The steam engine has come to Ankh-Morpork. Clearly, this is an invention that has debuted way before it's time. While the Patrician has an uneasy feeling about it's presence in his city-state, Lord Vetinari is not one to pass up an opportunity. Thus, Vetinari recruits Moist Von Lipwig for another assignment in which not just Ankh-Morpork but perhaps the entire disk will prosper. Discworld is about to have a train!
Raising Steam was the last of many things. It's the last book in what fans call the 'Moist Von Lipwig' trilogy. This book is also the last adult Discworld novel. So, there's quite a few farewells.
Normally, you do not have to read the Discworld novels in order. Though it very much helps. But in this case, there are at least 3 books you need to read before you crack open Raising Steam.
Obviously, you must read Going Postal and Making Money. But you also need to read THUD! See in this book, a rogue segments of dwarfs called grags are disgusted with the modern Ankh-Morpork ways adopted by the Low King. The grags want to return to those old dwarfish ways. Things like mining for gold and gems- and then hoarding it. Living in the moist deep dark crevices of the Disc. And not knowing whether a dwarf is in reality male or female.
I had read THUD! But gee, it must have been 5-10 years ago when I did. That book sets up Raising Steam quite a bit more than the first two Moist books do. And so if you can't remember much about THUD!, like I couldn't, then you are going to have trouble following the first half of this book. And you will not enjoy it as much.
Thankfully, Wikipedia and the Discworld wiki was able to help fill in some gaps. But I think once this quarantine is over, I'm going to have to seek out a copy of THUD! for a quick re-read.
Being the final book of the Moist trilogy, the pacing is all wrong. Moist really feels more like a second character. At least for that first half. Plus, there's some new (to Discworld) creatures that have taken residence in this book without a true introduction. I don't want to spoil who they are. But unless they popped up in Snuff, the only book immediately prior that I haven't read yet, I do not understand why they are working with Adora Belle with the clacks system.
And why is Adora Belle working the clacks system all of a sudden? In Making Money, she was working with the Golem Trust. That book makes no mention of her love of the clacks industry though in Going Postal, it's her family who created that system of communication.
What I am saying is that the pacing between the 3 Moist Von Lipwig books is so very uneven and this book seemed rushed at times to tie up a lot of loose plot ends.
Did the late Terry Pratchett know that his time on earth was coming to a close? It does feel that the author was trying to give Discworld a proper sendoff to his fans. But that doesn't quite explain why he then work one more Tiffany Aching book. I guess I will have to read that one to find out.
A good Discworld book. But it's definitely not my favorite either.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
A week ago I finished Terry Pratchett's Making Money. It was the second book of what fans call the 'Moist Von Lipwig' trilogy. I didn't have book one and I sure as heck wasn't going to start on book 3. Regardless, starting in the middle, while a good read, it wasn't the best read, especially in terms of having read about 3/4 of the Discworld series.
The day after I completed Making Money, we were notified that all book stores were to shut down by 5pm. So I rushed off to the book stores in search of some more Discworld books. It was at a Barnes and Noble that I finally found the opening chapter of Moist's adventures in 'honest' business.
Here in Going Postal, Moist Von Lipwig is offered the job of a lifetime. (That's because if he refuses Lord Vetinari's employment opportunity, it will be the end of Lipwig!) Moist is to become the postmaster general for Ankh-Morpork's fledgling post office. Who are we kidding here? The post office had gone way past failed.
Armed with the Discworld's oldest junior mail sorter, a quality control inspector obsessed with pins and a golem parole officer, Moist Von Lipwig will play the odds (and probably cheat) to make the post office relevant again.
That plan isn't going to be easy as Moist and the post office must compete against big communication in the form of the clacks system. It's a corporation that is just as devious as Lipwig. Only, Lipwig has a heart! And that very well could be the con man's downfall- especially when Moist falls in love!
I wish I had read Going Postal first. It made me appreciate Making Money all that much more. I thought I hated Lipwig. But in a lot of ways, Moist is like me. Not, I am not a shyster. But I do have an amazing ability to remember faces. I might not remember names, but I can always carry on a conversation with anyone I've ever meet as I can remember such details of a person's life just like Lipwig.
I used to based how I conducted business like Bart Simpson when he turned his tree house into a casino. But I might start schmoozing with folks based on how Lipwig runs the postal service.
There is one downside to having read this book out of turn. A lot of what Pratchett has planned for Moist is hinted at throughout almost the entire 470 plus pages of the book. Instead of being a surprise, I was more of like 'oh, I see where he's going with this.'
I just started reading the third and sadly final book in the trilogy, Making Steam. With this one, I can see already that same formula as things hinted in the last third of Making Money is already happening here in the last book's opening 25 pages.
When if comes to Pratchett's Discworld books, one is not required to read any of the books in order. Well, I think that rule does not apply here! If you own (and haven't read yet) Making Money and Raising Steam- don't! That is until you get a copy of this novel and read it first. You will enjoy the second book a whole bunch more if you do follow my advice.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
Perhaps my least favorite book in the Discworld series.
Con man turned Ankh-Morpork's postmaster general, Moist Von Lipwig, has been given a new assignment. Lord Vetinari want's Moist to head up one of the city's banks. With Moist's experience with money, he'd be more at home holding up the bank.
But there's some secrets buried deep in the vaults of the old bank and the Patrician puts Moist in charge in hopes of getting to the bottom of things. If Moist ends up changing the way citizens look at money by incorporating a new current- so be it. The rest of the bank's board members won't be happy with their new leader. But then again, Moist isn't really all that happy with this new assignment either.
I will say that this book is filled with a ton of extra characters and that made me happy. Most of the City Watch pops up. So does quite a few wizards, a certain hot dog vendor, as well as a host of dwarfs, postmen and a golem who is going through a sort of identity crisis. The only thing missing were one or more of the Wyrd Sisters.
Making Money is basically the second book of a trilogy that stars Moist Von Lipwig. There may have been more books on the way, but Pratchett's untimely death, and his daughter's insistence that no further Discworld books will even be published, might have paved the way for these books being known as the 'Von Lipwig Trilogy'.
Maybe I should have read book 1 first. But I didn't have book one and I surely didn't want to start with book 3, which I also have. Social distancing has made other things a priority at the moment. And when you want to read Terry Pratchett, you'll take what you can get.
I'm trying to be fair here with this rating. But there were a couple of characters that I absolutely hated. In fact, at least one of them felt just totally unnecessary. The ending solution was pretty awesome. And I love the Patrician, and Carrot and Sam Vimes and all three have some big roles here! That's a plus. But this still isn't my favorite book. It actually knocks Carpe Jugulum up a notch.
Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.
