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Bookchat: Monstrous Regiment, and other Pratchett-y musings [1]

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Date: 2023-05-03

Pratchett, himself

Welcome to Bookchat! Where you can talk about anything; books, plays, essays, and audio books. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.

Hello all! I hope your Wednesday evening is treating you well.

I have to admit, I’m a bit of a late-comer to Sir Terry. When my brother started pestering the rest of the family about Discworld novels sometime in the early 90’s, it was prime-annoyed-sister time for me to decide that he would not be influencing all of my reading habits and tastes.

I stuck with Anne McCaffrey’s expanding Pern-scape for another half-decade, among other things.

So Pratchett books had to wait until I finished both high school and college and had more (under-paid) time on my hands. And then of course, it was Good Omens and Small Gods I dipped my toes into first, and wow, are those two books hard to follow. Could anything else measure up in quite the same way? I wasn’t sure.

I’ve also never found a library that had a full complement of Pratchett books in either physical books or ebooks, or some combination of the two. If I start something, I want to be able to finish, you know? Anyhow, as the Discworld universe kept expanding, and I kept failing to leave schooling behind (ahem, grad school, way too much grad school), I kept not reading Terry Pratchett books. Oh, I picked up Night Watch and read it at some point and found it funny enough, but not enough to dive further in, I suppose.

Like Douglas Adams, Octavia Butler, Graham Joyce, Kage Baker, and so many other amazing authors, we lost Terry Pratchett way too soon. It’s a bit silly, but now, I suppose I don’t want to come to the end of new-to-me Pratchett books. At this pace, I might retire before I finish all of the Discworld books.

One thing about my current job, there are enough repetitive tasks that listening to audiobooks is an option. So, I’ve listened to Snuff, which broke my heart and then put it mostly back together. I picked up Mort and four other titles in paperback from a thrift store at least five years ago. Still haven’t read them. But Tiffany Aching’s books are my brother’s favorites, so when I recently stumbled across a bundle sale of Pratchett audiobooks that included two of them, I went for it. (Yes, I’m now mature enough to admit my brother has always had very good taste in books and music.)

My audiobook app served up Monstrous Regiment first.

Monstrous Regiment was published in 2003, and therefore pokes fun at: countries that jump to war at slight or made-up provocations, slavish devotion to religion, and objections to women in the military/combat positions — all issues that were front and center in 2003. Among other things. Sir Terry must have written it very quickly in 2003, because there was time in the writing and editing and proofing process to wedge in a direct reference to ‘shock and awe’ somewhere in the first chapters.

Hat tip to John Knox’s polemic, of similar but far lengthier title, regarding the abomination of rule by the Scots and English queens. Nuggan, Borogravia’s mad, possibly-wandered-off god, still updates the appendix of the Word of Nuggan, with nearly weekly additional abominations. Such as: chocolate, babies, blue skies, beets. And, of course, women running businesses.

Polly Perks runs away from her family’s inn, The Duchess (also the name of Borogravia’s possibly long-deceased, but still nominally in-charge, widowed duchess), to find her brother Paul, who went off to war the previous year and is missing in action. The best way for Polly to find him? Disguise herself as a boy and join up too.

A group of unnaturally eager misfits joins up — the last squad of Borogravian recruits, headed by the pencil-pushing Lieutenant Blouse. Hijinks ensue, Sam Vimes makes several appearances, and Polly Perks finds that maybe, running The Duchess isn’t what she’s meant for after all.

Sergeant Jackrum is icing on the cake.

I’m on to Wee Free Men next...

So, what are you reading? Grab a cuppa, and let’s chat.

READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/3/2167214/-Bookchat-Monstrous-Regiment-and-other-Pratchett-y-musings

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