by Author Name Withheld 125

Created on: June 03, 2010

Moist Von Lipwig is bored.  Not content with making a roaring success of the Post Office service in Ankh-Morpork, the former con-man and non-violent master criminal, has resorted to picking his own locks and extreme building climbing in order to fulfil his desire for kicks and excitement.  The problem is, he was far too good at turning the Post Office around.  It's now boringly efficient and thanks to his supreme powers of delegation, he and his gold-suit and winged hat are not really needed.

When the tyrant Vetinari pitches to him the offer of the role of Master of the Mint at the Ankh-Morpork Royal Bank, his interest is piqued but it's not until a bequethment (sic) of the Chairman (a pug-faced dog named Mr Fusspot) to his care does he decide to turn the ailing bank around and perhaps fulfil a life-long ambition, the power to make ones own money.  The assassins bolt and subsequent contract on his life if he failed in this regard probably helped the decision.

Making Money is the anticipated sequel to Going Postal and carries on the adventures of the lovable rogue Moist Von Lipwig.  Adora Belle Dearheart, his love-interest with a neat line in sarcastic comments, makes a spiky appearance, along with her beloved Golems.  The rivals to Moist and the banks fortune lie within the Lavish family, of money so old that their ill-gotten gains have preceded all current law.  The main patriarch, Cosmo Lavish, is a grotesque caricature of the man he aspires to be the most, the Patrician himself, Vetinari.

Aping the banking system as he did with the postal system before, Sir Terry returns to the Discworld with his usual blend of wit, charm and imagination.  Moist is full of big ideas and it's a delight to share in his thought process as he loudly proclaims the next big thing to come from the Bank.  The invention of paper money, the abolition and subsequent lack of dependency in gold (who gives gold its perceived value is a question often pondered in the book) and other ideas Moist pursues with a clueless, almost religious zeal.  Having been hung to within an inch of his life in Going Postal, Moist leads a charmed existence and he carries on here with his boisterous, extravagant style. 

It's not all plain sailing though.  The master villain didn't quite add up (ho ho) this time around.  In Cosmo Lavish, a man so inexorably stupid, belligerent and asinine, he would surely not have escaped Vetinari's eagle eye

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>