Making Money: Discworld #36

By: Terry Pratchett

Narrated by: Stephen Briggs

Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Ankh-Morpork Post Office is running like...well, not at all like a government office. The mail is delivered promptly; meetings start and end on time; five out of six letters relegated to the Blind Letter Office ultimately wend their way to the correct addresses. Postmaster General Moist von Lipwig, former arch-swindler and confidence man, has exceeded all expectations: including his own. So it's somewhat disconcerting when Lord Vetinari summons Moist to the palace and asks, "Tell me, Mr. Lipwig, would you like to make some real money?"

Vetinari isn't talking about wages, of course. He's referring, rather, to the Royal Mint of Ankh-Morpork, a venerable institution that has run for centuries on the hereditary employment of the Men of the Sheds and their loyal outworkers, who do make money in their spare time. Unfortunately, it costs more than a penny to make a penny, so the whole process seems somewhat counterintuitive.

Next door, at the Royal Bank, the Glooper, an "analogy machine", has scientifically established that one never has quite as much money at the end of the week as one thinks one should, and the bank's chairman, one elderly Topsy (née Turvy) Lavish, keeps two loaded crossbows at her desk. Oh, and the chief clerk is probably a vampire.

But before Moist has time to fully consider Vetinari's question, fate answers it for him. Now he's not only making money, but enemies too; he's got to spring a prisoner from jail, break into his own bank vault, stop the new manager from licking his face, and, above all, find out where all the gold has gone: otherwise, his life in banking, while very exciting, is going to be really, really short.

©2007 Terry and Lyn Pratchett (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic Reviews

• Locus Award, Best Fantasy Novel, 2008

"An educational and entertaining mirror of human squabbles and flaws." (Publishers Weekly)

A must for Discworld fans

This latest edition in the discworld series is a must read for all fans. While not the best of Pratchett's work, it is certainly an entertaining read. Continuing the Moist von Lipwig characters from Going Postal, the author turns the unique von Lipwig loose on the Royal Bank and the money system. While not as humorous or as original as the post office book - which should be read before this book - the story of the new Bank Master is still a delight. The plot is more predictable as the characters are already fleshed out from Going Postal and a veteran of the series can see where the book is headed quite quickly. Nevertheless, Pratchett's unique sense of humor and social commentary makes you want to get to the end while also dreading the termination of the tale. For those of you seeking to relish every minute of the recording be prepared for the fact that the last two minutes or so of "the book" are really a public service announcement for getting kids to listen to audiobooks. Alas, not one written by Terry Pratchett.

Not the best of Pratchett's books, but it will not disappoint.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

Terry Pratchett for Economists

Like all Discworld books, this is a terrific read, entertaining and funny and at the same time, great at relating a lot of fundamentally true things. If you're a banking and economics fan, you'll particularly enjoy this one.

The reader is excellent, too.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Another Lipwig Winner

Thou I am only about a half dozen books into the Disc "World" ( All by the way good listens) I have to say I was very happy to hear more about Mr. Moist VanLipwig. This was a very fast pased and funny story. With more twist and Toppsy Turvy moments than I had hope. Thank you Miss. Pratchett and Audible for the laughs in my day.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

The master storyteller strikes again

Pratchett plays with words the way a bird plays with the air, it is a pleasure to watch. And all the while he is spinning ideas as effortlessly as soaring. This is the 30th, or so, Discworld novel, and rather than getting tired, he just keeps getting better. The only bad thing I can say about Pratchett is that he spoils you for reading anything else. Listen at your peril.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Another gem.

Pratchett does it again. Every bit as humorous and satisfying as the preceding books in the series. So why 4 stars? If you're starting with this book, I recommend against it. Every prior Discworld book I've read could stand on it's own with pride. This one needs Going Postal as a progenitor.

Does this make it bad? No, it was marvelous! Does it achieve the Buddha-like literary enlightenment that its forbearers did? Only almost. I’ve been hemming and hawing about the rating since I started this review. Audible, can you tweak my vote to 4.5?

For those of you new to Discworld, do yourselves a service and start at the beginning and work your way up. Audible has about 2 years of material (if you’re on the platinum account), and I’ve yet to be disappointed by one of his works.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Can't they edit out the "disc change" music?

The musical interlude between the "CDs" is incredibly annoying. It's bad enough on actual CDs, on a continuous media like this it's maddening.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great stuff

Pratchett seems to write really good stuff and great stuff, but I'm going to classify this one as excellent! He does all of the little things right.

Stephen Briggs is a one-man show, with voices for everyone. Given that the book features new characters and pulls in the existing City Watch characters, this is pretty stellar. The characters are distinct and colorful and the reading is smooth and engaging. Can't ask for much more.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

a bit of a disappointment

Terry Pratchett is one of my most favorite authors. I have bought everything he has written(hardcopy, audio book, or both) and was excited to have a new book available. But Making Money was a disappointment - it felt like Pratchett used a formula to recycle Going Postal. Usually when he writes a new book about a character from a previous book, he moves the character forward with a very different story. That wasn't the case this time. sigh.

This book is still worth having, but it's definitely NOT the place to start reading Pratchett.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Strange music, otherwise good

Only thing I didn't like was the weird music they seemed to play randomly. Otherwise it was wonderful.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great Story

I wasn't keen on the music played at the beginning of chapters. It was unnecessary.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful