Excuse me for a moment. I’ve just read the first chapter. Yeah. Chapter. WTF is PTerry doing writing in chapters??? He never writes in chapters! Didn’t he once say tht he felt chapters were unnatural to his flow of writing???
It’s pretty obscure even to Brits. I only know this from growing up with the army…
Apart from the well known SWALK on letters there are also NORWICH and BURMA which soldiers used to write on letters:
NORWICH: (k)Nickers Off, Ready When I Come Home
BURMA= I’m not sure on this but it’s something like Bum up Ready My Angel
In other words they’re saucy greetings for sweethearts.
It’s finally worked its way through the swamp of my memory…
BURMA = Be Upstairs Ready My Angel
I have a dirty mind.
I thought the first version sounded a little risque to be on the outside of the envelope 
Karefully Lay Across The Couch, Honey?
What?
LANCRE = Laying Awake, Needing Comfort, Ready for Embracing?
OK…I really needed to focus on work now…
2 very credible attempts silenus. I’m impressed
re: 12.5%…
Gilt is referred to as being piratical. Pirates’ parrots normally screech ‘pieces of eight’. Gilt’s a banker. 12.5% is 1/8, or a piece of eight.
Oh, I realize they are not from asimov. It just struck me, reading Going Postal that this particular golem reminds me a lot of the more basic robots (non-humaniform) in the Particular Books I’m reading (Naked Sun, and Robots of Dawn) Even down to the laws of robotics. The Golems seem to follow those laws too…
I get the feeling Pump 19 is following those laws to some extent.
P.S. I love the way Pratchett takes the piss out of the apostrophe to indicate "here comes an ‘s’ " crowd. And his little bit about criticism of snap judgements (something like, “one might assume the guy in the stripy jumper climbing through your window is just lost on his way to a fancy dress party”
Not particularly. Pump 19 is following the laws written on his Chem. That he must follow the words in his head. That’s all. Its not the laws of robotics per say, just a moral code, that’s written in his Chem. I can see where you’re seeing the parallels, but the golems are alive, as opposed to robots…
Absolutely. In fact, in the early pages of the book good ole Lord Vetinari shows the main character that Pump 19 is more than capable of hurting him aplenty if there ever is a need.
Oh, and by the way, I just finished the book. I did enjoy it but not as much as the previous ones. I think PTerry is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Not sure he can come up with other good works.
I’m really tempted to go Canadian and buy it and “Night Watch.” The US covers aren’t a patch on the UK versions.
Heck, I’d buy a poster of “Night Watch” if it were available. Shame so much great detail is lost on a small size.
Finished it last night! I’d put it right up there with “The Truth”, as someone here already opined. A good book! (I liked it better than “Monstrous Regiment” too)