Making Money

Moist von Lipwig is, once again, up to questionable good in Terry Pratchett’s Making Money. Since the Post Office and the Clacks are now both running smoothly, Moist finds himself getting a little bored. Luckily for Moist, Vetinari has a new scheme in mind. The chairperson, Topsy Lavish, of one of Ankh Morpork’s banks is about to die and Vetinari uses this as an opportunity to overhaul the banking system.

Moist goes at this with his usual zeal and forward thinking. Unfortunately, the rest of the Lavish family does not want anything to do with what will spell the end of their easy going days. Enter Cosmo Lavish, the step-son of Topsy, who believes he has the real rights to the bank, and also is attempting to not only usurp Vetinari, but in fact become him.

Pratchett really has something special going with the Moist character. Moist fits perfectly into what Pratchett does best, that being poking fun at reality. Since Moist is ostensibly now a good guy, but with a checkered past, he can get away with a lot of slightly ambiguous things, which characters like Captain Carrot or Commander Vimes could not.

The secondary characters in this novel are also among the best that Pratchett has created. Mr. Bent the lead cashier, whose brain works best on number crunching and is devoted to the “gold standard” but whose past is shrouded in darkness is a brilliant anti-Moist. Cosmo’s descent into Vetinari-ness (insanity) is quite amusing as well. The chairman of the bank, Mr. Fusspot, and his new “toy” are also enough to bring an instant laugh.

This is definitely one of the better forays into the Discworld in quite some time. Plenty of political intrigue, misguided golems, and of course some Igor related mishaps. The novel makes you think about what really make’s Money valuable. I give this novel a 4.5/5.