Making money Book

Moist von Lipwig is bored. The Post Office can now function without his intervention, the Clacks Towers are also on the mend, so people keep supplying him with increasingly boring reports, and, on top of everything, his fiance is off on a mysterious business trip. With no other heart-stopping adventures to rear themselves on their own, our intrepid (anti)hero has no choice but manufacture one. And things almost get out of hand... for a minute or two.

Lord Vetinari, ever attuned to his favorite conman's mood, is ready with a solution: the opportunity to "survive on [his] own wits against powerful and dangerous enemies, with every day presenting fresh challenges". And all Lipwig has to do is agree to take on the sketchy business of revamping The Royal Mint, along with the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork. His lack of banking experience may even help, so that he has no preconceptions.



I have first read this novel some 10 years prior, cuddled up in a tiny Parisian hotel room, much more interested in exploring the French tourist sites, than the intricacies of financial humor. With almost no other social engagements to honor (courtesy of the current pandemic), I was able to give my full attention to the book. And what a fantastic ride it gave me!

I greatly enjoyed Lord Vetinari's ever changing tactics when it came to forcing gently cajoling people into doing his bidding. While in the prequel he would innocently threaten Lipwig with throwing him into an (almost) bottomless pit, this time around he was quite happy to leave things to the (ex-)conman's imagination, letting the man slowly but surely work himself up into a frenzy.

Then there was also Cosmo Lavish's obsession with the Patrician, firmly convinced that nothing short of stealing the man's identity would help him defeat Vetinari. An interesting plan, if only he weren't so easily duped into paying for fakes. As a reader however, following his delusional machinations certainly provided endless moments of entertainment.



There was precious little that I outright disliked in this story, mainly related to a very confusing memory of movie vs. book events from the prequel (see Going Postal). It seems that I got more attached to movie-Adora Belle's self-sufficiency than I thought, so I got rather annoyed at having Lipwig save her. But for those of you who have had the good sense to refrain from (re)watching the movie version tens of times, this will probably be a non-issue.

Score: 4.6/5 stars

With these two such different reading styles behind me, I have to conclude that going through the prequel before embarking on this book made for a vast improvement in reading experience.

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Other books starring Moist von Lipwig:
Review of book 1: Going Postal
Review of book 3: Raising Steam