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bluejayreads's review against another edition
3.75
The Industrial Revolution sub-series is a challenging one for me to review in general, because they don’t have a reoccurring cast of characters, and often have very little to no connection to the other books besides the obvious one of all taking place in the same world. But this book has less connection than most. Commander Sam Vimes makes a small appearance, along with William de Worde and the vampire photographer from The Truth, and Discworld readers will recognize the names of several countries and the general concept of the klax. Beyond that, everything in here is new.
Which is not, necessarily, a bad thing. Polly herself is a solid character. She doesn’t exactly jump off the page, but she’s interesting enough. And the story of dressing up as a boy to go join the army for some reason or another is a fun concept, especially done by Sir Terry – witty, clever, hyperbolized into hilarity despite the fact that there is, actually, a war happening. And Polly is surrounded by an entertaining cast of side characters, including a vampire who’s traded blood for coffee, a troll (always entertaining), a fellow soldier who may or may not be getting messages from a possibly-dead ruler who may or may not also be a deity, an Igor (also always entertaining), and an amusingly inept commander, among others. They make for a collection of delightfully-weird people doing things the wrong way, but in a wrong way that ends up solving the problem. In short, it’s a Discworld book, with all the fun, humor, and whimsy that entails.
However. The Discworld books are also big on themes and messages, and Monstrous Regiment is no exception. I accused The Truth of being less than subtle, but it’s a masterful tale of hidden meaning compared to this one. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely agree that someone’s gender doesn’t make them unfit for any particular role and that wars are often stupid, pointless, and make everything worse, but this book just goes so over-the-top to make those points. Well, mainly the gender equality point. The war one is there, but it feels secondary to the conceptual bludgeon that is gender equality in this book. I get the concept of overdoing something for satirical purposes, but in my opinion this tipped way past satirical and into patently absurd and utterly unbelievable. The Discworld series is full of all sorts of absurd and ridiculous things, but this was the only one to actually shake my suspension of disbelief. I’m avoiding spoilers here, but there’s one particular thing that keeps happening. Once was a twist, twice was a funny coincidence, and several times was amusing. But as the book marched towards the end the sheer quantity of this thing happening rapidly tipped from funny and satirical to outlandish and gauche. It was just too much to be remotely believable.
Which sucks, because the rest of the book is good! It manages to give a whimsical edge to a literal war story, and it has solid characters, an engaging plot, plenty of witty humor, and the first confirmed queer characters I recall reading about in the Discworld series. So much of it was good, and I did really enjoy the read. It just went way too far with that one element, and that tanked the vast majority of the ending for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Misogyny, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism
Minor: Addiction, Pregnancy, and Child abuse
sigreads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
mseem's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Violence
Minor: Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Physical abuse
ampharos906's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Child abuse, War, Death, Medical content, Outing, and Physical abuse
Minor: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Sexual assault, and Suicide
plume_de_renarde's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Sexism, and Misogyny
Moderate: Religious bigotry
Minor: Pregnancy, Rape, and Child abuse
its_kievan's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
TERRY PRATCHETT SAID TRANS RIGHTS
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse
kjoli's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, and War
Minor: Murder
littlecat's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.0
To be honest not my fav Discworld book, it is a lot less funny then others to me, and the theme of war felt better handled in Jingo. I found the side characters under used specially Igor(ina) and Jade the troll. I adore Jackrum through, I really do.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Sexism, Ableism, Transphobia, Addiction, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
aardwyrm's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Sweet Polly Oliver and a deep dissection of fantasy tropes by way of social satire.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Gore
Minor: Sexual assault and Child abuse
schillingtron's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Sexism, and Transphobia
Minor: Ableism, Abortion, Addiction, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy