Making Money by Terry Pratchett

404 Pages (Fiction) Paperback

Terry Pratchett has been a constant source of entertainment in a the last few years. Although some of his earlier books are fine as he put out more books his writing becomes fantastic.

This book follows the events in Going Postal. Moist Von Lipwig has taken the post office from a mostly deserted ruin and turned it into a a fully functioning pillar of Ankh-Morpork; so of course he is bored. The place practically runs itself. He soon finds himself getting into trouble. The patrician of the city, Vetinari, encourages him to take up banking. The people of the city have lost trust in the banks and it needs to be turned around. Moist is the man for the job. Only a criminal mind would be able to handle something as corrupt as the banking system. Topsy Lavish is the current Royal Bank chairman and soon appoints Moist to the position. While running the post office they came up with the ingenious idea of stamps. Soon the people of the city started to collect them and even use them to exchange goods. What if the banks started to use a similar idea. Moist soon sets his mind to Making Money!

Pratchett is hilarious and enjoyable. You quick fall in love with his characters and even care for the bad guys as well. His world is a strange and silly counterpart to our own. He uses this to make fun of and embrace all of our inconsistencies. While reading his books you quickly get drawn in and following the twists and turns of the stories make it hard to stop reading at night. It is well worth your time to pick up one of his more recent books.

3 Emotional/Intellectual - Moist is one of Pratchett's best characters. The criminal with a good heart wants to do bad, but can't help doing good.

5 Style/Readability - Pratchett is a fantastic writer and entertains with consistent turns of phrase that makes you smile while describing perfectly.

3 Long Term Impact - The more people find out about Pratchett's work the more word will spread. This is one of the better books from Discworld and hopefully it will inspire more writing like it.

11 out of 13. I really enjoyed Going Postal and if anything I enjoyed Making Money more. Both books are well worth anyone's time. Give them a read you won't regret it.

Keep Turning Pages

Tales from the White Hart by Arthur C. Clarke

148 Pages (Fiction) Paperback

I have been a huge Arthur C. Clarke fan for many years. In fact a big reason I started this blog was to keep track of what books I have read. Clarke has so many books and many of them have similar names. I made this blog so I could know for sure what books I had read before starting a new one by him. I found this in a used book store for twice as much as the cover price.

Tales from the White Hart is really a collection of short stories. It is presented in a uncommon way. We are introduced to a hidden bar in London that attracts a collection of scientists and authors. A gentleman names Harry Purvis continually enthralls the crowd with a series of tall tales. Although presented as fiction the book gives the impression that the White Hart is based off of a real place.

Each chapter is another story being told. They are wide in range going from mysterious tanker crashed on the road, to great ships collecting minerals on the sea, to an army of termites with the power to take over the world. Clarkes written is easy to get into. Even though the stories are a bit fantastic what has always appealed to me about his work is that they are all grounded in reality. You could believe that the at least some of the stories are probable.

I actually read this book in between others a chapter here and a chapter there. I imagine an avid read could read it easily in a day or two.

3 Intellectual/Emotional - As I said, Clarke's ability to venture just beyond reality makes his stories very entertaining.

4 Style/Readability - Sometimes Clarke is treading on topics that are fairly complex. He has a way of distilling these down to layman's language that makes enjoyable for any reader.

2 Long term Impact - Clarke is one of the founding father of Science Fiction and will be an inspiration for sci fi writers for many years. This book is a bit more obscure and more based on earth science and will have less of an impact.

9 out of 13. An entertaining book and easily read. I think most people would find something worthwhile in this book. As a Clarke fan it is worth your while. If you are just getting into Sci Fi, I might suggest other books by him such as Childhood's End or the Rendezvous with Rama series. He is famous for 2001: A Space Odyssey which is even more famous as a movie. If you have seen the movie the book actually clarifies a lot of the confusion caused by the end of the movie.

As always, Keep Turning Pages