Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Terry Pratchett Is Laughing All the Way to the Bank of Ankh-Morpork

There's not much of a backstory as to why I snapped up this book when it appeared on the Globe Book Editor's shelf; I adore British humor, and Terry Pratchet is one of the best.

December 20, 2007
In resonant 'Making Money,' author's wry wit is as good as gold

By Lylah M. Alphonse
Globe Staff

It's no secret that Terry Pratchett is funny. His novels are clever, wry, and insightful, and his fictional Discworld easily mirrors the real world on many levels. Until
recently, his books have remained an underground phenomenon in the United
States, but that changed with the release of "Thud!," which made its debut at
No. 4 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2005.

Now he's back with another book of political and social commentary disguised as satire. "Making Money" picks up where 2004's "Going Postal" left off. Our hero, Moist von Lipwig - former condemned prisoner, current head of the Ankh-Morpork Post Office, incorrigible con artist, and part-time thief - has revolutionized the mail system and turned stamps into a de-facto currency. Now, the city's tyrant, Lord Havelock Vetinari, wants him to rehabilitate the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork, which is in shambles. ... [More]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As soon as he outgrew the Redwall series, my son became a huge Pratchett fan. We have heaps of his books, right back to the Carpet People, the one he co-wrote with his 15-year-old self, the Bromeliad trilogy, through I don't know how many Discworld books. Maybe all of them, though Pratchett's hugely prolific!

Walk into Adam's room, and if he's not on the computer, he'll almost certainly be reading, and you'll almost certainly, simply by poking your head in the door, provoke a "Listen to THIS!"

Not that he needs the book, mind you: he has large chunks of Pratchett dialogue memorized ...

LMAlphonse said...

I am the same way, but with Monty Python sketches!