bookgazing | Making Money - Terry Pratchett

‘Making Money’ is the sequel to Terry Pratchett’s ‘Going Postal’, which followed Moist Lipwig, aka notorious con man Albert Spangler, after his hanging doesn’t quite come off right and he’s offered a new life by the ruler of Ankh Morpork, as long as he agrees to take a job reforming the postal system. I thought ‘Going Postal’ was the freshest Discworld novel for some time, with the addition of a really new set of characters, rather than characters who are slightly different retreads of personalities that Pratchett has written before ( Tiffany Aching, I’m looking at you). I was excited about this book, but also quite afraid of being disappointed. I think every reader has had that terrible moment where a sequel book just doesn’t live up to the first book and as much as you love the characters you can’t continue down the road with them. I was so bedazzled by Moist and his love interest Spike at the end of ‘Going Postal’ that I was getting really keyed up about this book possibly being terrible.

Hurray, hurray this book is fabulous and it made me want to reread ‘Going Postal’ (I thought I’d a had a fit of ‘you can’t keep all the books’ and given it away, but I eventually found it in a trunk). I’ve decided Moist is a combination of early Vimes and Rincewind, but with a special charisma that is all his own. In Spike, Pratchett has created a truly new kind of Discworld woman. At first I thought she was a bit like a less polite Sybil, or like an unrestrained Angua, but she’s none of those, she’s just Spike the woman who’s extremely caring, independent and cynical and goes everywhere in deadly six inch heels.

I liked it very much (and for all those people who said Spider the dog was their favourite character in ‘The Woman in Black’ there is a dog called ‘Mr Fusspot’ who eats sticky toffee pudding in ‘Making Money’). I recommend it to all Pratchett fans and anyone who likes satire, or a book about the grand old fight between good and evil. Usually there’s no need to read Discworld books in order, but I think in this case you need to acquaint yourself with Moist in ‘Going Postal’ before reading ‘Making Money’, otherwise quite a bit won’t make sense.

Hopefully in just a few months a copy of ‘Unseen Academicals’ will appear under the Christmas tree. I’m sort of considering rereading a few Discworld books in the future (for most this will be the fourth of fifth time I’ve read them), but I’m not sure which ones to choose. What are your top three Discworld novels?

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