Amadan na Briona

Okay, so this wasn't brilliant or incredibly original or anything that a 5-star novel should normally be, but it was funny and fast-paced and hugely entertaining. Pratchett's Discworld, with its hodge-podge of technologies, cultures, and magic, into which he shoehorns whatever anachronistic notion works for the story, shouldn't work as well as it does, but somehow you suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the ride.

Starting with the cringeingly-named protagonist "Moist von Lipwig," Going Postal is a farce with a heart. Lipwig is drafted into running Ankh-Morpork's moribund Post Office, finds himself in competition with the evil Grand Trunk clacks company, and uses all of his evil, swindling, scheming tricks to do good, quite against his will.

The book takes shots at government employees, private corporations, finance, hackers, university politics, and all sorts of other things, all in the guise of being a humorous fantasy novel. I'm not usually a big fan of humor, though I am a fan of satire, and I hate puns, but Pratchett's puns actually made me laugh. So do his clever wordplays, even when he's being self-indulgent. And underneath the satire and the tongue-in-cheek worldbuilding, it's a good old-fashioned "bad guy makes good, saves the day, and gets the girl" romance. Highly recommended as a good, fun, light read.