Ripped off by Pratchett. (Making Money - Terry Pratchett)

Name: dididave

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	Making Money - Terry Pratchett
Date:	08/10/07 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: If you like the lead character and adore Discworld you may get something out of this.

Disadvantages: Dull, slow reading, Unbelievable, shallow characters.

Moist von Lipwig is a lucky man. He has escaped hanging to become a hugely successful Postmaster General, find the girl of his dreams and and launch the new cabbage flavoured stamp. However, Moist gets bored very easily and longs for the excitement and challenges of his old life. Unfortunately, for him he might just get more excitement than he can handle when he finds himself in charge of Ankh Morpork's Royal Mint and bank. When your boss is a dog and you are about to be exposed as a massive fraud life can certainly no longer be accused of being dull. The question is does Moist have what it takes to evade his enemies and finally get the bank making money?

"Making Money" is the second outing for Moist von Lipwig and the thirty-first Discworld novel. This should instantly warn you that this is perhaps not the novel to start on if you are a newcomer to the series. Although "Making Money is not inaccessible, Pratchett has an increasing reliance on the reader being one of his huge fan base. As such, many characters pop up who are considered "regulars" with little or no explanation as to who they are and how they got there. Those wishing to start the series may be better served by his earlier novels or even by his previous Discworld novel "Going Postal", in which we first meet our protagonist Moist von Lipwig.

So, certainly not a standalone novel, "Making Money" carries on were "Going Postal" left off. How much you enjoyed "Going Postal" is going to impact heavily on how much you enjoy this. You see this is pretty much more of the same. The setting has changed from Post Office to Bank, there are a host of new characters but other than that there is nothing new here. This is were "Making Money" becomes something of a problem to me. I was not particularly enamoured with Moist von Lipwig's character in "Going Postal". We are expected to like him as a loveable rogue, a "Del-boy" style chancer who has conned his way through life. I just do not buy it. Lipwig is supposed a character that oozes style and can "talk the talk" yet he lacks depth and as such I can share no empathy with him. As the novel revolves around Lipwig if you do not like the character, you will really struggle to enjoy the story. I know I did.

The cast of supporting characters also lack depth and, apart from a wonderfully eccentric villain, seem to just meander for long periods of the book with no real purpose. There is a lack of fun and humour in "Making Money" the like of which a Pratchett novel has never seen and the plot takes so long to get going that it is really hard to care what happens.

Pratchett seems to be getting into a "Discworld by numbers" scenario as he concentrates on his other ventures and "Making Money" seems to be a case of ticking boxes and ensuring popular characters all get cameos without any real purpose. Perhaps, my major issue with this novel is that the city of Ankh Morpork has become all too real. No longer is it a parody of our world but it almost seems to be becoming part of it and for me when a Discworld fantasy novel loses its sense of escapism in favour of realism then it is a sad day.

One can only hope that Pratchett will think about writing more novels away from Ankh Morpork as this is were the future of the series lies as illustrated in the wonderful Monstrous Regiment and Tiffany Aching books. Alas, "Making money" only make me feel robbed of the trademark good tale riddled with poignant humour I have come to expect from Pratchett. Not even worth the money at paperback price and only idiotic fans such as myself would still buy this.

Summary: The worst Discworld novel in a long time.