Making Money

Moist von Lipwig is bored. The Post Office can now function without his intervention, the Clacks Towers are also on the mend, so people keep supplying him with increasingly boring reports, and, on top of everything, his fiance is off on a mysterious business trip. With no other heart-stopping adventures to rear themselves on their own, our intrepid (anti)hero has no choice but manufacture one. And things almost get out of hand... for a minute or two.

Lord Vetinari, ever attuned to his favorite conman's mood, is ready with a solution: the opportunity to "survive on [his] own wits against powerful and dangerous enemies, with every day presenting fresh challenges". And all Lipwig has to do is agree to take on the sketchy business of show more revamping The Royal Mint, along with the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork. His lack of banking experience may even help, so that he has no preconceptions.

I have first read this novel some 10 years prior, cuddled up in a tiny Parisian hotel room, much more interested in exploring the tourist sites, rather than the intricacies of financial humor. With almost no other social engagements to honour (courtesy of the current pandemic), I was able to give my full attention to the book. And what a fantastic ride it gave me!

I greatly enjoyed Lord Vetinari's ever changing tactics when it came to forcing gently cajoling people into doing his bidding. While in the prequel he would casual point out the (nearly) bottomless pit next to his office, this time around, he was quite happy to just leave things up to the (ex-)conman's imagination, allowing the man to slowly but surely work himself into a frenzy.

Then there was Cosmo Lavish with his obsessive stalking of the Patrician, firmly convinced that nothing short of stealing the man's identity would allow him to defeat Vetinari. An interesting plan, if only he weren't so easily duped into paying for fakes. As a reader though, following his delusional machinations certainly provided endless moments of entertainment.

There was precious little that I outright disliked in this story, mainly related to a very confusing memory of movie vs. book events from the prequel (see Going Postal). It seems that I got more attached to movie-Adora Belle's self-sufficiency than I thought, so I got rather annoyed at having Lipwig save her. But for those of you who have had the good sense to refrain from (re)watching the movie tens of times, this will probably be a non-issue.

Score: 4.6/5 stars

With two such different reading experiences behind me, I have to conclude that going through the prequel before embarking on this book made for a vast improvement.

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Other books starring Moist von Lipwig:
Review of book 1: Going Postal
Review of book 3: Raising Steam show less

Moist's life is now officially complete. He's got the Post Office up and running so efficiently he barely needs to do anything but fill out paperwork. His beautiful (but dangerous) fiancee is also successful even if that means she's often away on business. He is looking forward to his future as a married man and devoted civil servant. So why does he so often find himself scaling walls in the dark to pick locks that he already holds the keys to? Lord Vetenari feels he has the answer: Moist needs a new challenge.

Next on the list of civic problems is the failing royal mint. Despite his best efforts, Moist finds himself the de facto chairman of Ahnk Morpork's most important bank. The irony is not lost on him. But now he must turn around show more this failing edifice or face the assassins guild, or worse, the Patrician's disappointment.

A hilarious and infinitely pleasing sequel to Going Postal staring the world's most lovable conman. show less

Moist's life is now officially complete. He's got the Post Office up and running so efficiently he barely needs to do anything but fill out paperwork. His beautiful (but dangerous) fiancee is also successful even if that means she's often away on business. He is looking forward to his future as a married man and devoted civil servant. So why does he so often find himself scaling walls in the dark to pick locks that he already holds the keys to? Lord Vetenari feels he has the answer: Moist needs a new challenge.

Next on the list of civic problems is the failing royal mint. Despite his best efforts, Moist finds himself the de facto chairman of Ahnk Morpork's most important bank. The irony is not lost on him. But now he must turn around show more this failing edifice or face the assassins guild, or worse, the Patrician's disappointment.

A hilarious and infinitely pleasing sequel to Going Postal staring the world's most lovable conman. show less

Out of all the recent -- or perhaps going back to the very start -- Discworld books, there has never been one that struck right to the core absurdity of our world more than this one.

Maybe that's just me. Or maybe I just find money outrageously funny.

It's probably just me.

Regardless of my little foible, Pratchett strikes to the heart of the matter, making fun of the gold standard and illustrating to us the absurdity of the IDEA of money, while all the while giving us golems, golden suits, clown guilds, a dog who runs a bank, and a very interesting con-man who keeps finding himself in bigger and brighter boiling vats of oil.

This might be one of my very favorite Discworlds. :)

A 2007 novel, book 36 in the Discworld series, book 2 in the Moist von Lipwig series.

A former conman is appointed to run a bank.

B (Good).

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Overall it's a lot better than I'd expected, considering that it's (1) Moist von Lipwig, an underwhelming character, and (2) a book more-or-less about finance written by a rich old man in 2007.

(Sep. 2023)

When more-or-less reformed con-man Moist Lipwig is put in charge of the Ankh-Morpork Royal Bank and decides to introduce the notion of paper money, you know it's going to cause trouble.

As usual, Pratchett takes a motley collection of slightly off-center characters -- this time including a golem with definite ideas about gender roles, an entire wacko family of bank directors, a man locked in mortal combat with his own dentures, and a dog with interesting taste in toys -- and shovels them into the plot bucket, sets it spinning, and then sits back to enjoy the results.

Moist von Lipwig lives for risk, impossible odds, and the view from the point of no return, but being in charge of Ankh-Morpork's Post Office no longer gives him such satisfaction. Good thing, then, that one of the city's biggest banks needs a new chairman and is in all sorts of trouble. Throw in the threat of an approaching group of golden golems and the suspicion that the Patrician is pulling all the strings (including Moist's, as usual), and Moist may just get what he wants, to his very possible misfortune.
Moist has fast become one of my favorite Discworld characters, and he remains firmly in that position after this entry in the series. Interesting twists, excellent wordplay, and equally fantastic characters. I loved it.