Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, 0552149403, Lowest Book Price Finder

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.

Not a Discworld Classic

There are those who will buy this book simply to have it in their Pratchett collection (I did). Fair enough. It is written by Terry Pratchett so it is guaranteed to be smoothly written with wry humour, mild satire and a tragic yet fondly deprecating look at what passes for humanity.

Unfortunately the underlying message and sermon here is delivered with all the integrity of a multi-millionaire pop star protesting about world poverty and the chokingly politically-correct message is as embarrassing as your father dancing at a wedding. As a whole the book is not funny enough to be engaging, with weak slapstick taking the place of the usual witty humour and the characters too thin for you to care about. The plot is just silly, devoid of believability (is that a word?) and barely has enough substance for a short story let alone a novel. The book then ends on a decidedly jingoistic note in complete contrast to the rest of the story and leaves you feeling completely depressed and like you've wasted your time reading it at all.

All in all this book feels awkward and rushed, with the bare bones of an idea but with way too little thought or planning for the standard we expect from this author. Sadly, when you produce such a high quality for so long expectations will rise and Monstrous Regiment fails to reach them.

disappointing!

The more I've read Pratchett the more I realise that his work is more parody than inventive (unlike Douglas Adams' 'the restaurant at the end of the universe which I'm currently reading which is hilarious). Don't get me wrong, that's an art form in it's own right but when you read a book that's so long and have to wait EVEN LONGER for the next gag to come along it can be a slog. Don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of his and will continue to show interest in his forthcoming work. It's just that considering this is his longest book (albeit by only umpteen pages) I would've expected something better. As it is I may just manage to finish it but there just won't be any rush. After over 400 pages I can only really recall 4 gags and they were weak ones at that..and at an avg of a gag every 100 pages that is pretty poor. Of his later work read Thud instead or even making money as they have far more LOL factor.

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