Going Postal, a discworld novel by Terry Pratchett.
Moist Von Lipwig is a face in the crowd, even when he is by himself.
He uses his natural gifts of a unremarkable face, irresistible showmanship and a silver tongue to defraud, trick, pass false cheques and generally relieve fools of their money.
As fools like to keep hold of their various monies, some less than foolish persons have tracked him down, caught him and thrown him into an Ankh-Morpork jail cell for the six weeks he has before he is to be hanged. For six weeks Moist has been chipping away with a spoon at the crumbling mortar around the large stone in the wall to which he is chained. His spoon is now a stub, his mattress is full of mortar and the rock is almost free. One last tug and it is free and behind it he finds.......
.......... Another spoon, another rock and some suspiciously new mortar. He whimpers. The guards walk and see that the rock is free, one of them grumbles and hands the other some money.
After a short explanation of why he was led to believe he could win his freedom involving "occupational therapy", "keeps you from moping" and "the greatest gift of all, hope" he is taken to the gallows and hung. CRACK! The lights go out.
"Mr Lipwig, Have you ever heard of Angels?"
After being hung to within an inch of his life Moist von Lipwig is offered a choice, be hung for real or aid the ailing Ankh-Morpork postal service.
It is a tough decision.
I am a bit of a diehard Terry Pratchett fan but this is one of the prime examples of his work, just real enough to be believable but the situations and people are quite literally out of this world, a lively and likeable contrast to the normal and ploding plot lines of most other books, have fun reading it =)
Moist Von Lipwig is a face in the crowd, even when he is by himself.
He uses his natural gifts of a unremarkable face, irresistible showmanship and a silver tongue to defraud, trick, pass false cheques and generally relieve fools of their money.
As fools like to keep hold of their various monies, some less than foolish persons have tracked him down, caught him and thrown him into an Ankh-Morpork jail cell for the six weeks he has before he is to be hanged. For six weeks Moist has been chipping away with a spoon at the crumbling mortar around the large stone in the wall to which he is chained. His spoon is now a stub, his mattress is full of mortar and the rock is almost free. One last tug and it is free and behind it he finds.......
.......... Another spoon, another rock and some suspiciously new mortar. He whimpers. The guards walk and see that the rock is free, one of them grumbles and hands the other some money.
After a short explanation of why he was led to believe he could win his freedom involving "occupational therapy", "keeps you from moping" and "the greatest gift of all, hope" he is taken to the gallows and hung. CRACK! The lights go out.
"Mr Lipwig, Have you ever heard of Angels?"
After being hung to within an inch of his life Moist von Lipwig is offered a choice, be hung for real or aid the ailing Ankh-Morpork postal service.
It is a tough decision.
I am a bit of a diehard Terry Pratchett fan but this is one of the prime examples of his work, just real enough to be believable but the situations and people are quite literally out of this world, a lively and likeable contrast to the normal and ploding plot lines of most other books, have fun reading it =)
