Title: Making Money
Author: Terry Pratchett
Read By: Stephen Briggs
Publisher: HarperAudio
Published: September 2007
Where I got the book: Audible

From the back cover:

Postmaster general Moist von Lipwig, former arch-swindler and confidence man, has exceeded all expectations in running the Ankh-Morpork Post Office. So it’s somewhat disconcerting when Lord Vetinari summons Moist to the palace and asks, “Tell me, Mr. Lipwig, would you like to make some real money?”

Vetinari isn’t talking about wages. He’s referring to the Royal Mint of Ankh-Morpork that has run on the hereditary employment of the Men of the Sheds, who do make money in their spare time. Unfortunately, it costs more than a penny to make a penny, so the whole process seems somewhat counter-intuitive.

But before Moist has time to fully consider Vetinari’s question, fate answers it for him. Now he’s not only making money, but enemies, too; he’s got to spring a prisoner from jail, break into his own bank vault, stop the new manager from licking his face and, above all, find out where all the gold has gone—otherwise, his life in banking, while very exciting, is going to be really, really short . . .

Review:

I feel that i’ve dabbled enough in the Discworld series to safely state that Moist von Lipwig is my favorite central character. Death would come in a close second. The downside of Moist is that he’s only been featured in two books so far, Going Postal and Making Money. Both books focus on an industry that is just completely messed up and it’s up to Moist to turn them around and make them both functional and profitable.

In Making Money, Moist “accepts” as position as head of the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork and the Royal Mint. Naturally, things are a bit chaotic there. The biggest challenge he faces, aside from bank shareholder’s not trusting him, is the face that people’s believe in order for a bank to function, it must have gold. With his past success at the Royal Post Office (in Going Postal), Moist implements a few tricks he learned and introduces paper money to the citizens of Ankh-Morpork much to their confusion.

One of the things that I really liked about this book is how timely it is. It tackles modern day issues while still taking place in the fantasy setting of Discworld. It’s a delicate balance that Pratchett manages to pull off well in this book.

The audiobook version was ready rather well by Stephen Briggs who has narrated all the Discworld audiobooks that I’ve listened too. He does a fantastic job with all the characters and now can not imagine listening to one with somebody else reading it.

Closing Thoughts: Overall, I would have to say Making Money would be my favorite Discworld book so far. It’s funny, the characters are interesting and the overall story shared parallels with today’s society.

Question: Who is your favorite Discworld character(s)?

Tags: book review, Discworld, Making Money, Terry

Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 4:39 pm.
Filed under: Book Review.