Moist von Lipwig takes on banking
After growing bored running the post office, Moist gets nudged by Lord Vetinari into taking charge of the bank and the Royal Mint.
Reviewed
Read Time
9 min read
Age & reading levelAdult
Reader rating
4.7 · 7,154 Amazon ratings, as of Oct 2026
reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks scoreShare This Review
Our review
Making Money
Making Money by Terry Pratchett Review: Satirical Discworld Fantasy That Skewers Banking
Making Money is a Discworld fantasy novel in which reformed con artist Moist von Lipwig is coerced into running the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork, using the premise to deliver sharp satire about the nature of money, public trust, and financial institutions. First published in 2007, it won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2008 and was nominated for the Nebula Award the same year. Critical opinion is genuinely divided — praised for its wit and humanity, and critiqued for lacking the forward momentum of its predecessor, Going Postal — making it essential for committed Discworld readers while occasionally frustrating those who rank Going Postal among the series' best.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Discworld readers who want Pratchett's satirical intelligence applied to economics and institutional absurdity, and who are happy to trade some of Going Postal's thriller momentum for a more philosophically layered comic novel.
Worth it if
Worth reading if you relish comic fantasy where the absurd premise — a dog as bank chairman, paper money backed by civic faith — is also a genuine argument about how modern economies work.
Skip if
Skip it if you need a protagonist whose survival feels genuinely uncertain, or if dry passages about monetary mechanics rather than laugh-out-loud set-pieces will wear your patience thin.
Where reviewers agree and split
Readers rate it 4.7 on Amazon. The reviews we read that discuss it in depth split on some points:
Of the 3 reviews we read that discuss its humour, 1 finds the wit sharp and plentiful, but 2 find it less laugh-out-loud than other Discworld books.
Humour
1 finds the wit sharp and plentiful · 2 find it less laugh-out-loud than other Discworld books
Pacing
2 call it fast-moving and frenetically fun
Who says what
Humour
Praise
“His wit is so sharp that, as always, I have to arm-wrestle myself to avoid quoting dozens of bits that I particularly liked.”
— MuggleNet Blog · Book blogCriticism
Slightly less laugh-out-loud funny and quotable than other Discworld novels
— Elaine (elaine allen) · BookTube (our note on their video)Pacing
Praise
“Terry Pratchett's fast-moving novel mixes satire and fantasy with increasingly frantic farce”
— Kirkus Reviews · Trade reviewPraise
“Pratchett combines a primer on monetary policy with a swift-paced tale of danger, intrigue, magical weirdness, laugh-out-loud humor, and romance.”
— MuggleNet Blog · Book blogWhat readers & critics say
Kirkus Reviews called it "Terry Pratchett's fast-moving novel" that "mixes satire and fantasy with increasingly frantic farce," while fantasyliterature.com and compulsivereader.com both found it disappointing beside Going Postal — the latter noting that "even a devoted fan of Pratchett will find dry passages where the comedy does not stretch either itself or the reader."
“Terry Pratchett's fast-moving novel mixes satire and fantasy with increasingly frantic farce as he races to a conclusion involving golems, necromancers, and a royal hearing.”
— Kirkus Reviews4.7from 7,154 Amazon ratings, as of Oct 2026— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
Aaron Cordy Writer, Author Talks & Book Reviewer reviews Making Money
A review of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Making Money, examining its humor, characters, and economic satire.
A BookTube review by Aaron Cordy Writer, Author Talks & Book Reviewer , 2025 · 86 views · 882 subscribers · Watch on YouTube ·
Their views, not ours. The points are our AI summary of what they say, each playing from where they say it.
Memorable characters and sharp wit
The reviewer highlights the humorous supporting cast, including Gladys the golem secretary, the rigid Mr. Bent, and the terrible Lavish family, praising Pratchett's signature comedic writing.
Satire on finance and true value
The narrative cleverly critiques monetary systems, moving away from the gold standard and questioning what holds real, edible worth in society.
Pratchett at his peak
The reviewer views this novel as one of the author's final masterworks written at full narrative capacity before his illness progressed.
Ask LuvemBooks
3 users found this summary helpful
Making Money is Terry Pratchett's second Discworld novel starring reformed con artist Moist von Lipwig, this time coerced into rescuing the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork — and using that premise to deliver sharp, philosophically grounded satire about the nature of money, public trust, and institutional inertia. LuvemBooks considers it essential reading for committed Discworld fans and anyone drawn to fantasy that takes economic systems seriously as both comedic and intellectual material. The key caveat: readers arriving directly from Going Postal may notice a slight drop in forward momentum, and critics are genuinely divided on whether the satire bites as sharply as Pratchett's very best work.
- Is it worth reading?
- For committed Discworld readers and fans of Moist von Lipwig, Making Money is absolutely worth reading — it won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2008 and received a Nebula Award nomination the same year, placing it among that year's most formally recognised fantasy releases. Its intellectual core — Pratchett dramatising why we trust banks and the arbitrary foundations of currency — is built into the plot mechanics rather than just the backdrop, and the ensemble cast, including the Mr. Bent reveal and Adora Belle Dearheart's substantial golem storyline, rewards investment. The honest caveat is that critical opinion is genuinely divided: The Observer's Rowland Manthrope argued the satire lacks Pratchett's normal cutting edge, and readers coming directly from Going Postal may feel the difference in momentum.
- Similar books
- Readers who enjoy Making Money's blend of satirical wit, roguish protagonists, and institutional comedy will find strong companions among the curated selections below. Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett continues Moist von Lipwig's story in the same Discworld setting, making it the most natural next step. For those drawn to the series from the beginning, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic — also reviewed on LuvemBooks — offer Pratchett's foundational Discworld voice. Outside Discworld, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas shares Making Money's themes of a clever, resourceful protagonist navigating corrupt institutions through cunning rather than force. Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu and First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston both feature protagonists operating through constructed identities and deception, echoing Moist von Lipwig's con-artist DNA in very different registers.
- Who should read this?
- Making Money is essential reading for committed Discworld fans, particularly those who have already met Moist von Lipwig in Going Postal and want to follow his arc into the world of banking and currency. It is also a strong pick for readers interested in fantasy that uses its genre scaffolding to interrogate real ideas — here, the arbitrary nature of money, the psychology of institutional trust, and the gap between a currency's nominal and actual foundations. Readers who enjoy farce, ensemble casts with genuine depth, and satirical comedy that rewards close attention will find it rewarding. Those seeking the compressed momentum of Going Postal, or looking for Pratchett at his sharpest satirical edge, may want to temper expectations based on the critical division the novel has attracted.
- About Terry Pratchett
- Terry Pratchett was a beloved British fantasy author, best known as the creator of the Discworld series. He is celebrated for his satirical wit and has sold over 85 million books worldwide, cementing his place as one of the most widely read fantasy authors of all time.
- What are the main themes?
- The novel's central theme is the nature of money itself as a collective fantasy — a shared agreement that abstract numbers carry real value. Pratchett dramatises this through Moist's plan to back currency with the city of Ankh-Morpork rather than gold, which mirrors the actual philosophical foundations of modern monetary theory. Surrounding that core are closely linked themes of institutional trust and inertia (why do citizens trust banks?), the arbitrariness of value, and the ethics of a reformed con artist applying his skills within legitimate systems. Cosmo Lavish's obsessive impersonation of Vetinari adds a thread about the corrupting nature of power, while Adora Belle Dearheart's golem excavation widens the novel's scope to include questions about lost civilisations and what endures.
- How does it compare to Going Postal?
- Making Money is the direct successor to Going Postal in the Moist von Lipwig sequence, and the comparison is the dominant critical conversation around the book. Critics noted that Making Money is not quite as successful as Going Postal, citing a lack of that novel's forward drive — readers coming directly from the predecessor may feel the difference in momentum. The Observer's Rowland Manthrope argued the satire loses some of Pratchett's usual cutting edge. Against that, Making Money is arguably more intellectually ambitious in its satirical target: money and monetary theory are more philosophically slippery than postal reform, and Pratchett's decision to make that theme structural rather than decorative is widely praised. The Locus Award and Nebula nomination suggest it landed strongly with genre readers despite the mixed critical press.
- Where does this fit in the Discworld series?
- Making Money is the second novel in the Moist von Lipwig sub-sequence within the broader Discworld series, following Going Postal and preceding Raising Steam. The Discworld novels are designed to be readable in any order, so Making Money is accessible as a standalone, but it rewards readers who have already met Moist in Going Postal. Within the wider Discworld canon it sits as a later-period entry — Pratchett was deep into the series by 2007 — and is part of the 'Industrial Revolution' cluster of Discworld novels that includes Raising Steam.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
About Terry Pratchett
What are the main themes?
How does it compare to Going Postal?
Where does this fit in the Discworld series?
Summarize this book
Making Money is the second Discworld novel to feature Moist von Lipwig, the former con artist whom Lord Vetinari rehabilitated into Postmaster General in Going Postal. Growing restless running a smoothly functioning post office, Moist is maneuvered by Vetinari into taking over the ailing Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork and its Royal Mint. The central trap is elegantly constructed: the bank's late chairwoman, Topsy Lavish, leaves 50 percent of the bank's shares to her dog, Mr. Fusspot — who already holds one share, making him majority shareholder — and leaves Mr. Fusspot to Moist's care, backed by an Assassins' Guild contract. Moist must reform a distrusted institution, convince the city to accept paper money backed by Ankh-Morpork itself rather than gold, fend off the scheming Lavish family, and keep the dog alive — all while Pratchett dramatises the actual philosophical foundations of modern monetary theory in Discworld terms.
Follow up
What's the golem subplot about?
Who is Cosmo Lavish?
What's the deal with Mr. Bent?
Synthesized from verified book data & published reviews · How we review
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Our Review
We review the evidence: published critics, reader verdicts and BookTube reviews, gathered and weighed with AI assistance and edited by LuvemBooks, rather than one reader's first-hand take.
Making Money is a smart and philosophically pointed Discworld entry — essential for fans of Moist von Lipwig, and a genuine piece of comic fantasy that has earned its place in the genre, though some reviewers find its humour less consistently laugh-out-loud than other entries in the series.
What the Novel Actually Does
Making Money is the second Discworld novel to feature Moist von Lipwig, the former con artist whom Lord Vetinari rehabilitated into Postmaster General in Going Postal. At the opening, Moist is restless: the post office runs smoothly, there are no fires to put out, and boredom is setting in.
Vetinari — Ankh-Morpork's calculating Patrician — spots this and pushes Moist toward an even more precarious assignment: taking over the ailing Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork and its associated Royal Mint. Moist initially refuses, but the death of Topsy Lavish, the bank's chairwoman, changes everything.
Her will leaves 50 percent of the bank's shares to her dog, Mr. Fusspot — who already holds one share, making him the majority shareholder and official chairman — and leaves Mr. Fusspot himself to Moist. An Assassins' Guild contract guarantees that if anything unnatural happens to the dog, or if Moist fails to honour the will's commands, he dies.
Pratchett builds the central conflict from this elegant trap: Moist must reform a distrusted institution, convince Ankh-Morpork's citizens to accept paper money not backed by gold but by the city itself, and fend off the scheming Lavish family, all while keeping a small dog alive.
Pratchett's Satirical Argument About Money
What distinguishes Making Money from a straightforward comic caper is its intellectual core. As Pratchett noted, the novel occupies a curious dual space — fantasy and non-fantasy simultaneously — because money itself is a collective fantasy: a shared agreement that abstract numbers carry real value.
This idea drives the plot mechanically and thematically. Moist's plan to back currency with the city rather than gold is not mere eccentricity; it is Pratchett dramatising the actual foundations of modern monetary theory in Discworld terms.
The plot also complicates the Lavish family subplot through Cosmo Lavish's increasingly deranged attempt to impersonate Vetinari himself, and through the parallel storyline of Moist's fiancée, Adora Belle Dearheart, whose work with the Golem Trust to excavate the ancient civilisation of Um produces the novel's most spectacular surprise: what was believed to be four golden golems turns out to be four thousand. The book's scope, then, runs from intimate institutional satire to civilisation-scale revelation.
Awards Recognition and Critical Reception
The novel won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2008 and received a Nebula Award nomination the same year — formal recognition that placed it among that year's most significant fantasy releases. Critical reaction from press outlets was mixed in illuminating ways.
As Wikipedia's reception summary records, Critics praised the book's humanity and its sharp questions about why we trust banks and about the nature of money, though he noted it is not quite as successful as Going Postal due to the lack of some of that novel's forward drive. The Observer's Rowland Manthrope was more pointed, arguing that Pratchett has wit in the novel but has lost his normal cutting edge.
Against those reservations, the Barnes & Noble summary quotes a critic calling it "outlandish fun" that "balances satire, knockabout farce and close observation of human — and non-human — foibles with impressive dexterity and deceptive ease," crediting Pratchett as "the preeminent comic fantasist of our time." Kirkus Reviews described the novel as "fast-moving," mixing "satire and fantasy with increasingly frantic farce" as it races toward a conclusion involving golems, necromancers, and a royal hearing.
The range of that reception — from "lost his cutting edge" to "impressive dexterity" — accurately reflects a book that provokes genuine debate.
What the Novel Does Well
The mechanics of Pratchett's plotting are specifically praised across sources. The escalating absurdity — a dog as bank chairman, stamps as currency, an assassination contract as employment incentive — is structured with the logic of farce, where each complication follows from the last.
Kirkus identifies the pacing as a strength, calling it a "fast-moving novel" with "increasingly frantic farce," though other reviewers, including fantasyliterature.com and compulsivereader.com, find the comedy loses momentum in places. The cast rewards returning readers: Mr. Bent, the chief cashier rumoured to be a vampire but revealed to be something Pratchett treats as worse — a clown — is one of the novel's most celebrated character reveals.
Adora Belle Dearheart, carrying her own plotline about the golems of Um, is given substantial narrative weight rather than serving merely as a supporting figure. For series readers, the Barnes & Noble summary notes that returning characters feel like familiar old friends in new contexts, while new additions are drawn with enough depth to generate genuine investment.
Who This Book Is For, and Where It Falls Short
Readers approaching Making Money directly from Going Postal may find the pacing slightly less propulsive — a view some reviewers share, though others praise it as fast-moving throughout. The novel's satirical targets (institutional inertia, public distrust of banks, the arbitrariness of currency) are handled through comedy rather than urgency, and those seeking the compressed momentum of its predecessor may register the difference.
The novel is the second book in the Moist von Lipwig sequence, though the Discworld novels are designed to be read in any order. Readers who have not met Moist before will still find the premise self-contained, but the emotional payoff of his character development — a con artist who has genuinely changed, now forced to apply his skills legitimately — carries more weight with prior context.
For committed Discworld readers, and for anyone interested in fantasy that takes economic systems seriously as comedic and philosophical material, Making Money delivers exactly what Pratchett's most devoted audience returns for.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
- 1
en.wikipedia.org
- 2
zealotscript.co.uk
- Further reading
- 3
Terry Pratchett, LuvemBooks
- 4
kirkusreviews.com
- 5
terrypratchettbooks.com
- 6
- 7
bookbrowse.com
- 8
patricktreardon.com
- 9
compulsivereader.com
- 10
fantasybookreview.co.uk
- 11
- 12
wiki.lspace.org
- 13
- 14
Kirkus Reviews
- 15
Fantasy Literature
Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
who it suits
Skip if you're looking for propulsive, tightly plotted fantasy and rank Going Postal among the series' very best — the slightly looser momentum and occasionally blunted satirical edge may disappoint.
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