Making Money
Book 31 in the Discworld series

by Terry Pratchett

Anybody who has read Going Postal (also reviewed on this site) will remember ex-conman Moist von Lipwig, just a boy from Uberwald but one who is definitely going places. Trouble is, the post office practically runs itself and Moist is so bored he has taken to trying to break into it just to keep his hand in! Something has to be done, and Lord Vetinari has just the plan - Moist is going to run the bank. For a man more used to robbing banks than working in them this seems a little strange, but what with a suspected vampire as head cashier, a strange Igor-built computer in the cellars and some sixty-thousand-year-old golems, strange doesn't even begin to describe the situation.

Ah, a new Terry Pratchett novel to read! This one is ostensibly about banking and the nature of money and value - which makes it sound boring - but also about style, and how it is everything. Moist has the conman's charm and sparkle, but contrasted with him is the icily sinister Patrician, a person who has so much style that somebody else is trying to become him. As ever, the Pratchett magic works best when there is a story and there is one in here, although at times is seems a bit forced and some parts of it don't seem to yield up all they could. But there is plenty to think about and the usual enjoyable mixture of absurdity, lampoon and story, plus two of Pratchett's most well-rounded characters (no, this does not mean that they are fat). Not perhaps up to the standard of Going Postal - some parts are almost a repeat of this - but a long way above something like The Lost Continent. Entertaining, compelling and hard to put down, in fact, which is possibly good enough. Like his characters, Pratchett can sell the sizzle whether the sausage is there or not.