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett . It was published in 2004 and in 2005 was shortlisted for both the Locus Award and the Nebula for best fantasy novel. The action takes place in Ankh-Morpork. Ab die Post is one of the cultural stories and introduces Feucht von Lipwig as the protagonist for the first time. The successful con artist is supposed to reorganize the city's ailing postal system.
Ab die Post reflects on various social issues such as the history of the post office , responsible government work , semaphores , hackers , organized crime , monopolies , turbo-capitalism , the smoking gun and philately .
action
Lord Vetinari has his own ideas when it comes to recruiting and filling vacancies. He even puts convicted criminals into service if he sees them as having the potential to serve Ankh-Morpork . His knowledge of human nature is seldom wrong.
The city needs a new post minister. Vetinari sentences the gentleman con man Albert Spangler to death and lets him hang. After Feucht von Lipwig , as Spangler is really called, surprisingly comes to himself again, the patrician gives him the choice of either accepting the post of post minister or of finally dying from a fall. Feucht decided on the new job for the time being, but took flight at the first opportunity and galloped out of town. However, Vetinari has already used the golem Mr. Pump as his probation officer, who follows Feucht day and night based on his karmic signature. Feucht recognizes his hopelessness and takes up his new job.
No letter has left the post office in 20 years. The undelivered letters clog the entire dilapidated building. From his only two employees, the old junior postman Mr. Grütze and the young postman candidate Stanley, Feucht learns that the installation of the innovative sorting system for the absolutely crazy Johnson had heralded the end.
Reluctantly, Feucht begins to reorganize the postal service and first tackles the battered frieze of writing above the entrance. He persuades Hugo S., the owner of the hairdressing salon of the same name, to return the letters on his shop sign to the post office, including a generous donation. Then he delivers one of the ancient letters to the greengrocer Parker.
The secret society of postmen checks Feucht - the "unpaid man" - and then recognizes him as the actual post office minister. Things are moving and mail is being delivered. However, the deliverers are only a few old post pensioners who are no longer up to the pitfalls of everyday postman's life. That is why Feucht visits Adora Belle Liebherz's Golem Foundation. Feucht's advertisement for this beautiful but cynical young woman is another narrative thread of the novel.
First he takes over all free golems from her foundation, paints them blue and gold and puts them to the side of the old deliverers as assistants. Two and a half meters tall postmen are causing a stir, and that's what Feucht wants to achieve. He himself now wears a gold suit and a gold winged cap. His latest invention, the postage stamp , immediately enjoyed great popularity. It is even used as an unofficial currency. Now it is no longer just old letters that are being delivered, new, fresh mail is constantly arriving and not only for Ankh-Morpork, but for all cities in the area.
In this situation, the unscrupulous entrepreneur Reacher Gilt finds himself disturbed. Through a hostile takeover, he became the owner of the "Großer Strand", the operating company of the semaphores . The Post's success threatens to become a competitor to telegraphy. Especially because since Gilt's takeover, reliability has declined in favor of profit. Applies orders to eliminate the disruptive competitor. Feucht managed to avoid this attack, but the post office burned down to the ground.
After Feucht's personal encounter with Reacher Gilt, he knows that Reacher Gilt is an even bigger con man than Feucht was in his prime. Now Feucht's ambition awakens to hunt down this titan from a deceiver. He promises Adora Belle Liebherz, whose family was driven into ruin by Gilt, to destroy the chairman of the Klackergesellschaft within a week.
Feucht wants to use his previously crooked fortune to build the post office. In order to wash it clean, he writes a letter to the gods in public, in which he asks for assistance. Then he pretends to have received the site plan for a treasure of 150,000 Ankh Morpork dollars in a dream.
Next, Feucht challenges the Big Strand competitors to a competition. He bets that he can take the mail coach to Gennua , 2000 miles away, faster than the clacker. The post office minister can rely on the support of the "Smoking Gnu", a group of three hackers who could shut down the entire line if Feucht asked them to, but his plan is only to shut down Reacher Gilt.
During the race, the hackers are supposed to exchange the original message. Feucht feeds an indictment against the board of directors of the Große Strand into the clack system, which apparently comes from the deceased victims of the society. This leads to the arrest of Reacher Gilt and the Große Strand is initially placed under state supervision and provisionally placed under the responsibility of the post office minister.
Others
Filmed as a two-part television film by Sky in 2010. Published in Germany under the title " Terry Pratchett - Ab die Post ".
expenditure
- German edition: Munich, 2006, ISBN 3-442-54608-7
- Abridged audio book, speaker Peer Augustinski , ISBN 3-86604-036-9
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2005 Award Winners & Nominees. Worlds Without End, September 28, 2009, accessed December 1, 2019 .