The Terry Pratchett Thread

[AverageGuy]

Anyone read Making Money yet? Trying to decide if I should wait for softcover or just put my name in at the library.

[Guarneri]

I've only read the first Discworld book, personally. I found it so pointless in a bad way. Not really even all that witty or funny. Gave me a few laughs but other than that it was just like meh.

[laoise]

Anyone read Making Money yet? Trying to decide if I should wait for softcover or just put my name in at the library.

I finished it last week - it was okay, but it wasn't much different from Going Postal. It was almost like in the middle of writing Going Postal Pratchett had thought "Hey, what if it was banks instead of post offices" and wrote that story as well. It had all his normal humour and the like, it was just a little bit too "I've read this before".

Borrow it from the Library, then buy the softcover if you liked it enough.

[Red Sun]

I finished it last week - it was okay, but it wasn't much different from Going Postal. It was almost like in the middle of writing Going Postal Pratchett had thought "Hey, what if it was banks instead of post offices" and wrote that story as well. It had all his normal humour and the like, it was just a little bit too "I've read this before".

Borrow it from the Library, then buy the softcover if you liked it enough.

I have not read it yet, but I have noticed this as a general trend of Pratchett's work. He is highs and lows of creativity, a couple of books with original themes is followed by a couple of books that merely recycles ideas that were hinted in other books. (I still like him and read all his books, but it means that he doesn't get my money until the fresh ideas come back. )

[Kat]

Maybe it's just because I haven't read Going Postal since it came out, but I didn't think the plot of Making Money was all that similar to that of Going Postal. That being said, Going Postal was funnier overall, but I generally like Moist as a protagonist--they can't all be city watch novels.

Senshou--Pratchett is one of the rare authors whose writing and plots improve as the series goes on. The later books are much different from the first few, as far as humor and plot go. I don't particularly like Rincewind. Try one of his later books; I think Ankh-Morpork gets better as it becomes less medieval and relies less on making fun of regular fantasy tropes, personally.

[Galactus]

The funniest part of Making money was the patrician talking about that woman who always was the winning crossword-puzzle solver. "A brain like that and she owns a pet store? I think not. Keep her under close supervision, she is up to something."

[Deornoth]

I used to love Terry's books when he was just poking fun at the fantasy genre itself but as he started to get more preachy about 'real world' I started to lose interest and then gave up after 'Thief of Time'. I'm waiting for him to write a book about Anhk Morpork invading the oil ricj Counterweight Kingdoms as part of a 'war on terror'...

[MinDonner]

"The Fifth Elephant" was about oil, with the Moral that "just because the Dwarf King is anti-Ankh-Morpork, doesn't make him/her a bad person"... luckily he'd written that pre-9/11, but it's always possible that we'll get a revisit, once Moist has sorted out the tax system and the pensions gap...

yeah. You're not the only one getting pissed off with Pratchett's preachy Life Lessons.

[Talyn]

yeah. You're not the only one getting pissed off with Pratchett's preachy Life Lessons.

I'm getting a bit sick of these books set in the city. Not that I don't enjoy them but I wish that he would write a book set away from the city. Maybe involving the witches, I miss them.

[Angalin]

Try Tiffany Aching.

[Talyn]

Try Tiffany Aching.

Thanks I will.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Have just finished Making Money. It's probably in the bottom five Discworld books (not since The Last Continent have I been so disappointed in a Discworld book). The plot is basically a warmed-over Going Postal, but without a compentent antagonist; Mr Fusspot was more threatening than Cosmo Lavish. Everything else just seemed to be going through the motions.

[A Time for Wolves]

Terry Pratchett doesn't come off as preachy to me. I've only read the City Watch books and the first two Mort/Death/Susan books, but so far he doesn't sound preachy even when he's making a point about racism, nationalism or the government. The one book which I thought he went overboard in was Monstrous Regiment - not one of my favorites, even though the ending was practically unavoidable. The one character of his whom I can't stand is Susan, but I still wouldn't say he is preachy. He gets his point across, but he doesn't shove it in your face. At least, I don't feel that way.

Authors like Lewis, Rowling and Mercedes Lackey are preachy. I wouldn't say Terry Pratchett is.

[Werthead]

From the blog:

I think in recent years there's been a tendency to take Terry Pratchett for granted. He has consistently churned out, on average, two high-quality novels a year for the better part of a quarter of a century. His Discworld is one of the most fleshed-out secondary worlds in existence. Ankh-Morpork is routinely voted 'greatest fantasy city' ever. Out of 36 Discworld and a dozen non-Discworld novels, there are very few which can be said to be sub-par. There seemed to be this assumption that this was going to carry on for some considerable time to come. With the announcement of his illness last year that seems to have changed, and each new Pratchett novel is likely to garner more coverage and more interest than ever before.

Making Money is the 36th Discworld novel and its paperback release comes in the year that the flat world carried through space on the back of a giant turtle celebrates its 25th anniversary; The Colour of Magic, the first book in the series, was published in 1983. The book is also the sequel to an earlier Discworld novel, Going Postal. In that book, conman Moist von Lipwig was rescued from the gallows by the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari, and set to work restoring the Post Office to its former glory. He succeeded handsomely.

Making Money opens a year later. The Post Office is a roaring success, but Moist is feeling a little bored, and has taken to breaking into his own bedroom to keep his skills fresh. The Patrician seems to have concluded that Moist would make an excellent troubleshooter to sort out Ankh-Morpork's other failing public services and tasks him with getting the Ankh-Morpork Bank back on its feet after the former chairwoman passed away, leaving her dog, Mr. Fusspot, to inherit the role of chairman. Moist is initially reluctant, but soon relishes the new challenge. Unfortunately, a family who own a share in the bank, the Lavishes, are not so keen on Moist's appointment and are soon digging into his dirty past to find something to use against him. Thrown into the mix are lots of golems (including a gender-confused one), an undead necromancer with an eye for the ladies, a very dedicated bank clerk and a lot of clockwork items of an intimate nature.

As usual, the book is an effortless read. Pratchett's prose sparkles and flows as easily as ever, although careful reading is required to catch every observation and piece of satire as it flies past. Pratchett's typical approach of standing back, putting a mirror in front of something we take for granted (banking, in this case) and saying, "Look, this is a really daft system on quite a few levels," is again quite successful here. As with the other later Discworld novels, the broad out-and-out humour takes a back seat to more wry observations, although a comical interlude involving a dog becoming attached to a new 'rubber chew toy' that in this case has fallen out of a cupboard of erotica, and then playing with it in polite company, shows that Pratchett still has time for a good old-fashioned piece of outrageous farce. That said, as with a number of other Pratchett novels the ending is somewhat contrived and the characters get out of the various fixes they're in with some fast-talk, handwaving and a nod from the Patrician, which is a resolution that has perhaps been used a few too many times in this series.

Whilst it's not up there with the series at its best, and the tendency for characters who are intelligent and forthright in their own books to come across a bit as bumbling fools when appearing in cameos outside them (in this case various members of the City Watch) is a bit wearying, Making Money is a solid addition to the series and adds a lot to the evolution of Discworld and Ankh-Morpork (which is now starting to get its own underground rail network, the Undertaking). Somewhat unusually for the series, the ending also sets up a third Moist von Lipwig adventure, Raising Taxes, which is likely to be another two or three Discworld books down the road.

Making Money (****) is available now in the UK from Corgi Books and in hardcover in the USA from Haper Books. The US mass-market paperback is due out on 30 September 2008. Terry Pratchett's new, non-Discworld novel Nation will be released on 11 September 2008. He currently has three more Discworld novels on the go: Unseen Academicals, about the Unseen University's football team; I Shall Wear Midnight, the next Tiffany Aching novel for younger readers; and Raising Taxes, a sequel to Making Money. Expect to see them over the next year or two.

[Quoth]

He currently has three more Discworld novels on the go: Unseen Academicals, about the Unseen University's football team; I Shall Wear Midnight, the next Tiffany Aching novel for younger readers; and Raising Taxes, a sequel to Making Money. Expect to see them over the next year or two.

*Dances wildly with joy.*

[Werthead]

Interestingly, galleys are being sent out for Nation (I believe normally they don't bother with Pratchett: each one of his books has sold around 1 million copies regardless) and early signs are that it's excellent and something of a departure for him.

[Deedles]

While I'm thrilled to think that Nation should be out soon, I've never been a huge fan of the UU. Ah well. The Tiffany book may make up for that.

Oh, for hooking younger people on PTerry, do try Eric and Mort. They've worked for me!

[Gigei]

Nothing much to say here, just another Pterry fan. My faves are Wyrd Sisters (love the Shakespeare parts), Hogfather, Small Gods and Feet of Clay.

I must be the only one who isn't a big fan of Vimes. Lol. Not that I dislike him but I don't particularly like him either.

Teatime, IMHO is the best villain ever in Discworld.

Books I didn't like were The Lost Continent, Moving Pictures and Soul Music.

[Cuchulain]

Has anyone read Pratchett's non-Discworld novels ? (The Dark Side of the Sun, Strata, The Carpet People,...) Are they worth a read ?

[Gigei]

I've read the Dark Side of the Sun and Strata. They are the usual Pterry quality, really.

Strata is funny but maybe because I got a lot of the sf references. Have you read Niven's Ringworld series? Hehehe.

Dark Side of the Sun is kinda Asimovish (hey I invented a word!) with psychohistory and stuff.

They are both worth reading but I wouldn't pay a fortune for either.