Show me the money!

Now we’ve arrived at another of my very favorite authors, Terry Pratchett, and his latest Discworld novel, ‘Making Money‘.  This novel continues the adventures of Moist von Lipwig, as he works his particular brand of influence and success on the banking systems as he did for the postal system.

For those of you not familiar with Pratchett’s Discworld series, the simplest description I can give it is to say that it is much like The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (by Douglas Adams) – but in a fantasy, not a sci-fi, setting.

Pratchett brings us an irreverent look at our own current day in world, but couched in the bright and colorful world of (most of the time) Ankh-Morpork, and it varied citizens (humans, magicians, trolls, dwarves, etc).  Not only is this a delightful fantasy setting, Pratchett can show us some very absurd things that exist in our own world.

This particular installment in the series (the latest) delves into, as you can imagine, the financial system.  It shows the teething pains as people grasp at the concept of money not being based on gold, but rather the guarantee of the government, amongst other story lines.

This book can certainly stand on its own (i.e., you needn’t have read the preceding books), and I’d say that anyone who enjoys fantasy fiction (or enjoyed the ‘Hitchiker’ series) owes it to themselves to check out not only this book, but the whole of the Discworld series.

Who are the Chandrian?

Come along, good and gentle reader, and sit beside the fire to be regaled with a well spun tale, brought to life by Patrick Rothfuss in the form of ‘The Name of the Wind.’

If you do a quick Google (or Amazon)( search on this book, you’ll see that much praise has been heaped on this book, and rightly so.  Not only is it a great fantasy story (and the first of three in the series), it’s an amazingly well-written story, plain and simple.

It’s been a long time since a book has drawn me in so deeply, getting genuinely concerned about what happens to Kvothe as the story alternates between current day and the story of his past.

As a fantasy story, it has all the necessary elements – a medieval setting (swords and inns), magic (though in a much different way), and evil creatures, just to name a few.  And as a story – I’m not entirely certain how, but this book wrapped into my imagination so well that I had a hard time putting the book down, especially when the story was hitting some critical points.

This is a book I recommend without any hesitation – and can, myself, not wait until the next in the series hits the shelves!