Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Monstrous Regiment

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

21 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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justsomeguy42's review against another edition

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adventurous funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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nikkiisreading's review against another edition

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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!!

Content Warnings

kallabak's review against another edition

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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

4.0

Content Warnings

erikagibson126's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.5

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frankieclc's review against another edition

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As satirical as it may have been intended to be, I fully cannot get past all of the sexist remarks and outdated content. I tried!!!! not for me

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woweewhoa's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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rachaelbunny's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted 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? No

4.5

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ricksilva's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-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

Following in a long tradition of folk songs with tragic endings, Polly Perks, the daughter of an innkeeper in the small nation of Borogravia, disguises herself as a boy to join the army. She's searching for her lost brother, missing in action in one of Borogravia's endless wars with its neighbors. With her nation oppressed by an overbearing religion, and threatened by impending invasion and famine, Private Perks finds herself matched with a grizzled sergeant, a bullying corporal, and a band of misfit recruits that includes a vampire, a troll, and an Igor.

It gets more ridiculous from there, and in the best possible ways, as the author pushes the Mulan trope to it's logical extreme while providing a fair share of commentary on war, religion, nationalism, and gender roles. All of this with a nicely twisting plot, a solid sprinkling of action, and some truly great characters. A few familiar (to Discworld fans) faces from the Ankh-Morpork Watch also make appearances in supporting roles.

The relationship between Private Perks and Sergeant Jackrum holds all of the disparate elements of the story together, and gives the book it's heart while the many subplots involving the rest of the regiment provide some legitimate laughs and some poignant moments. This was always fun, and surprisingly powerful in places.

Content Warnings

plume_de_renarde's review against another edition

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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

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