Going Postal: a Novel of Discworld / by Terry Pratchett

Sci-Fi/Fantasy author Terry Pratchett has essentially ingrafted another dimension onto the genre with his 30+ Discworld novels about a pseudo-parallel universe existing within a spherical disc-shaped world.
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A career con-artist, Moist von Lipwig has always maneuvered life’s little travails; although now, under the current circumstances, he seems to have met his match. Imprisoned in Ankh-Morpork municipal jail and scheduled to be hanged, Moist’s fate seems a foregone conclusion until—right under his nose—his death is faked and the magistrate, Lord Vetinari, offers him a choice: death by suicide or become head of the city’s woefully neglected post office. The latter choice turns out to be not quite the reprieve Moist expected as the post office, unoperational for years, has literally filled to the brim with undelivered mail. With limited resources and even fewer personnel—only the elderly “junior” postman Groat and narrow-minded Stanley remain from the old staff—Moist makes what he can out of his new situation, learning to gauge the position’s responsibilities and interact with its “ghost reality” simultaneously.

(SPOILERS!!!)
The original downfall of the post office, Moist later learns, occurred because of the “trans-dimensional letter-sorting machine". An invention of the infamous Bloody Stupid Johnson, the machine enabled the sorting of unwritten letters (“ghost reality”), a calamitous operational error effecting a disproportionate amount of mail to be processed. Through Moist’s rather practical angle of employing postage stamps and 'golem' creatures for delivery, the post office finally gets back on its feet, even gaining unwanted attention from the rival Grand Trunk Clacks line. Before long the Clacks chairman, Reacher Gilt, sets a banshee assassin after Moist with the intention of ending the reign of the new postmaster, only managing to burn down the building as an unsuccessful end result. Moist’s prompt escape and confrontation with Gilt escalates into a challenge of honor; a race between the Clacks line and post office to see who can fastest deliver a letter to Genua.
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Published in 2004, Going Postal, while Pratchett’s 33rd Discworld novel, is the first to feature the character of Moist von Lipwig. The story contains many--characteristic of Pratchett--references to modern-day reality (“The Smoking Gnu”, Gilt’s lavish Gatsby-esque parties, AT&T, etc.), subtly poking fun at life in the digital age. It's Pratchett's language that most catches the reader's eye, a quirky jumble of inventive words and alliteration reminiscent of Dickens or Lewis Carroll with the witty, if patronizing, jabs directed at the status quo. While its a fun read for anyone, the novel's (and Discworld in general) clever nuances make for a unique dynamic within the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre, a contrivance of scene and characters seemingly far-removed from reality and yet strangely mirroring our own world.