Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Weiberregiment by Terry Pratchett

8 reviews

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Misogyny, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism

Minor: Addiction, Pregnancy, and Child abuse

nikkiisreading's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring 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? N/A

5.0

This book is so, so wonderful! I was baffled every other page by the fantastic play with words, the clever plot turns and the lovely way these characters develop throughout the story.

Cannot recommend more!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Sexism, Misogyny, and Classism

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, and Pregnancy

arcturus_b's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, War, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Xenophobia, and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy and Rape

erikagibson126's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Gore, Misogyny, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, and Sexism

Moderate: Blood, Pregnancy, Cannibalism, Addiction, Alcohol, and Outing

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

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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

innastholiel's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Medical trauma, Abandonment, and Blood

Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The best anti-feminist feminist book written about women by a man. That might not sound like a good thing, but it definitely is! I absolutely adored this book and will be recommending to literally everyone. Every single plot twist was cohesive and surprising and the ending, while mildly frustrating, was still generally satisfying. 

I was sucked in from the first line, “Polly cut off hey hair in front of the mirror, feeling slightly guilty about not feeling very guilty about doing so.” I remained attentive until the last. It truly was a great book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Blood, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Colonisation, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Classism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Torture, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

jjjreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Deadnaming, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Outing, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Abandonment, Bullying, Cannibalism, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Stalking, and Transphobia