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Making Money

Making Money

FantasyHigh Fantasy
Pages
428
Published
2007
Language
English

Synopsis

Moist von Lipwig has rebuilt the Post Office and is deeply, desperately bored. Lord Vetinari has his next project ready: take over the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork and reinvent its currency system before various interested parties manage to prevent him, kill him, or destroy the bank entirely. Moist must understand money — what it is, what it represents, why it works — before anyone figures out that he does not.

Prose complexity
6/10

Vibe

FunnySatiricalAdventurousWhimsical
Reluctant HeroMorally GreyHeistRedemption Arc

Genres

Fantasy High Fantasy Comic Fiction Humor

About the author

T
Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was an English author best known for the Discworld series, a sequence of forty-one comic fantasy novels set on a flat world carried through space on the backs of four elephants standing on a giant turtle. Across four decades, the Discworld grew from a parody of sword-and-sorcery fantasy into one of the most sustained works of social satire in English literature, examining politics, religion, science, gender, race, capitalism, and the nature of stories themselves. Pra...

Characters

Moist von LipwigProtagonist

Former con man, reluctant Postmaster General, now even more reluctantly being pressed into running a bank.

Cosmo LavishAntagonist

A director of the Royal Bank obsessed with succeeding Lord Vetinari as ruler of Ankh-Morpork, and willing to go to disturbing lengths to do it.

Adora Belle DearheartSupporting

Moist's partner, now even more acerbically unimpressed by his situation than before.

Hubert TurvySupporting

An economist who has built a model of the city economy in his basement — and whose model may be more accurate than the real thing.

Mr BentSupporting

The bank's chief cashier — a man of absolute numerical precision whose past contains one enormous surprise.

All characters in Making Money

Frequently asked questions

  • When was Making Money published?

    First published on 20 September 2007 by Doubleday. It is the thirty-sixth Discworld novel and the second Moist von Lipwig book.

  • What is Making Money satirizing?

    The novel is a satire of modern banking, fiat currency, and the way financial systems work by collective belief rather than physical backing. Pratchett's central joke is that money works because everyone agrees it does — a confidence trick performed by society on itself.

  • Do I need to read Going Postal before Making Money?

    Recommended but not required. Moist's character and his relationship with Adora Belle are both richer with Going Postal's context. The novel provides enough backstory to work independently, but Going Postal first is the better experience.

  • Who or what are the golems in this novel?

    Adora Belle has discovered a cache of ancient golems — clay workers from a previous civilization — in the desert. Their potential value, and what she plans to do with them, runs as a parallel plot to Moist's banking crisis.

  • Is Making Money as good as Going Postal?

    Critical and reader opinion varies. Making Money is generally considered very good but slightly below Going Postal in terms of narrative drive and satirical focus. Raising Steam, the third Moist book, is often seen as the weakest of the three.

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