(Compare it with descriptions of Hex, or even the New Pie in GP.) Other bits are just bizarre – the entire “dog with vibrating rubber object” sequence is just stupid. The Glooper is barely touched on, despite being a big part of the minor plot.

Extreme sneezing? WTF? Why wasn’t this given more? It’s a very Discworld thing, but it’s just tossed in as a couple of references. But again, in this book, they are nothing more than throwaways. Great chunks of the book are little details that would normally be explored and developed. Mr Bent is barely given any effort, and he’s a major character! The only satisfyingly depicted minor character is Harry King, and even that’s largely due to the fact that we already know a lot about him! The dog? Professor Flead? What’s going on? What’s this collection of paper dolls doing, masquerading as Discworld characters? But Cosmo is barely a cardboard cut-out, let alone a decent villain. The minor characters are barely even sketched – normally that’s one of Pterry’s real strengths. Lazy plotting, and even more lazy writing.

And there’s an odd, possibly eldrich piece of equipment which provides a small victory. At least one of the (make) staff members has a secret trigger which makes them act violently. Moist almost loses everything, but turns defeat and humiliation into triumph. Moist goes up against villain semi-publicly. Moist becomes convinced that he can make things better. Oh, and there’s a golem who hangs around him. Moist meets the staff, who are either acidic female spinsters, or peculiar, social leper men. Moist gets railroaded by Vetinari into taking over an ailing AM institution. Yes, I know there are only a few über-plots in existence, but this is ridiculous. How could you lose?įor starters, the plot recycles that of “Going Postal” to a ridiculous degree. You had a rascal hero, his tough girl, the whole city of Ankh Morpork to play with.

So why did it all go wrong for this one? You had the (real, current) international banking wobbles happening (could the timing have been more fortuitous?). And no one was either completely goo, or completely evil, or completely successful It was actually a really good Discworld book holding this “world, and mirror of worlds” to modern life. You remember Mr Pump, and Stanley, and Toliver. It rang true! And the characters were – almost without exception – well drawn and interesting. Ultimately its Enron-echoes were too apt, too sharply highlighted, for me to ignore. But I grew to appreciate it, and not mind the similarities. It had too many similarities to the plot and structure of “The Truth”. I was initially ambivalent about the first Moist von Lipwig book, 'Going Postal'. Show More shift, but for me it's what makes him our equivalent of Charles Dickens.) He’s been my author of authors, with barely a step wrong.

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