Reviews

I didn't fully click with this particular Pratchett when it first came out, and I still can't count it among my favorites now. This is in spite of Polly being a wonderful and relatable character. But this novel suffers from of the structural problems that plague a few of Pratchett's books -- there's a fun opening, and often an exciting climax, but the middle just sort of meanders aimlessly, dependent on the quality of the witticism and shenanigans, and this book does not contain my favorite examples of either.

Also it's amazing to me, in 2022, how queer this book doesn't feel -- how many opportunities for queerness seem to slide right off the page and vanish. I, being elderly, am well aware that the world was very different in 2003, and I don't think Pratchett would write it this same way now. To paraphrase his pal Neil Gaiman, I am still glad he wrote it then. But age has sadly not improved it for me.

remmerich1's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing

4.5

A really fun story, especially impressive for being a war story that manages to largely stay within Pratchett's sensibilities and not get overtaken by flippant killing or grim horrida bella moralising
The monstrous regiment as a counter-weight to Vimes' watch was a fun parallel, I'd have liked to more of him, but then I'll always say that about anything, Sam Vimes could turn up in Dune and I'd cheer.

It's not quite a trans take on gender, it can' quite seem to make its mind up on to what extent gender is or isn't innate versus a social construct. It's not quite feminist, it doesn't really add anything substantively new to the Mulan story within the narrative, it's more a fun what if Pratchett did Mulan. I'm not sure if it just didn't go the way I wanted, but it felt like at the end there weren't the kind of changes I was hoping for. For all that I lov a good "more they change more they stay the same" futility of fighting the system story, Pratchett usually has me on board with his more ambiguous endings, but I wasn't here.

So that's half a star, but other than that, it's a really fun read, as always, and well worth your time!

Ten books to go now and I'm starting to contemplate finishing the Discworld books, and it's very sad!