First Impressions

[tealin]

Just finished Making Money ... that lasted, what, all of two days?


So ... what ... exactly ... was it about?

What do you mean 'what was it about?' Why does it have to be about something?

I dunno, it just kind of feels more ... whole, that way.

All right then, what was Going Postal about?

Um ... the Post Office? And the internet, kind of. Um ...

And wasn't this one about economics and banks and ... and golems?

I ... suppose ...
Wait, no, GP was really about Moist, because we spent most of it in his head, and it was his character arc that really sold the story as a whole.

You've already said you couldn't expect MM to be as good because there was no way it could have that sort of character arc again. So what were you hoping for?

I don't know, really. Something with one central plotline? Or for them all to meet up by the end?

Look, how often have you liked a new Discworld book the moment you put it down? You didn't much like The Truth when you finished it, and actually disliked Monstrous Regiment, but now you love both. You weren't even nuts about Going Postal until a few days after reading it! What makes you think this one will be any different?

Well ... nothing ... I suppose I just need to let my brain envelop this piece of grit with some mother-of-pearl before I judge it against the others which have had several years' accretion. I just ... something about where it's going, just doesn't feel right ...

You disliked the clacks until GP...

Touché. But ... in this ... the lighting was off, somehow. It was too stark.

You are a loony.

It was!

Just wait and see. You laughed uproariously several times, including when you were all alone in your apartment with no radio or TV on, which must have made the neighbours wonder; that must be worth something.

Right ... I just wish my occipital lobe was more ticklish, lately. And I can't help thinking it would all have been better if Moist had walked off with Drumknott's pencil one more time at the end.

Comments

[phonixa.livejournal.com]

I just finished it last night as well, and i pretty much agree with you.

The moments that I laughed at weren't about Moist's cunning, or sillyness, but mostly about the actions and situations that he was placed in. It didn't really go anywhere, and the climax was quite anti-climatic. Although, Mr. Fusspot and the discovery of the secret cupboard was hilarious.

I wish there was more about the economy, and what it was doing to AM as a community. Changing money over should have been a central theme, and I guess I was expecting something like the stamp scenes that Pratchett had created in GP.

I really, really want to see Moist become the tax collector. Because I am SURE that he would find it an interesting situation (NO ONE likes paying taxes)

Since I am new to the discworld series (i've read going postal, monstrous Regiment, the Truth and now Making Money. Still reading guards guards but i am finding it slower than his newer books) I wanted to know more about Vetinari's plan for the city, with his tunnels and so on. Is he putting in a massive sewage system?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I suspect that he started off meaning to write a book that would make economics as fun and accessible as the postal system but then realised there was nothing fun or accessible about it, or that he had already done the good stuff in Going Postal, and had to find some other way to make up the time...

The Undertaking is all very very new to the series. It's made pretty clear at the end of Thud! that it will, at least, involve a subway system. I'm sure proper sewage would be a part of that, what with the convenient tunnels under the city, though I don't know what Harry King will do if that happens ... oddly enough the thought of that upsets me more than a subway because what is Ankh-Morpork without its Smell? Anyway, I hope he handles it as well as the clacks.