""Wickedly satirical . . . nothing short of brilliant.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
The 31st entry in Sir Terry Pratchett’s internationally bestselling Discworld series about the art of war and the brave women who wage it. This new audiobook recording is narrated by Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd and Here We Go), with Golden Globe award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually; Pirates of the Caribbean; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) reading the footnotes, and Peter Serafinowicz (Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace) starring as the voice of Death.
War has come to Discworld. The homes and businesses throughout the duchy of Borogravia limp along, doing the best they can without their men, sent to fight their age-old enemy. Polly has taken over the lion’s share of responsibility for the running of her family’s humble inn, The Duchess. Her beloved brother Paul marched off to war almost a year ago, but it has been more than two months since his last letter home, and the news from the front is bad: the fighting has reached the border, supplies are dwindling, and the brave Borogravians are losing precious ground. So the resourceful Polly cuts off her hair and joins the army as a young man named Oliver. As Polly closely guards her secret, she notices that her fellow recruits seem to be guarding secrets of their own.
A novel that explores the inanity of war, the ins and outs of sexual politics, and why often the best man for the job is a woman, Monstrous Regiment is vintage Pratchett in top form.
The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Monstrous Regiment is a standalone.
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"another fun disc-world read about a woman who signs up for the army as a man and the attending problems she encounters. quick read. like most of his books, i didn't want to put it down. sam vimes makes a quick appearance, too."
— colleen (5 out of 5 stars)
"Wickedly satirical…nothing short of brilliant.”
— Publishers Weekly" This one was so crap that I basically stopped reading Pratchett. "
— Jan, 2/19/2014" I'm only about 20 pages in and I already love it. "
— Chris, 2/11/2014" One of my favourite Discworld novels! Has me laughing all the time. "
— Daisyjess, 2/6/2014" Just great - and the characters are top notch and the story full of surprises "
— Dean, 2/2/2014" Definitely one of the weakest Discworld books. Suffers from all of Pratchett's bad writing habits but is somehow missing the usually far stronger good stuff in his writing. "
— Sean, 1/31/2014" Amazingly fun to read. "
— Lana, 12/22/2013" A genuinely sweet book with a silly sense of humor, this young-adultish fantasy jaunt through a military campaign set in the "disc world" was truly enjoyable. A book which I want my daughter, and son, to read one day. "
— Dergrossest, 11/11/2013" Estrogen for everyone! Get it while you can! "
— Kaitlynn, 10/1/2013" One of Pratchett's best. "
— Martha, 8/16/2013" Fun and easy to read, though the last part was underwhelming? Idk. I'm in it for Lofty and Tonker, though <3 "
— Amanda, 4/5/2010" A great book by a fab author! "
— Vicky, 7/1/2008" Hillariously funny from start to finish "
— Kelly, 12/14/2007" It was amusing in some parts, extremely heavy handed in others. A good light read for one time. No plans on ever re-reading though, not like some of the first Discworld books... "
— Derrick, 7/2/2007" An amazing audiobook reading, as usual, by Terry Briggs. Infinitely entertaining. Also, this one is quite a bit feminist. :) "
— Joe, 1/7/2007" Feminism in a crazy world - my kind of story "
— Mandy, 10/6/2006" Discworld books have caused me the highest ratio of laughter to word count than any other writing. Pratchett is immensely clever and precise, and his social commentary is magical... "
— Richard, 10/30/2005" Really struggled to get in to this one. Don't get me wrong, the story's okay. But for me it's not Terry Pratchett at his best. By now you already know that I like the Watch and all the characters associated with it best, but this one for me was missing.....something. "
— Paul, 5/26/2005" My first Pratchett -- recommended by my then-14-year-old niece. One of our catch-phrases is still "there's definitely something sockish about ,,," "
— Alice, 3/24/2005Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was an English novelist known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series. His first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971, and after publishing his first Discworld novel, The Color of Magic, in 1983, he wrote two books a year on average. He was the United Kingdom’s bestselling author of the 1990s and has sold more than 55 million books worldwide. In 2001 he won the Carnegie Medal for his children’s novel The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature in 1998 and was knighted in 2009.
Bill Nighy is a multi-award-winning actor who has appeared in many TV dramas, including State of Play, The Girl in the Café, and Page Eight, for which he received a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination. He won a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA for his role as Billy Mack in Love Actually, while his other films include Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, and the smash hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Bill Nighy is a multi-award-winning actor who has appeared in many TV dramas, including State of Play, The Girl in the Café, and Page Eight, for which he received a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination. He won a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA for his role as Billy Mack in Love Actually, while his other films include Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, and the smash hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.