Terry Pratchett’s Making Money is a sequel to Going Postal. Having gotten the Post Office working smoothly, Moist von Lipwig is going crazy with boredom. Nevertheless, he’s turned down Lord Vetinari’s offer to run the Royal Bank, when external events force him to take it—much to the displeasure of the family who owns 49% of the Bank, and is one life away from owning it all . . .
On one hand, this was perfect for a train ride home after the culmination of an exhausting couple of weeks. It has a dog, some good improvisational moments from Moist, and a number of sentence-level jokes that made me smile. On the other, it felt kind of empty in the middle. It reminds me a bit of recent Dortmunder novels: not much happens, but in an competent and entertaining way. Except that Going Postal was so packed with happenings that this book suffers in comparison.
Also, Harper should be ashamed of itself for once again publishing a Discworld book in which the number one (1) is substituted for a capital letter i (I) and so forth.
Finally, a spoilerly remark (ROT13; see sidebar): qbrf nalbar ryfr guvax zbvfg jvyy raq hc cngevpvna?
qbrf nalbar ryfr guvax zbvfg jvyy raq hc cngevpvna
Yes. As I posted on a forum today:
Bar guvat V jbaqre: vf Irgvanev tebbzvat iba Yvcjvt nf uvf fhpprffbe?
It makes a lot of sense to me, all things considered, where not much else has.
Glad to see I’m not the only one.
I agree with rot13 too.
Also with the fact it wasn’t as manic as the post office was. I’m not sure if that’s because Moist is not a great recurring character, or if banking is inherently less interesting.
Best thing about this book for me was: more Vetinari.
Kvon: Vetinari does get some very good lines in this. Especially when mentally heard in Stephen Briggs’ characterization, for me.
Stephen Briggs does a good job of the audio version of this, as always, but the audiobook contains music that appears to be keyed to the start and end of each _compact disc_, and thus is intrusive and annoying in a two-part digital download.