Funny Money (Making Money - Terry Pratchett)

Name: SWSt

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Product:	Making Money - Terry Pratchett
Date:	01/11/07 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, highly readable

Disadvantages: Slightly shallow characters, Not a book for newcomers to DiscWorld

Having spoofed opera, films, publishing, the post office and goodness knows what else, Terry Pratchett turns his sharp sense of humour to the world of banking in the latest Discworld novel. You’d think that was an area ripe for skitting, wouldn’t you? And you’d be right as Pratchett turns in what is, for me, one of his best Discworld novels for some time.

The basic plot sees Moist Von Lipwig (last seen in Going Postal!) take over the Ankh Morpork Bank. When I saw Lipwig had been brought back, I was slightly concerned, as I never really warmed to him as a character first time round. Whilst Going Postal was OK, it was not one of the best in the series. This time round, however, Pratchett really seems to have got Lipwig nailed and produces a brilliant portrayal of a seemingly superficial and glib character who is fun to read about. Since he features in most of the book, this is just as well.

This being a Pratchett book, though, there are lots of other characters to share the load: from Adora Belle, Lipwig’s chain-smoking, golem obsessed girlfriend to Mr Bent, Chief Cashier at the Bank. In truth, many of these are superficially drawn and do sometimes seem a little bit too grotesque to be either real or likeable. Surprisingly, though, I didn't find this a problem. As with many Pratchett novels, there’s an awful lot of humour to be mined from the relationship between all the characters and the various misunderstandings (deliberate and otherwise) which emerge.Making Money may be simpler than many previous Discworld novels, but in some ways, this made it more fun.

Best of all, though, the Patrician, Lord Vetiniari, has one of his biggest starring roles, playing a central part in the plot. Often when formerly shady and mysterious characters are brought out in to the light, it’s disappointing and they prove to be weak and poorly developed. Here, though, Pratchett preserves Vetinari's previous character, whilst making him just a little bit more human.

Oh, and the Chairman of the Bank is a dog called Mr. Fusspot! You wouldn’t believe how much humour Pratchett can get out of descriptions of a character whose only contribution to dialogue is “woof!”

Humour-wise, it’s as wide-ranging as you would expect , with sly digs at just about everything. The humour covers all tastes from visual gags to word play to slapstick and hilarious misunderstandings. Where Pratchett often shines though, is in his descriptions. He has a way with words which describes things perfectly whilst at the same time being very funny indeed. Some of his descriptions of the antics of Mr. Fusspot, for example, are hilarious. Read this book in public at your peril. I found myself laughing out loud on several occasions, and attracted some pretty strange looks!

This is all backed up by a interesting plot which (within the confines of the Discworld!) makes sense and draws the reader in. Often Pratchett plots don’t make a lot of sense and are only there as something to hang the characters or the humour on. Making Money, though, sees them all come together perfectly to create a very funny, very readable book.

It also has a fantastic, utterly stupid ending. Pratchett deliberately spends the whole book leading you down a blind alley and then pulls a completely unexpected development out of the bag. It should be very silly and pathetic, but Pratchett knows his stuff and somehow manages to pull it off. This is unusual, as I often feel that the endings are the weakest part of Pratchett’s books and that he sometimes has a tendency to go on just 20 or 30 pages too long. Not here, though. The ending is perfect and the book keeps you gripped until the end – in fact, I didn’t want it to finish. When I reached the last page that I couldn’t have more!

Interestingly, for the first time in his books aimed at the adult market, Pratchett has decided to write in chapters. It’s surprising what a difference this makes to the readability of the text. Rather than being faced with page after page of text with only small breaks between sections, there are proper chapters, making it much easier to sit down and read. It also enhances that “just a bit more” feeling: that feeling where you’re getting tired, but browse ahead and see you’ve only got a few pages to the end of the chapter and so carry on. This was much more difficult with previous Pratchett books.

There’s only a couple of downsides I can think of, and these are fairly minor ones. Firstly, Pratchett is gradually bringing Discworld closer to the real world. Whilst there’s always been elements of that, they are getting stronger with each novel. Discworld used to have its own distinctive feel and flavour, increasingly, it’s becoming like a slightly strange version of Earth. I enjoyed reading previous novels because they were so different to normal life. Now the two are beginning to intertwine a little too much for my liking.

Secondly, I wouldn’t advise reading this as your first Discworld novel. Most of his books can be read as standalone stories. This one, however, does very much build on his previous books – particularly Going Postal and Feet of Clay. There is an assumption that, at the least, you will be familiar with most of the basic characters. Whilst a new reader would still get a lot of enjoyment out of the book, you will get much more out of it if you are aware of previous events in the lives of the various characters.

Likewise, just occasionally, it appears that Pratchett is trying a little too hard to shoehorn characters from his previous books into the storyline. Rather than just concentrate on the main characters, he pulls in people from lots of his other books. It's almost as though he went to a fan convention and took a survey on favourite characters, then made sure they were all included to maximise the book's market potential.

As I say, though, these are fairly minor criticisms in what is one of the funniest, most readable Discworld books for years.

Basic Information
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Making Money
Terry Pratchett
Doubleday, 2007-10-19
ISBN: 978-0385611015

Available new from Amazon for £9.50

Incidentally, part of the plot deals with the collapse of a bank... and it was released around the time of the Northern Rock incident. Co-incidence? Or did Pratchett pull off an audacious marketing ploy to make his book more relevant ?

;-)

© Copyright SWSt 2007

Summary: It'll sell well - you can BANK on that!