The Terry Pratchett Thread

[3point14]

My father has 'Making Money' right now.

I wish he read quicker.

 

[cgordon]

Just received "Making Money" from Amazon.com.

Woohoo!

 

[Meri]

Well, not only am I already reading Making Money for a second time, but if anyone's interested, I also worked out the few sentences of golem language that show up in the book:

A few sentences of the language of the golems are spoken by Miss Dearheart and Professor Flead in the first Necromancy scene. In Going Postal, Miss Dearheart translates a small piece of this language "By Our Own Hand or None". The golem language is just symbols replacing letters, so this small translation can be used to read the sentences in Making Money, if you have enough spare time. I did, so here they are in English (Page numbers are the US verison):

Pg. 236, Miss Dearheart- "I can speak formal golem"

Pg. 244, Professor Flead to Miss Dearheart- 1st - "You Make Eternity Bearable".
2nd - "Why do you care about golems? They have no passionate parts!"

Not exactly exciting dialog, but there's no point in working that out and not telling anyone.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

I ordered the two new books on a discount from amazon and avoided the postage.

Will have to wait untill October to get them though.

What's the other one besides Making Money?

BTW, I got Making Money at 30% off at Borders a couple days ago.

 

[Matt the Poet]

Got mine half price from Waterstone’s last week. Got to say, I’m not quite as impressed as everyone else seems to be. It’s a bit sludgy, pacing-wise, and very bitty. When Pratchett is good, all of the amusing ideas are in service of the plot. Here it feels like he’s throwing half of them in for a laugh, and the forward momentum suffers.

He’s never gone truly off the boil, but he does occasionally knock them out on autopilot these days -Monstrous Regiment was a particularly egregious example, and so far Making Money is in the same ballpark

 

[3point14]

Really must stop reading this thread until I've read MM.

 

[Pixel42]

How about this: as the Patrician grows older, he realizes that he's made himself indispensible for the functioning of the city and has to make arrangements for after he's gone?

Having read Making Money I'm convinced that Vetinari is grooming Moist to be his eventual successor.

 

[Shrike]

Really must stop reading this thread until I've read MM.

Yeas, it's getting harder and harder not to read the spoilers.

 

[3point14]

Yeas, it's getting harder and harder not to read the spoilers.

I even came back to read this.

Okay, no more until I've read it. Which means I have to wait for my father to finish it. Wish he'd hurry up.

(nice sig, btw)

 

[H3LL]

What's the other one besides Making Money?

BTW, I got Making Money at 30% off at Borders a couple days ago.

The other is The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld.



A collection of quotes etc. (The two book offer is also in the link - Since ordering The Works has MM at the cheapest price I've seen).

I'm looking forward to getting it. Yes, yes...I know that most quotes are on the Interweb Tubes, but I still like books.

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. - TP​

 

[Yllanes]

It seems very clear now that Pratchett is having some sort of overall plan for Discworld that wasn't visible in the past books. He might have had that vision for a while, but if he had, you wouldn't notice it (well, now that you start thinking about it, I'm sure you'll be able to spot all the clues. I know I'm starting to do it as I write this sentence.). And frankly, that sort of feels a bit annoying to me. I'm not sure why... Possibly because I want a "what matters is the here and now" feeling out of the Discworld books.

I agree with you. The book feels like a stepping stone for some future plans.

It was disappointing, the plot was not as developed as in previous books. Moist doesn't face as many difficulties as in his previous adventure and the different story threads are finished too abruptly. One major problem is that the villain of the story is not menacing at all, just a lunatic with money.

I did like the conclusion with the golems and the Undertaking looks very promising. The origin of Bent was also inspired, but the rest of the subplots were not properly finished (one example is the one about the man who knew Moist's past identity).

I liked the book but it can't compare with Going Postal.

Pixel42 makes a good point: Moist is the only conceivable succesor for Vetinari right now (by the way, the abundance of Vetinari scenes is the best point of the book).

 

[Shrike]

(nice sig, btw)

Thanks, it's from the interviews at the beginning of this tread.

And ten-to-one you came back to read this

 

[3point14]

Thanks, it's from the interviews at the beginning of this tread.

And ten-to-one you came back to read this

No bet.

 

[Hawk one]

I agree with you. The book feels like a stepping stone for some future plans.

It was disappointing, the plot was not as developed as in previous books. Moist doesn't face as many difficulties as in his previous adventure and the different story threads are finished too abruptly. One major problem is that the villain of the story is not menacing at all, just a lunatic with money.

I did like the conclusion with the golems and the Undertaking looks very promising. The origin of Bent was also inspired, but the rest of the subplots were not properly finished (one example is the one about the man who knew Moist's past identity).

I liked the book but it can't compare with Going Postal.

Pixel42 makes a good point: Moist is the only conceivable succesor for Vetinari right now (by the way, the abundance of Vetinari scenes is the best point of the book).

Well, you're pretty much so damn right (especially about Bent, I'd forgotten about him), I'll have to marry you too. Me, you, and Meri will just have to move to Utah or something.

 

[Meri]

I agree with you. The book feels like a stepping stone for some future plans.

It was disappointing, the plot was not as developed as in previous books. Moist doesn't face as many difficulties as in his previous adventure and the different story threads are finished too abruptly. One major problem is that the villain of the story is not menacing at all, just a lunatic with money.

I did like the conclusion with the golems and the Undertaking looks very promising. The origin of Bent was also inspired, but the rest of the subplots were not properly finished (one example is the one about the man who knew Moist's past identity).

I liked the book but it can't compare with Going Postal.

Pixel42 makes a good point: Moist is the only conceivable succesor for Vetinari right now (by the way, the abundance of Vetinari scenes is the best point of the book).

I agree about the villain. Cosmo can't compare to Gilt. I was kind of hoping Cranberry was going to do something villainous, but he actually dies with very little ceremony. The best thing Cosmo did was lead to what may be my favorite line of the book:

"Oh really, am I a sword-made-of-the-blood-of-a-thousand-men kind of ruler? It'll be a crown of skulls next, I suppose."

 

[Pixel42]

Good review of Making Money in the Guardian, by someone who really gets PTerry:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2179430,00.html

 

[Hawk one]

Well, as I don't know the situation of the English banks, I'm not really qualified to comment on how strong "Making Money" stands as pure satire.

Still, the reviewer admits that as a pure story, it's not really that strong (or at least weaker than "Going Postal", and some of Pratchett's best books are when he can combine the satire with the story like in "Going Postal", and of course in "Small Gods." And of course, it helps when he can describe a political climate so that the reader doesn't really have to know about the situation for it to be funny, like in "Interesting Times". Although perhaps he in that case realised that not many people would really be familiar with the Chinese dynasties, so he took more care to let it be a book for the uninitiated.

As for the reviewer liking the feeling of future seeds being planted better than I did, I'll just simply leave that difference to taste.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

The other is The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld.

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/thum_318046fa596ed1e8f.jpg[/qimg]

A collection of quotes etc. (The two book offer is also in the link - Since ordering The Works has MM at the cheapest price I've seen).

Dang! Now I've got to buy that!

OH well--I got a good discount on Making Money. (What an odd sentence that was!)

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Having read Making Money I'm convinced that Vetinari is grooming Moist to be his eventual successor.

Maybe--but we've got to see how he handles that whole tax collection business first. Remember,

"It's not a job that creates friends," said Drumknott. "It would need a special sort of person."

I predict the next in the Moist series will be called Taking Money.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

I agree about the villain. Cosmo can't compare to Gilt. I was kind of hoping Cranberry was going to do something villainous, but he actually dies with very little ceremony. The best thing Cosmo did was lead to what may be my favorite line of the book:

"Oh really, am I a sword-made-of-the-blood-of-a-thousand-men kind of ruler? It'll be a crown of skulls next, I suppose."

Cosmo was a fun character. (As were all the Lavishes.) I loved the way Vetinari pretty much knows everything-- even that Drumknott's boots had gone missing and that a fake of a rumored sword is around. (The phrase I keep hearing is "a forged sword"--but I believe this sword was forged long before it was a forgery.)