Product Description

The brand new adult Discworld novel sees Pratchett taking on the banking system: 'almost spookily relevant...clever, engaging and laugh-out-loud funny' (The Times)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6062 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-24
• Released on: 2007-09-20
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

The Guardian, September 29, 2007
...the finest satirical series running. If you've never read a Discworld novel, what's the matter with you?

Daily Express
Terry Pratchett is a comic genius.

The Times
As bright and shiny as a newly minted coin; clever, engaging and laugh-out-loud funny.

Customer Reviews

An enjoyable series of sub-plots
Firstly, I enjoyed this book. Its the second Moist story- I found him to be a likeable character- a rouge, but paradoxically an honest rogue. Pratchett writes with a great deal of skill to develop this character- and it works- you WANT him to win, you like him... you would trust your money with him. Which is, of course, exactly what this story is about. Its about a bank being run by a con man, the key issue is trust. What is money WORTH? How do you trust paper money over gold? Well, Moist has his way...

What I found different about this book was the large number of sub plots- really just sub-stories that had a rather vauge (and ultimatly irrelevant) conenction to the main plot. They were, never the less, interesting strands, all of which came to funny and amusing endings. Cosmo Lavish has an interesting scheme, for example, which just seemed to fizzle. There is the dog, Mr Fusspot, who is probably involved in what is Pratchetts most risque little joke ever (what HAS he got in his mouth)- and its very funny. The ending to Mr Fusspot's story is hearwarming, and totally unexpected. The reader is left to speculate exactly what is going on there- almost certainly two things, in fact. We also have Hubert, who is a bit mad, building some sort of computer and Adora Bell Dearheart's work with the gollums - which in fairness is relevant. Add to this a female lovestruck gollum, and finally a horny 300 year old dead wizard....

Pratchett clearly had a lot of ideas and new characters and as such it seems a lot was squeezed into this despite the fact that most really weren't required as part of the main plot. There is also a new central character- Mr Bent- with a very unusual background, who proves to be a key figure.

We may indeed see a lot of these charatcers again, maybe even developed a little more (the Hubert strand for example went nowhere) although the wizard now seems happy to stay where he is.

If I have any criticisms of this book it is that the dramatic ending seems a little rushed and unspectacular. I also feel that the watch, especially Vimes and Carrot, shouldn't have been here at all. Their roles appear here as nothing more than bog-standard policemen whoes job is just to arrest people, boring and irrelvant extras. Pratchett is playing a dangerous game by using the stars of his other books in such a mundane fashion.

Getting a little tired?
I've read all the Discworld novels as they have been released in paperback, but until now I've never had an inkling that the franchise might be running out of steam. Here, though, we have a novel whose central plot seems rather familiar - a rogue taking the helm of a crusty and inefficient organisation and with a few bizarre pieces of inspiration confounding his critics. The subplots seem recycled, too, and some of the supposedly new characters are rather familiar Discworld stereotypes. The gags are still fresh, though, although we're down from a belly laugh per page to perhaps a good chuckle per chapter.

But even here, in his least successful Discworld novel, he remains in the top two fantasy humourists writing today. This book can only be considered a failure when judged against Pratchett's own extraordinary standards.

Tired but still better than the competition
Many others have commented before so I only want to express my disappointment that the master's slip is showing as it were. I believe that Terry's last few novels have been less than perfect and this one is another rung down the ladder. But having said that I read it virtually overnight and it is still the benchmark that other comedy fantasists have to reach and seldom overcome. Unfortunately having set the bar so high he doesn't quite make it over this time.