#if ive missed something obvious sorry i just deleted 600 words of stream of consciousness malposting

[cosmicrhetoric]

can i ask what the deal is with monstrous regiment?

like the deal as in. the whole deal? its is probably my favorite book full stop (not even fave fantasy, fave pratchett, whatever like full stop) so its hard to condense my thoughts lmao. ok monstrous regiment is based on the english folk song sweet polly oliver. the basic plot is that our main character polly dresses as a boy and joins the army (under the name oliver) to look for her brother, who has been missing in action. if you've heard of the book b/c of the online presence you probably have heard about the gender stuff. there is a Lot of it to be fair (canon gay characters, at least one canon trans character, whatever tf was happening with maladict), but it's shares screentime with the other two main themes, war and organized religion gone bad. it's discworld so its funny and satire and heart but it's a horror show. i genuinely think the book lapses into gothic tradition at times however i cannot in good conscious reveal more of the plot cause i swear reading this book feels like tripping down the stairs at times.

where i think the book succeeds where a lot of 'girl cuts her hair and goes to war' stories doesnt is that is like. it doesnt feel like a Girl Power book. i have nothing against Girl Power books (i was in middle school in 2009) but in monstrous regiment the point isn't "a girl can be as strong as boys!" the point is that when you are stuck under a serious model of oppression and your country is lying to you and your god seems to hate you and everyone you know is either at war, starving, or both. how are you going to survive?

also would like to mention that someone did upload the entire audiobook to spotify so. stephen briggs does a really good igor voice.....get it while its hot

edit: not on spotify anymore haha but the way audiobook uploaders are on there if u keep searching for it it'll show up eventually

#if ive missed something obvious sorry i just deleted 600 words of stream of consciousness malposting #monstrous regiment #i could literally talk abt polly or jackrum for fifteen hours so im not gonna #it was my intro to vimes. #i read it really early in my discworld career it was my first book with de worde too #asks #discworld