Making Money

[Thales of Miletus]

Ok, first of all I apologise if I am retreading familiar ground here as I am new on the forum, but I have been wondering why Making Money is so widely held as one of, if not the, worst Discworld novels written to date. Sure, I appreciate it is not one of the best, but surely it is not as a friend recently stated "unfinishable".

Without launching a full-blown defence of the novel, I thought one of its best qualities was just how demi-prophetic it was, with it being published on the eve of our current financial crisis and analysing money as an artificial construct.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

 

[author3]

I think it was practically a copy of Going Postal .But i read Making Money before Going Postal so I was more disappointed with Going Postal as for me it seemed like a copy of Making Money.

 

[Anonymous]

To most it is that, as author said, it reads like a copy of Going Postal. To some it even reads like a story loosely stabled together from discarded drafts for GP, with the topic half-heartly changed to money instead of postal service.
There is a change in style, several plotthreads are left hanging (correct me if I am wrong, people, but it is never explained WHY the cook is so aggressive towards garlic, isn't it?) and the ending comes pretty much out of nowhere. Characters aren't really IC (opinions might differ here) and with the introduction of the cabinet of curiousity Discworld got its own Plotdevice Paraphernalia, something that usually means the author is either out of ideas on how to solve a problem or is too bored with the setting in general.

 

[Sjoerd3000]

Didn't like MM much on my first reading, but thought it was better on my second reading. I think the biggest problem with MM is that it's too much like Going Postal.

Going Postal is one my favourite DW novels though

 

[meerkat]

MM improved the more I read it.

Yes, it's very like GP but it is also beinging in more characters like the Lavishes so it's not just the Rusts, Selachii and Venturii families out there.

Sir Terry does parody a lot and will send up things that amuse and he is writing to amuse himself or he wouldn't do it.

 

[Tonyblack]

It's no secret on this board that Making Money is my least favourite Discworld book.

I have come to the conclusion that it suffers from being a sequel. In Going Postal we didn't know how Moist was going to act in a situation. That book is a voyage of discovery for Moist - he learns who he really is.

Making Money doesn't have that. We pretty much know how Moist is going to act and he does. The only thing he really learns about himself is that he gets bored if there isn't a challenge to stimulate him. Well, he'd already discovered than in part in Going Postal.

The bad guys in Making Money aren't up to the standard of Going Postal. You never really feel that Moist gets to stretch himself. And finally, the golden golems plot just seems to fall flat.

It's not a terrible book. I've read much worse by many other authors, but of the Discorld series, for me, it's the weakest.

 

[Anonymous]

On a further note:
I might or might not have said it before (apologies if I did), but several parts of MM seemed pretty forced to me.
Moist being as shaken up by that one guy who 'recognises' him, for example. The Moist in GP didn't strike me as someone who would be as 'freaked out' about such an event but instead would know how to get out of it, even if he mostly 'relied' on his unmemorable face.
It got especially grating, IMHO, when you see it in the light of Moist's note on why Mr Bent didn't use that and that trick every teacher knows and then not have him know how to get out of 'being seemingly mistaken for someone' :/

 

[Thales of Miletus]

Yes, I know what you mean regarding the ending. Plus, for me, I think it is that lack of a great bad guy that brings it up short when compared to Going Postal. You don't get that feeling either that Moist is dancing on egg shells all the time. You know that feeling that if he stops moving forward and playing the game for just one second the whole house of cards come tumbling down around him. The court scene at the end of MM seemed a little bit of substitute for this i think.

 

[michelanCello]

MM was one of the first DW books I read (so before GP) and I really enjoyed it. After I started reading the books in chronological order and maybe it's because there was so much time between them but when I got to GP I liked that one the same 'Course the one's a bit like the other - there's Moist in both of them...

 

[raisindot]

I don't think MM is the worst DW book--Pyramids, Unseen Academicals and the first two books are far worse, as far as I'm concerned. But it's also problemmatic. As others have said, it suffers from a plot that recycles too many of the plot devices Pterry used to far better effect in Going Postal. The Lavishes aren't particularly compelling villains, and certainly don't hold a candle to Reacher Gilt. Some of the scenes were just intolerably long, like all of those with Cribbins and nearly all the scenes in Unseen University.

I also think the biggest problem is that in the end Moist is presented with a problem he can't solve. While I think the courtroom scene is one of Pterry's best set pieces, if it wasn't for Mr. Bent bringing in the doctored books Moist would probably have been dancing the hemp fandango again, even if he did solve the golem problem.

That said, I think that interspersed with some of the bad stuff in there are a number of great individual scenes.

 

[Anonymous]

But you have to admit, CoM, LF, and pyramids have the savong grace of being early books in the setting.

 

[Dotsie]

I enjoyed MM but agree that it didn't really offer anything beyond GP. I wouldn't say it was dreadful, it wasn't as bad as fifth continent.

(correct me if I am wrong, people, but it is never explained WHY the cook is so aggressive towards garlic, isn't it?)

Cooks in large institutions in DW are resistant to cooking anything different - this cook is against foreign food I would guess (but I don't really remember the plot line). Like the cook in Wyrd Sisters who only cooks big lumps of meat.

 

[Tonyblack]

I thought it said the cook was allergic to garlic - a bit like a pilot with a fear of flying or a surgeon who couldn't stand the sight of blood. This guy had got around that by cooking for dogs who probably aren't interested in garlic.

He, apparently was a talented cook with a flaw that stopped him from fully exploiting his talents. At least that's how I read it.

 

[Anonymous]

I rather got the impression the 'allergic' was meant more like 'he can't stand it for some reason' but nothing physical.

 

[Penfold]

On a side note, my chef friend had a psychosomatic reaction to omelettes and whenever he saw one or had to cook one he would be violently sick. Although we never found out what caused this, it did make reading the scenes with the chef and garlic much funnier for me.

 

[Anonymous]

Understandable

 

[polythenegirl]

Loved this book and loved Moist again Absolutely adored Bent though - brilliant character!!

 

[Bouncy Castle]

Love MM. Love Pyramids.

 

[Willem]

Re: the garlic thing.

I read it as actually being allergic to the word, however mad that may be.

I'm allergic to cats and dogs - when I get near one the physical reaction is that my my nose and eyes start to run and breathing is obstructed.
Cook's allergic to the word garlic - when he hears it the physical reaction is that he goes mad.

Pretty lame joke though

 

[polythenegirl]

Re: the garlic thing.

I read it as actually being allergic to the word, however mad that may be.

I'm allergic to cats and dogs - when I get near one the physical reaction is that my my nose and eyes start to run and breathing is obstructed.
Cook's allergic to the word garlic - when he hears it the physical reaction is that he goes mad.

Pretty lame joke though

Meh I quite like those kind of things in TP's workthough - it's almost taking the mickey out of all the so-called "allergies" and "intolerances" that more and more peopel claim to have.