This is part of the Pratchett Project.
The blurb:
The Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork is facing a crisis and needs a shake-up in management. Cue Moist von Lipwig, Postmaster General and former con artist. If anyone can rescue the city's ailing financial institution, it's him. He doesn't really want the job, but the thing is, he doesn't have a choice.
Moist has many problems to solve as part of his new role: the chief cashier is almost certainly a vampire, the chairman needs his daily walkies, there's something strange happening in the cellar, and the Royal Mint is running at a loss.
Moist begins making some ambitious changes...and some dangerous enemies. Because money is power and certain stakeholders will do anything to keep a firm grip on both...
I had to go and look up a timeline of when various books were published because, compared to Going Postal, Making Money seems just a little bit...less, somehow. And banks and the monetary system/economy should be something that Pratchett can really get his hooks into, you know? But it just didn't seem quite so strong as Going Postal.
And, yep, 2007; published around Embuggerance time, so likely written when Pratchett was noticing symptoms. That tracks. The difference between Going Postal and Making Money is not so pronounced as it was between Thud! and Snuff, but it's still there, I think. There's not Snuff's longwindedness and character slippage—but it's definitely not as to-the-point.
Character-wise, Making Money is dead on because there's no way that someone like Moist, who has always grifted and scammed the way other people breathe, is going to settle down to a sedate life as a respectable part of the city's life. Him seeking challenge is absolutely on point.
Two things don't work for me in this one. First, I really miss Spike a.k.a. Adora Belle Dearheart. She is in the book, but far less of a presence than in Going Postal, and the loss of the snap between her and Moist is noticeable; there's just nobody else for Moist to bounce off quite so smartly, and it's a real shame. Second, the Glooper feels a bit tacked on. I get that, in Discworld, belief has its own power and a system set up to track the real world might well end up influencing it instead, all very Heisenberg-y...but there's a solid explanation already for the gold in the vault going missing, so the Glooper does feel a bit more like something to allow for some characters, including an Igor, and the awkwardness of the gold coming back at the very end. In other words, it feels like a plot device, and Pratchett's plot devices don't usually feel like plot devices—they're organic, worked solidly into the fabric of the story so that you can't imagine it any other way.
Also, there's no way that arch-con artist Moist von Lipwig is signing papers without reading them first.
Still had its good moments: Moist tapdancing his way out of a situation is always entertaining, and the discovery of the true nature of Mr Bent was unexpected, to say the least. Never go against your true nature, kids.
Started: 13 July 2025
Finished: 19 July 2025
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