Sunday, October 14, 2007

Making Money

Yesterday, I had several hours of free time which I spent in reading and now I have finished Making Money. I shall endeavor to post a bit of a review without actually posting spoilers.

Generally, I liked it. I don't think it's Pterry's strongest work - this and Thud have seemed to lack the coherence that books like Feet of Clay or Hogfather had. Still, it was a lot of fun to read and if it does occasionally seem to be bouncing all over the place, at least it isn't trying to be two distinct and seperate books. (Oh, Reaper Man, I loved Bill Door but what the frell was going on with the shopping carts?)

The two Moist books are especially fun because we get to see characters that we're attached to from a completely different point of view. I'm a Watch book girl, primarily, and so seeing Vimes and Carrot through Moist's eyes is very entertaining. Vetinari is a slightly different character with Moist than he is with Vimes. (Also, we get to see a lot of him with Drumknott, which I'm particularly partial to.) And Moist making fun of William de Worde is comedy gold.

And the new characters are fun, Mr Bent especially. (Well, for me.) The Lavishes aren't my favorite villains ever but their rather banal brand of low-grade evil works for a book about banking. And I love Moist. And Spike. And Moist and Spike together.* 8)

I love the continuity the later Discworld novels are developing, where the fallout of the last novel still has effects in the next one, even if it's only in tiny ways. In Making Money, we get mentions of Devices and the Low King which, even if they're not important right now, make me wonder what effects of Thud we may still be building on.

All in all, it was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon and I think it will be rereadable. I'll have to see if I can get the audiobook next. (Oh, Stephen Briggs, I am terribly fond of you.)

And now I have to go and find another book.



*I always want to like Pterry's romances but for the most part, they don't work for me. I don't care for the Witch books in general, the Death books don't do romance, I do love Vimes and Sybil but the romance we often get in the Watch books is Carrot and Angua and oh Lord, but I hate Angua. Which leaves me with William and Sacharissa (who will never actually happen) and Moist and Miss Adora Belle Dearheart. Spiky and snarky no-nonsense romance is one of my favorite kinds.

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