Making Money (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Making Money (Discworld)
Book Review: I think I've read this before...
Summary: 3 Stars
I love Terry Pratchett's discworld novels (and his other works) and usually rate them very highly, but this one seems to be a lot like its predecessor 'Going Postal' (which was a classic). Same storyline and characters; though thankfully - different jokes and historical musings.
I suppose everybody is entitled to at least one dud and although it is not a total loss as it has its funny moments, I can't help thinking that there was something lacking in this offering.
If this was a school report card, it would read:
Could do better, least he turned up.
Book Review: Tired but still better than the competition
Summary: 3 Stars
Many others have commented before so I only want to express my disappointment that the master's slip is showing as it were. I believe that Terry's last few novels have been less than perfect and this one is another rung down the ladder. But having said that I read it virtually overnight and it is still the benchmark that other comedy fantasists have to reach and seldom overcome. Unfortunately having set the bar so high he doesn't quite make it over this time.Book Review: Getting a little tired?
Summary: 3 Stars
I've read all the Discworld novels as they have been released in paperback, but until now I've never had an inkling that the franchise might be running out of steam. Here, though, we have a novel whose central plot seems rather familiar - a rogue taking the helm of a crusty and inefficient organisation and with a few bizarre pieces of inspiration confounding his critics. The subplots seem recycled, too, and some of the supposedly new characters are rather familiar Discworld stereotypes. The gags are still fresh, though, although we're down from a belly laugh per page to perhaps a good chuckle per chapter.
But even here, in his least successful Discworld novel, he remains in the top two fantasy humourists writing today. This book can only be considered a failure when judged against Pratchett's own extraordinary standards.
Book Review: An enjoyable series of sub-plots
Summary: 4 Stars
Firstly, I enjoyed this book. Its the second Moist story- I found him to be a likeable character- a rouge, but paradoxically an honest rogue. Pratchett writes with a great deal of skill to develop this character- and it works- you WANT him to win, you like him... you would trust your money with him. Which is, of course, exactly what this story is about. Its about a bank being run by a con man, the key issue is trust. What is money WORTH? How do you trust paper money over gold? Well, Moist has his way...
What I found different about this book was the large number of sub plots- really just sub-stories that had a rather vauge (and ultimatly irrelevant) conenction to the main plot. They were, never the less, interesting strands, all of which came to funny and amusing endings. Cosmo Lavish has an interesting scheme, for example, which just seemed to fizzle. There is the dog, Mr Fusspot, who is probably involved in what is Pratchetts most risque little joke ever (what HAS he got in his mouth)- and its very funny. The ending to Mr Fusspot's story is hearwarming, and totally unexpected. The reader is left to speculate exactly what is going on there- almost certainly two things, in fact. We also have Hubert, who is a bit mad, building some sort of computer and Adora Bell Dearheart's work with the gollums - which in fairness is relevant. Add to this a female lovestruck gollum, and finally a horny 300 year old dead wizard....
Pratchett clearly had a lot of ideas and new characters and as such it seems a lot was squeezed into this despite the fact that most really weren't required as part of the main plot. There is also a new central character- Mr Bent- with a very unusual background, who proves to be a key figure.
We may indeed see a lot of these charatcers again, maybe even developed a little more (the Hubert strand for example went nowhere) although the wizard now seems happy to stay where he is.
If I have any criticisms of this book it is that the dramatic ending seems a little rushed and unspectacular. I also feel that the watch, especially Vimes and Carrot, shouldn't have been here at all. Their roles appear here as nothing more than bog-standard policemen whoes job is just to arrest people, boring and irrelvant extras. Pratchett is playing a dangerous game by using the stars of his other books in such a mundane fashion.
Book Review: The series is still going strong
Summary: 4 Stars
I think in recent years there's been a tendency to take Terry Pratchett for granted. He has consistently churned out, on average, two high-quality novels a year for the better part of a quarter of a century. His Discworld is one of the most fleshed-out secondary worlds in existence. Ankh-Morpork is routinely voted 'greatest fantasy city' ever. Out of 36 Discworld and a dozen non-Discworld novels, there are very few which can be said to be sub-par. There seemed to be this assumption that this was going to carry on for some considerable time to come. With the announcement of his illness last year that seems to have changed, and each new Pratchett novel is likely to garner more coverage and more interest than ever before.
Making Money is the 36th Discworld novel and its paperback release comes in the year that the flat world carried through space on the back of a giant turtle celebrates its 25th anniversary; The Colour of Magic, the first book in the series, was published in 1983. The book is also the sequel to an earlier Discworld novel, Going Postal. In that book, conman Moist von Lipwig was rescued from the gallows by the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari, and set to work restoring the Post Office to its former glory. He succeeded handsomely.
Making Money opens a year later. The Post Office is a roaring success, but Moist is feeling a little bored, and has taken to breaking into his own bedroom to keep his skills fresh. The Patrician seems to have concluded that Moist would make an excellent troubleshooter to sort out Ankh-Morpork's other failing public services and tasks him with getting the Ankh-Morpork Bank back on its feet after the former chairwoman passed away, leaving her dog, Mr. Fusspot, to inherit the role of chairman. Moist is initially reluctant, but soon relishes the new challenge. Unfortunately, a family who own a share in the bank, the Lavishes, are not so keen on Moist's appointment and are soon digging into his dirty past to find something to use against him. Thrown into the mix are lots of golems (including a rather gender-confused one), an undead necromancer with an eye for the ladies, a very dedicated bank clerk and a lot of clockwork items of an intimate nature.
As usual, the book is an effortless read. Pratchett's prose sparkles and flows as easily as ever, although careful reading is required to catch every observation and piece of satire as it flies past. Pratchett's typical approach of standing back, putting a mirror in front of something we take for granted (banking, in this case) and saying, "Look, this is a really daft system on quite a few levels," is again quite successful here. As with the other later Discworld novels, the broad out-and-out humour takes a back seat to more wry observations, although a comical interlude involving a dog becoming attached to a new 'rubber chew toy' that in this case has fallen out of a cupboard of erotica, and then playing with it in polite company, shows that Pratchett still has time for a good old-fashioned piece of outrageous farce. That said, as with a number of other Pratchett novels the ending is somewhat contrived and the characters get out of the various fixes they're in with some fast-talk, handwaving and a nod from the Patrician, which is a resolution that has perhaps been used a few too many times in this series.
Whilst it's not up there with the series at its best, and the tendency for characters who are intelligent and forthright in their own books to come across a bit as bumbling fools when appearing in cameos outside them (in this case various members of the City Watch) is a bit wearying, Making Money is a solid addition to the series and adds a lot to the evolution of Discworld and Ankh-Morpork (which is now starting to get its own underground rail network, the Undertaking). Somewhat unusually for the series, the ending also sets up a third Moist von Lipwig adventure, Raising Taxes, which is likely to be another two or three Discworld books down the road.