Monstrous Regiment: (Discworld Novel 31) (Discworld Novels) - Softcover

Terry Pratchett

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552167673 ISBN 13: 9780552167673

Publisher: Corgi, 2014

Synopsis

'You ride along on his tide of outlandish invention, realising that you are in the presence of a true original' The Times

The Discworld is very much like our own - if our own were to consist of a flat planet balanced on the back of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle, that is . . .

'Trousers. That's the secret...Put on trousers and the world changes. We walk different. We act different. I see these girls and I think: idiots! Get yourself some trousers!'

Women belong in the kitchen - everyone knows that. Not in jobs, pubs or indeed trousers, and certainly not on the front line.

Nonetheless, Polly Perks has to become a boy in a hurry if she wants to find her missing brother in the army. Cutting off her hair and wearing the trousers is easy. Learning to fart and belch in public and walk like an ape takes more time.

There’s a war on. There's always a war on, and Polly and her fellow raw recruits are suddenly in the thick of it.

All they have on their side is the most artful sergeant in the army and a vampire with a lust for coffee.

It's time to make a stand.
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The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Monstrous Regiment is a standalone novel.

About this title

Review:

The Monstrous Regiment in question is made up of a vampire, a troll, Igor, a collection of misfits and a young woman who shoves a pair of socks down her pants to join the army. Here you have the characteristically charming novel by Terry Pratchett.

Polly becomes Private Oliver Perks, who is on a quest to find her older brother, who's recently MIA in one of the innumerable wars the tiny nation of Borogravia has a habit of starting with its neighbors. This peevish tendency has all but expended Borogravia's ranks of cannon fodder. Whether Sergeant Jackrum knows her secret or not, he can't afford to be choosy as Perks and her/his comrades are among the last able-bodied recruits left in Borogravia. This collection of misfits includes the aforementioned vampire (reformed and off the blood, thank you), troll, and macabre Igor, who is only too happy to sew you a new leg if you aren't too particular about previous ownership. Off to war, Polly/Oliver learns that having a pair of, um, socks is a good way to open up doors in this man's army.

For those who haven't made this underrated author's acquaintance, Monstrous Regiment is as good a place to start as any. Readers will encounter Pratchett's subtle and disarming wit, his trademark footnoted asides along with a not-too-shabby tale of honor, courage and duty in the face of absurd circumstances. --Jeremy Pugh, Amazon.com

Review:

"'Not since Evelyn Waugh's novel Officers and Gentlemen has conflict faced such thoroughly cutting questioning...A great piece of writing, akin to Jonathan Swift'" (Daily Express)

"Like Jonathan Swift, Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own, and like Swift he is a satirist of enormous talent ... incredibly funny ... compulsively readable" (The Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Corgi
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0552167673
• ISBN 13: 9780552167673
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480