A review by rotheche
Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

When I picked Monstrous Regiment up, my husband said, "I think you'll like this one," and he was right. 

I don't know what the oldest example of 'girl pretends to be boy to go to war' is — Epipole from the Trojan War is the oldest one I've been able to find — but that's partly what Pratchett is basing Monstrous Regiment on. Polly is a young Borogravian woman who goes to war to try and find her brother. The thing is, Borogravia is almost always at war. As a nation, they're generally prideful and quick to argue. The deity of choice is Nuggan, whose main activity seems to be declaring Abominations at random and with great frequency. Between the two, Borogravia is a poor nation, its population and productivity shredded by war and starvation. The latest war is against Zlobenia, who are buttressed by the might of Ankh-Morpork. 

Enter Polly Perks, not a million miles from Bob in Blackadder Goes Forth. Polly too has learned to fart in bed and, if Borogravia knew about cricket, she would have learned the rules. 

SPOILERS AHEAD 

However, she gradually realises that...her entire group of recruits is female. They've all gone off to be soldiers for reasons of their own, and they actually turn out to be fairly decent at it. They're helped surreptitiously by Vimes, in Borogravia to find out for Vetinari what's really going on, and try to limit the slaughter as much as possible. Gradually they make their way through Borogravia to the giant keep at its centre, and infiltrate it by means of disguising themselves as washerwomen (so, women disguised as men disguising themselves as women), meet up with Vimes and eventually save the day. 

Along the way they discover that it's not just them. The entire military structure of Borogravia is made up of women pretending to be men, every one of them thinking she's the only one. This, to me, is the wider theme of the novel — the way that structures are held up by those they're meant to keep down. Every woman who has internalised misogyny, every worker who fights to keep capitalism going...they hold up what is meant to keep them down, and that's exactly what's happening in Borogravia. Nuggan's and thus Borogravia's misogyny is being propped up almost entirely by women because they don't know how much power they actually have. 

That said, the support from Ankh-Morpork in the shape of Vimes and his Watch crew is invaluable in getting the regiment through, and in pushing through a peace treaty. That doesn't take anything away from Polly's achievements and those of her regiment — assistance is always useful, and sometimes necessary. 

Belief plays a role here too. One of Polly's cohort prays to the Duchess — Borogravia's ruler, who may in fact be dead, she hasn't been seen in public in decades — instead of Nuggan. There's a history of the Duchess being a conduit for prayers, in the same way many Catholics will pray to Mary to intercede for them with God. Belief on Discworld has real effects: Small Gods (which I did read years ago) and Hogfather (excess belief in the world brings personification to various beliefs, like Bilious, the Oh God of Hangovers, the Verruca Gnome and the like) both establish that pretty clearly. This belief in the Duchess as intercessory brings rewards and help. 

Monstrous Regiment is one of the top tier Discworld novels, I think: it's funny, it has a solid message in it, it was neat to see Vimes from another character's point of view.