Monstrous Regiment (Discworld Novel) Reviews

This is the 28th Discworld novel, but it can be read as a stand-alone.

Polly Perks is a young woman who works at her father's inn, the Duchess (named after an iconic Borogravian figure). However, since it is one of the numerous "abominations unto Nuggan" for a woman to own pubs in Borogravia, she realizes that if she wants to keep the Duchess, she needs to get her brother Oliver back from the front. Indeed, Borogravia is at war, again, with one of its neighbours.

So when the recruiting party goes through town, she cuts her hair, disguises as a man, kisses the portrait of the Duchess and gets the Shilling. Now she's in Sergeant Jack Jackrum's army, along with a group of other makeshift soldiers, among which Maladict the reformed Vampire (who's given up blood for coffee), a Troll and an Igor. Soon enough she learns to walk and swear like a man, and to wear a pair of socks in her trousers.

I found Monstrous Regiment hard to get in at first, because I got all the names and nicknames mixed up and I wasn't familiar with military vocabulary, let alone military slang. But in the middle of the book the story started flowing more naturally and became much more exciting, and in the end I liked its "farce" twists and turns a lot.