Making money (review)

Making Money is the 36th Discworld novel, and the second in the chronicles of Moist von Lipwig, the con artist who overhauled Ankh-Morpork's post office in Going Postal (Discworld #33).

Moist was absurdly successful in reforming the post office, and has become a respectable and mostly-responsible member of Ankh-Morpork society. Which is not really as much fun as you might hope. Thankfully, his tedium is interrupted by a violent psychopath Ankh-Morpork's venerable leader, who is one of the very few people who know who, and what, Moist was before he became postmaster.

In a despicable act of blackmail brilliant stroke of leadership, Vetinari requests that Moist now take on the challenge of running the Ankh-Morpork mint. This may involve convincing the populace that paper money is really money, a concept that is only thinkable because so many people are already using Moist's stamps as money-like-units.

Meanwhile, Moist's fiancée, Adora Belle Dearheart, is making further inroads in the humanitarian (I guess) field of integrating Golems into Discworld society, meaning that Moist has the first 'female' Golem as his assistant, and may soon have some other unpredictable firsts about to appear suddenly and perhaps immovably at an unspecified point in the future. Depending on how competent the Wizards of the Unseen University are. Which really, puts it on the back burner.

In the meantime, people are inventing economics, the old school bankers are trying to claw their way through each other to get to Moist, and due to lawyers and stuff, Moist's new boss is a small, yappy dog.

This book is just as good as Going Postal, and if you liked that, you should read this. There's really not a lot more to say. The Discworld take on banking, economics, and money in general is entertaining and potentially educational. The golems are perhaps not as entertaining as they are in some books, but we do learn more about their history and have some possibilities are set up for future books. The Patrician has a large role in this book, and carries it well (of course), and we get to see a number of familiar faces again, from (an) Igor to Ponder Stibbons. Overall, an excellent novel. But one that you should not read until you read Going Postal.

The next Discworld book is Unseen Academicals, while the next Moist von Lipwig story is Raising Steam.