Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Monstrous Regiment
    Monstrous Regiment
    Monstrous Regiment
    Audiobook11 hours

    Monstrous Regiment

    Written by Terry Pratchett

    Narrated by Stephen Briggs

    4.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    ""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.

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateDec 14, 2004
    ISBN9780060824570
    Author

    Terry Pratchett

    Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was the acclaimed creator of the globally revered Discworld series. In all, he authored more than fifty bestselling books, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.

    More audiobooks from Terry Pratchett

    Related to Monstrous Regiment

    Titles in the series (9)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Grand Canal, Venice, 1970

      Mar 1, 2024

      The Grand Canal, Venice, 1970
      8 min read

    • Article

      STEPPING Out

      Feb 26, 2020

      STEPPING Out
      10 min read

    • Article

      Second Language

      Aug 14, 2017

      Second Language
      9 min read

    • Article

      Ghoulies and Ghosties

      Oct 1, 2022

      Ghoulies and Ghosties
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Right Time

      Oct 14, 2019

      The Right Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      Annabelle: A Ghost Story

      Sep 1, 2017

      Annabelle: A Ghost Story
      3 min read

    • Article

      OreoArroyo

      Jul 6, 2021

      WHEN THE STRIPPER STRUTTED INTO THE LIBRARY, SHE COULDN’T hide her dismay. Probably, she and her bodyguard expected a bachelor party or investment bankers celebrating a big deal at the mansion overlooking the Newport Coast. She wouldn’t have anticipa

      21 min read

    • Article

      A Lost Prayer

      Feb 2, 2023

      A Lost Prayer
      10 min read

    • Article

      J. Jezewska Stevens

      Dec 15, 2017

      The party was a failure. I can’t even tell you what a failure it was. There are no words. Only a great pain in my chest when I wake up. On the veranda. It’s better when I sit in the chair. Oh, but then I can see around. The gauzy curtains, pushed by

      15 min read

    • Article

      The Witch Finders

      Jul 16, 2020

      Beth pulled her cloak tightly around her. It was the very last day of October and the air was damp and chill. Dead autumn leaves lay in deep piles in the woods and smoke curled into the night air from her cottage. Not far to go now. She bent her head

      4 min read

    • Article

      Green Ticket To Ride

      Feb 19, 2024

      Green Ticket To Ride
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Dancing Skinny

      Jul 11, 2019

      The Dancing Skinny
      12 min read

    • Article

      Manhattan, 2035

      Mar 26, 2021

      There were problems with being the daughter of a former it girl. First of all, the designation, which, as her mother grew older, warped slightly across the society pages, affecting her mood. Most people remembered her mother’s modelling stints, brush

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      G. C. Waldrep

      Mar 3, 2020

      I was reading a biography of Pugin. Architecturewas how Pugin avoided God.This much is evident. When he slipped out at nightto drift down to the water he was a smoke.He did not look up at the moon. We can be surethat any bargain he made was intention

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Only Rule

      Jul 13, 2020

      There is only one rule in polite English society, but it is iron clad. Of course, polite English society is a fiction. For one thing, its members are rarely polite. Politeness is for the middle classes rather than those who live off ancestral acres o

      5 min read

    • Article

      Come the DAWN

      Apr 8, 2020

      Come the DAWN
      21 min read

    • Article

      The Man I Should Have Married

      Dec 29, 2019

      The Man I Should Have Married
      11 min read

    • Article

      Two Bucks Before Breakfast

      Aug 2, 2023

      Two Bucks Before Breakfast
      5 min read

    • Article

      Across The Whited Fields

      Oct 13, 2019

      In a twilight streeta small girl laughing. The red and yellow flowersprofuse, inhale the air. We want to hold your name,Polly, dancing in the rain Polly, skipping down the street.Sometimes the world bequeaths then takes away the one to whomou

      14 min read

    • Article

      Whistle While You Work

      May 12, 2023

      When did you last hear someone whistle? The postman, milkman, paper boy? I ask because during an afternoon bingeing on British 1940s black & white films recently, I couldn’t work out what was different. Apart from the over acting, the excruciatingly

      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Crushers

      Jan 15, 2024

      Crushers
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      HELLO It’s Halloween

      Sep 18, 2018

      HELLO It’s Halloween
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Monstrous Regiment

    4.5/5

    204 ratings69 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This is one of my favorite Discworld books yet! I didn't think it would be. 19th century style war. Not set in Ankh Morpork. My favorite recurring characters barely make cameos. But it brings up issues of gender equality and politics and racism that are dear to my heart. Polly decides to go off looking for her brother. She needs him to be the owner of their family's tavern, since she is female. But that involves dressing up like a boy and joining the army herself. And it turns out that her country is about to lose the war. And oh look, there's another girl pretending to be a boy. And another? Well, time to stick together, ladies. And do what the men couldn't do! Or something like that. There is so much humor, but also so much pointed commentary on society. As always. And as always, Stephen Briggs' narration is wonderful.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      One of my favorite Discworld novels! And even more relevant now than when Pratchett wrote it. Why? Because war and the stupidity of people are two things you can always count on. And almost no fiction author writes about the human condition better than Pratchett did. There's loads of Pratchett's trademark humor and places where I laugh out loud, and I love how Perks & Co. take center stage while Vimes, Angua, William Deword, and other Ahnk Morpork favorites are woven in as background characters. So I don't mean to imply that this is a heavy, depressing novel. Far from it! It's political satire at its best!
      I've read this novel and listened to it twice, and this third hearing reminded me that history is on repeat with a vengeance.
      10 years ago, I thought the reflections in Monstrous Regiment on gender, sex, cross-dressing, etc. were quaint and Pratchett was reminding us of a time long ago when women had to disguise themselves in men's clothes to join the military, get books published, be respected--basically to be seen ss first-class citizens. Now in 2023--with the war on trans children, women's freedom of bodily autonomy being ended in many states, and wars everywhere that American politicians are using solely to forward the political agenda of their jaundice-tinged messiah--Monstrous Regiment sounds like it was written last year, lacking only recent changes in the English language re gender. If you're a reader under 25, don't let that stop you from reading this. And everyone should remember that it's satire AND fantasy.
    • 5/5
      My most favorite Discworld novel is forever changing. However this one, ranks up among the top. It was refreshing to read. With the same wit that Pratchett writes his other novels, yet in a new setting (for all the it's the same world) and fabulous new characters.
    • 3/5
      A teenage girl decides to join the army.. the book is about what happens. Not one of my favourite Pratchett books, although there were still some amusing moments.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this entry in the Discworld series though I found the humor to be less of the "laugh out loud" variety than some of the books.
    • 3/5
      This makes the second book I enjoyed but not sure I agree with the underlying philosophical message in the book.

      Fav quote form the book: “I don't want unnecessary violence, sergeant," said Blouse.
      "Right you are, sir!" said the sergeant. "Carborundum! First man comes through that door runnin', I want him nailed to the wall!" He caught the lieutenant's eye, and added: "But not too hard!”

      =)
    • 4/5
      Very good like all the recent Discworld books. Laugh out loud funny with things to say about current society especially in this case feminism, religion and armies.
    • 5/5
      A favourite of mine, although some of the puns are fairly obvious they are still very funny - all the military clothing jokes featuring everybody except Lord Cardigan! It is also a collossal farce, with women dressed as men dressing as women etc etc ad absurdum. The obvious storyline being the ability of women to be men as well as men can be, is carried through the book very well. Polly aka oliver, ozzer, parts, Perks - joins the army disguised as a boy in order to look for her slightly simple brother Paul, this allows the gag Private Parts to be repeated several times. By dint of luck and the tender care of Seargent Jackorum, her small patrol makes it though enemy lines to the keep. Gradually Polly becomes aware that other memebers of her patrol are also women in disguise, much hilarity ensues. The underlying thems though are far deeper and less explict. A simple parallel in names of the complicated conflict in eastern Europe is obvious, but can quickly be extended to the Middle East - Ankh-Morpock features as Polly's conflict has distroyed the clacks towers. Vimes is sent in to restore order along with the imfamous Lord Rust. The symbolism between oil and clacks can be made - the outcome contrasts with the way America has handled the Gulf. Also featuring are comparative religion, pacifism, and gender issues. A thoughtful and movning book on many levels, whilst maintaining the typical humour so beloved of Pratchett this book is one of his best works - even though it only fleetingly mentions some of his most popular characters.
    • 5/5
      Terry Pratchett is a god who walks among men. The entire Discworld series is a joy and only a strange mad creature cursed by gods and man would refuse to read and love these books!One of the more "one off" novels, with Vimes and CO making an appearance.
    • 4/5
      I read this as part of my 'read Pratchett that has historically underwhelmed me' project. And, err, it still slightly underwhelmed me. I like the themes of 'war is bad' and 'gender equality is good'. But the plot still mostly consists of them wandering around, the cameos from Ankh Morpork are just a bit self-indulgent - I think someone who was not a hardcore fan of the series would be quite confused at what is going on there - and the same plot twist over and over again... I think I can see what Pratchett was trying to do, but it didn't really work for me. The deus ex machina of an ending isn't that inspiring either. But I guess really, we met a big clump of new recruits all at the same time, and although there was 'the troll', 'the vampire', 'the weird religious one', 'the quiet abused one' 'the heroine', they all felt very very two dimensional and I found it hard to care about them. On the other hand, like all Pratchett, fun and page turning with good morals.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic novel which skewers many of the gender tropes of the military and fantasy literature.
    • 4/5
      Girl disguises herself as a boy and joins the army to defend her war-torn country. And proves that cliches get that way for a reason.
    • 5/5
      Based on pb cover:Polly Perks had to become a boy in a hurry. Cutting of her hair and wearing trousers was easy. Learning to fart and belch in public and walk like an ape took more time...And now she's enlisted in the army, and is searching for her brother.But there's a war on. There's always awar on. And Polly and her fellow recruits are suddenly in the thick of it, without any training, and the enemy is hunting them.All they have on their side is the most artful sergeant in the army and a vampire with a lust for coffee. Well... They have the Secret. And as they take the war to the heart of the enemy, they have to use all the resources of... the Monstrous Regiment.You get all this and it is still funny. At the same time it is a book that questions pacifism, war, religious fanaticism and gender. It is satire of a serious kind, at times you laugh out loud, at times you frown at the similarities with the real world.Great book and definitly recommended.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the most enjoyable Discworld adventures I have read so far, second only to Going Postal.In a country far far away where even the thought of a girl wearing trousers is an abomination, Poly, a girl last time she looked, decides to enlist to search for her brother Paul. The country is currently waging war with one of its neighbours and Poly and her squad experience many adventures and the plot thickens and twists and turns with every page you get closer to the beautiful ending
    • 3/5
      Part-way thru I thought this wasn't half as good as Pratchett's other titles, but I revised my feelings upwards on completion. Still not sure how often I'll be re-reading but hey.
    • 5/5
      The discworld series is always a wiener, but this particukar book is perhaps one of the very best!
    • 4/5
      Having read every book on the top shelf of my bookcase when I finished with The Wee Free Men I moved on to the next shelf down and the thirty-first of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, Monstrous Regiment. This is one of the only books that really sort of stands alone; Sam Vimes comes into it a little and of course Death makes a cameo, but otherwise it’s dealing with entirely new characters in an entirely new country. I do wonder if perhaps that’s what I like about it so much. Slight warning here, if you’ve not read this book and you’re not wanting the little twists to be revealed, you might want to skip this review… I’ll try not to give too much away, but I can’t make any promises.It’s also one of the last Discworld novels I read before I started doing the whole reading-the-whole-series-in-order thing that I’ve been working on since very late 2010. I loved this book when I first read it and so I was very much looking forward to the reread. It features Polly Perks, a girl in a country where being a girl isn’t particularly great. Her country is permanently at war with one or another of the surrounding countries and her brother has gone away to fight. She decides to leave the family Inn, The Duchess, to find him and bring him home. Of course, the only way to do this is to sign up for the army and so with the squad she’s joined (which includes a vampire, a troll and an Igor), Oliver (as she renames herself) travels towards the front, meanwhile more and more of the males in the book are revealed to actually be females.I thought I remembered this one very well, but as I said, it’s probably been about three (or maybe slightly more) years since I read it, so while I knew the basic outline of the plot there were massive bits that I’d forgotten. One of the really big twists at the end (which is very cleverly hinted at most of the way through) came as a bit of a surprise to me… at least until Polly decided to reveal it, then I kind of knew what was coming. It wasn’t that I’d remembered it though, it was just piecing it together from the text as though I’d never read it before.I did also get through it very quickly. As always when reading the Discworld books, I’m torn between hurtling through them because I find them hilarious and I love reading them and I want to know what’s going to happen next, and reading them dead slowly because I’m fast getting to the end of the published series and I’m not looking forward to taking them all off my bookcase and replacing them with something new. I’ve got six Discworld books left to read at the moment, plus I Shall Wear Midnight and Snuff still to get for my collection. I’m hoping that perhaps I can drag it out until nearer the end of the summer before I need to get them but at this rate it’ll be sooner rather than later.The book is largely told through Polly’s eyes which works really well, she has a fantastic attitude. It also means that the boys are slowly revealed to be boys as she discovers them. Meanwhile you’re also learning about the religious and political aspects of their country as well. It means that there’s none of the info-dumps that you occasionally get in fantasy books. Plus you get to learn a bit more about vampires and the Igors as well.My one little problem was keeping all the characters’ names straight. There were the girls, who had adopted boys names, went largely by their surnames when being given orders but used adopted nicknames when speaking to each other; in some cases there were three or four names to try to remember. They sunk in eventually but to begin with there was a bit of flipping backwards to remind myself who was who.So far it doesn’t seem that Terry Pratchett has written anything more featuring Polly Perks or Borogravia, which is a shame because I’d love to have a bit more like this to look forward to. I am pleased that the next book in the series is A Hat Full Of Sky another of the Tiffany Aching series even if it does mean that I’m that much closer to the last Discworld book.
    • 4/5
      I re-read this one for Archive of our Own tag wrangler purposes. Did the little lads have first names? Did Blouse? What about Emmeline? Did she get a family name? Answers: yes, no and no. FYI Magda "Tonker" Halter, Betty "Shufti" Manickle, Alice "Wazzer" Goom and Tilda "Lofty" Tewt.

      I think, and it's been ages since I last read the first thirty-odd Discworld books so I could be wrong, that this is the most serious dealing, as it does, with rape, abuse, stolen children and child labour.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic novel which skewers many of the gender tropes of the military and fantasy literature.
    • 5/5
      War, Discworld style. Polly Perks needs to find her brother, Paul. But Paul is a soldier - unless he's a prisoner or a casualty - so Polly pretends to be a boy and joins the army. Polly doesn't know a lot about the army, but even she can work out that her fellow recruits (not to mention the sergeant) are quite ... unusual. And Polly doesn't know the half of it. Very funny, very clever and very powerful. One of the best Discworld novels, and strongly recommended.
    • 5/5
      All of Terry Pratchett's stuff is great, but this one had me howling (at least inside). Monstrous regiment indeed. I won't spoil it for you, but...read this! A lighthearted, excellent read, with one heck of an ending. Love it!
    • 5/5
      The standard fantasy world... has been here, but it's gone. Instead, we're in fantasy 19th-century Europe, and the rules are shifting as we follow our plucky band of women (shhhh!)--the last dozen or so soldiers of their nation at large. Amazingly, they kick one of Pratchett's other heroes in or about the fracas. Pratchett subverts tropes basically every page, and it's a delight to read, re-read, and re-re-re-read.
    • 5/5
      I don't know, something about an amazing writer who happens to be a man can write about the stupidity of the way the world reacts to women doing anything just makes me love them that tiny bit more, y'know?
    • 3/5
      In Pratchett's umpteenth Discworld novel, he takes on the foolishness of societally-imposed gender roles, the horrors (and pointlessness) of war and the ironies of religion. Serious stuff! And yes, the book is a lot more serious that many of the earlier Discworld books, which pretty much played everything for laughs. However, that's not to say that this story isn't funny - it certainly is - just that the humor's a little more pointed and thought-provoking.
      A young woman, Polly, disguises herself as a boy in order to join the Borogravian army (imagine any small, war-torn, Eastern European city-state) - in order to find her brother, whom she needs to fetch home so that she can inherit the family business. Unfortunately, cheery propaganda notwithstanding, she's joined up at the tail end of a war - on the losing side. Her fellow recruits are seemingly the bottom of the barrel - and include a (coffee-addicted) vampire, a troll, a religious freak - and an assortment of other characters - none of whom may be exactly what they seem.
      I don't think this will go down in history as THE quintessential Discworld novel, but it's a timely satire, well worth reading.
    • 2/5
      The only real fail in the Discworld series, as far as I’m concerned. One joke repeated over and over. I couldn’t engage with the characters. Rather bleak. It was a relief to meet with the familiar Night Watch near the end.
    • 3/5
      I was fairly disappointed in this effort of Terry Pratchett's. I usually rave over his novels, but this one was rather so-so. The characters were interesting, and he did a dandy job of telling the tale from the perspective of the female protagonist. But the action frequently lagged, and the story seemed to take forever to wind down.Frankly, I'm glad this wasn't my first foray into Pratchett's work. Had it been, I might have never ventured into many of his other novels that I've absolutely loved.
    • 4/5
      Another fun romp from Pterry
    • 4/5
      Bravo. One of the most linear and comprehensible of the Discworld novels, and still plenty enjoyable. Highly recommended to young women. And other people. ;)
    • 5/5
      As frequently has happened in its history, the Duchy of Borogravia is embroiled in war with its neighbors over vague points of fundamentalist belief and jingoistic patriotism. The war has gone on too long, the young men of the nation are depleted, and for various reasons, young women begin to surreptitiously take their places. The reaction to this as it is gradually discovered is both hilarious and realistic.
    • 5/5
      <3 I'd never read a Terry Pratchett book that I loved this much. Polly is someone I can respect and love all at the same time, and I'd not separate that crew of girls for anything. This is one really good book.