Going Postal
The first Moist Von Lipwig book finds the young conman saved from the noose and given a second chance by the Patrician and tasked to take on the disaster that is the Post Office in Ankh-Morpork.
The scams and schemes that Pratchett puts Lipwig through are ingenious and frequently hilarious. This is a very good Pratchett if not in Night Watch or Small Gods class.
Totally recommended.
Lords and Ladies
The third book in the Witches sequence finds them freshly returned home from the events of Witches Abroad. The story takes a definite turn towards the Shakespearean again, with the plot following the lines of A Midsummers' Night Dream.
All sorts of really interesting things happen in this one and the storytelling is very strong. It's a pity that he reused so much of it for Carpe Jugulum, which is a much inferior book.
Thoroughly recommended, but do give Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad a read before starting this one though.
Making Money
The latest Discworld is the second to feature Moist von Lipwig as the lead character.
While, like every Pratchett book, this is a thoroughly entertaining read it just feels a bit tired. The central premise feels weak and several of the supporting characters are utterly forgettable.
There hasn't been a truly exceptional Discworld book since Night Watch and that's a good few books back now.
Anyway like every Pratchett I'd recommend it to anyone. It may be best to read the first Lipwig book - Going Postal - first as the storyline follows directly on from it and some of the humour plays off of things that happen in it.
The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize
This book is not only a comprehensive account of Creation records but also manages to place everything in the context of the fortunes and transformations of the british record industry over the course of a couple of decades.
Alan McGee reportedly hates it, which is a good indication of just how close to the truth the author has managed to get. Indeed it is a deeply impressive piece of research before you even consider it's other merits.
It is authoritative and intelligent, thorough and thought-provoking. It's single great flaw is that reading another page on the breakdown of the relationships in The House of Love or another page on the umpteenth studio that My Bloody Valentine spent two hours in before Kevin Shields decided it wasn't good enough kills much of the momentum of the story and you can start to get bogged down bored with it and it can become a chore to get to the next interesting bit.
I think that you really have to be keen to know everything about Creation before even thinking about picking this one up. If you are you'll find that you couldn't wish for better overview.
Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney) 1948 - 2007
Robert Jordan died on the 16th September after a battle with a rare form of heart disease.
This is something of note to me, personally, not only because I was a rabid fan of his Wheel of Time series for a long time but also because the online RJ community (particularly the newsgroup rasfwrj, where I lurked for years) played a huge part in my desire to be online and then played a huge part in my early online life.
Especially saddening, to everyone who ever was a fan, is that Jordan didn't quite manage to finish the final volume of the series. So any form of closure (and I'm sure that a version of the final volume will see the light of day) will have to come by proxy and necessarily not quite be what Jordan would have made it.
RIP, Mr Rigney. My condolences and commiserations to his wife and family
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