Product Description

It began as a sudden strange fancy ...Polly Perks had to become a boy in a hurry. Cutting off her hair and wearing trousers was easy. Learning to fart and belch in public and walk like an ape took more time ...And now she's enlisted in the army, and searching for her lost brother. But there's a war on. There's always a war on. And Polly and her fellow recruits are suddenly in the thick of it, without any training, and the enemy is hunting them. All they have on their side is the most artful sergeant in the army and a vampire with a lust for coffee. Well ...They have the Secret. And as they take the war to the heart of the enemy, they have to use all the resources of ...the Monstrous Regiment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3617 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 429 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Monstrous Regiment in question is made up of a vampire, a troll, Igor, a collection of misfits and a young woman who shoves a pair of socks down her pants to join the army. Here you have the characteristically charming novel by Terry Pratchett.

Polly becomes Private Oliver Perks, who is on a quest to find her older brother, who's recently MIA in one of the innumerable wars the tiny nation of Borogravia has a habit of starting with its neighbors. This peevish tendency has all but expended Borogravia's ranks of cannon fodder. Whether Sergeant Jackrum knows her secret or not, he can't afford to be choosy as Perks and her/his comrades are among the last able-bodied recruits left in Borogravia. This collection of misfits includes the aforementioned vampire (reformed and off the blood, thank you), troll, and macabre Igor, who is only too happy to sew you a new leg if you aren't too particular about previous ownership. Off to war, Polly/Oliver learns that having a pair of, um, socks is a good way to open up doors in this man's army.

For those who haven't made this underrated author's acquaintance, Monstrous Regiment is as good a place to start as any. Readers will encounter Pratchett's subtle and disarming wit, his trademark footnoted asides along with a not-too-shabby tale of honor, courage and duty in the face of absurd circumstances. --Jeremy Pugh, Amazon.com

Review
'You take a bunch of people who don't seem any different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem.' So says a character in Pratchett's latest Discworld novel, which follows one Polly Perks on her adventures subsequent to joining up, disguised as a boy, to fight for her country. Pratchett being Pratchett, of course, this is no ordinary war, but it does allow him to reflect upon the actual conduct and nature of war through his distorting lens of fantasy, satire and irreverent humour, in a way which is almost topical. The humour may be as broad as a barn door, but at its best it is also hilariously sharp - Tolkien as rewritten by the Pythons.

Twenty-ninth in Pratchett's Discworld series (Night Watch, 2002), kicked off twenty years ago with The Color of Magic. Proud of nothing but the fact that they're Borogravians, the inhabitants of said Borogravia produce no desired exports, worship a god with a predilection for making insane pronouncements, and have a tendency to declare war every so often on each of their neighbors just for the hell of it. This time out, Pratchett takes the reader far from the series' usual setting-the mercenary, madcap town of Ankh-Morpork-and instead sets the story in this Balkans-esque madhouse during yet another war in which Borogravia is being ganged up on by just about all of its neighbors. As an Ankh-Morporkian puts it: "The little countries here fought because of the river, because of idiot treaties, because of royal rows, but mostly they fought because they had always fought. They made war, in fact, because the sun came up." The "Monstrous" regiment in question is a band of Borogravian recruits marching off to the front line, unaware that the war has pretty much already been lost. It's a ragged and seemingly unsoldierly group, too. Polly, Pratchett's hero, is a young woman disguised as a man who's looking for her simple-minded brother Paul, who signed up already and whom she fears dead. There's also Maladict, a recovering vampire who hasn't drunk blood for quite some time now, tank you very much. Filling out the ranks, meanwhile, are Igor (a Frankenstein-like creature with an exaggerated lisp), a giant troll, and a sergeant so ancient and war-ravaged that calling him "crusty" barely covers it. As usual with Pratchett, the plot wanders off into the bushes every 30 pages or so just to have a look around and see whether anything funny is going on. Fortunately, something usually is, thanks to Pratchett's droll satire that isn't afraid to stoop to things like cross-dressing to get a giggle. Surprisingly meaningful but never short of hilarious: a monstrous success for Pratchett. (Kirkus Reviews)

From the Back Cover
It began as a sudden strange fancy . . .
Polly Perks had to become a boy in a hurry. Cutting off her hair and wearing trousers was easy. Learning to fart and belch in public and walk like an ape took more time . . .
And now she's enlisted in the army, and is searching for her lost brother.
But there's a war on. There's always a war on. And Polly and her fellow recruits are suddenly in the thick of it, without any training, and the enemy is hunting them.
All they have on their side is the most artful sergeant in the army and a vampire with a lust for coffee. Well . . . they have the Secret. And as they take the war to the heart of the enemy, they have to use all the resources of . . . the Monstrous Regiment.

Customer Reviews

Masterclass
I am a huge Pratchett fan. This book stands out as one of his darkest and funniest yet. For those nay sayers who give this 2 stars, it is more down to the fact that they want Discworld to stay the Colour of Magic forever and this is where TP has succeeded for years; he has allowed the Discworld to develop away from the one liner, and into characters, situations, jokes and prose that develop like a good wine throughout the book.
If Jingo was Dulce et Decorum est, then Monstrous Regiment is Strange Meeting.

Disappointing...
Some Pratchett books I read, re-read and enjoy more each time; "Going Postal" is one of those.

Some I read, and wonder why they fall so short of the high standard I've come to expect from TP. "Monstrous Regiment" is one of those.

Seems like a one-joke book to me. This is one to borrow, not buy!

Spare Socks, Anyone!!

There must be very little left that has not be said about the genius that is Terry Pratchett. No wonder he is England's best selling living author.
This book has a slightly different slant to many of the Discworld novels but it none the worse for it.

It is about a young girl, Polly Perks who has her own reasons for going to the recruiting sergeant with a pair of socks pushed down her trousers and asking to join "This man's army". Included in her section are a set of misfits including an "Igor" and a reformed vampire and why not.

They all march off with their new sergeant who says he is determined to look after "my boys" and will not let any harm befall them . . .

There is a nice comic twist at the end of the book, maybe you will see it coming and maybe you won't.

Many people try to imitate Pratchett. Take it from me it's impossible.