Going Postal

 Going Postal by Terry Pratchett, 484 pages.

Moist Von Lipwig (unfortunately his real name), con artist extraordinaire, is given a difficult choice by the dictator of Ankh Morpork. Get the postal service running again or be hanged. Deciding that he'll probably be able to wiggle out of it later, and would also really rather not die, he decides to take up the role of postmaster. It turns out to be more dangerous than he had anticipated, in part because of the standard concentrated weirdness of the Discworld setting, and in part because he's put himself in direct competition with the Clacks (think an early telegraph system) and their brutal corporate sponsors.

I've read a number of Discworld books before, including some set in Ankh Morpork, but this is my first in the subseries featuring Moist Von Lipwig. Like all of the Discworld novels it is of course very funny and full of interesting satire, but I also feel like I felt more anger from the author in this book than the earlier ones I had read. Although twenty years old, it still feels depressingly relevant today. I also found our new set of characters very engaging, and will definitely read the other two books that feature them.