So early next morning she softly arose

[sovay]

I am eight pages into Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment* and already I can see that I may have to keep a sharp ballad lookout. Our heroine Polly has cut her hair, dressed in her brother's clothes, and enlisted as a soldier (in the Borogravian Army) under the name Oliver:

"Age?"

"Seventeen come Sunday, sir."

"Yeah, right," said the sergeant.

*I am convalescing on all the Terry Pratchett I've missed in the last several years. Yesterday was The Fifth Elephant, Thief of Time, and Night Watch. Today, I will be out of new Terry Pratchett. I may re-read Going Postal and Thud! anyway.

Comments

[coraline]

i think "night watch" may be my favorite of the new pratchett... not that i don't love all of them, but there was something special about that one. maybe just because it was the first one that struck me as a departure from the less-directed silliness of the previous discworld books. (or maybe it's just that it's much less subtle.)

[sovay]

I really liked Night Watch (although I think I would date the departure to The Truth, which was the first novel that felt to me like a modern satire rather than pick-a-topic-riffing). My current favorite, however, is Going Postal. I am immensely fond of Moist von Lipwig.

[coraline]

huh. that's bizarre, for whatever reason i was positive that "night watch" came out before "the truth", but you're right, it didn't, i was confused. so yeah, i would agree, "fifth elephant" was sort of heading in that direction, but "the truth" was the first real departure that way. and it's probably my second favorite after night watch...

[skotodes.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is that the ballad actually exists in the Discworld also; several characters refer to it.

I'd say "Night Watch" is the best of the recent Discworld books, and one of the best Discworld books overall. I like the Watch, I like the more serious storylines, and I've gotten tired of the Discworld analogues of modern technology. (Which don't exist in "Night Watch", because it's set in the past.)

"Thud" was pretty good too. I wasn't impressed by "Going Postal", though I always like when we see the regular characters through the eyes of someone new. I'm a little iffy on "Monstrous Regiment"; there were some scenes that I really enjoyed, but near the end it got pretty ridiculous. I'll say more once you're finished the book; talk to me in 20 minutes.

[sovay]

I'd say "Night Watch" is the best of the recent Discworld books, and one of the best Discworld books overall.

I'd definitely agree with that second statement. I'm not sure it would make a good introduction, because you really need to know the modern incarnations of characters before you meet their younger selves, but it's right up there.

I'll say more once you're finished the book; talk to me in 20 minutes.

I'm halfway through (I had to take time out for housecleaning: I'm in Lexington and we're having relatives over) and I already have suspicions about the ways in which this plot could get pretty ridiculous: I imagine they'll be confirmed?

[kraada.livejournal.com]

*puts Night Watch on his to-get-soon list, mostly so he can stand up for Small Gods* :)

Also, I'll offer a trade: I'll clean and deal with relatives, you grade logic exams . . . sound good? Please?

[skotodes.livejournal.com]

"Small Gods" is why I said "Night Watch" is one of the best, not the best.

[kraada.livejournal.com]

For some reason I mentally added "if not the best" in there somewhere.

Nonetheless, it is worth reading one of the best in any case.

[sovay]

I'll say more once you're finished the book; talk to me in 20 minutes.

Janet and Mildred were a bit much.

[skotodes.livejournal.com]

I was most upset about the sergeant, myself. (Was he Janet or Mildred?) There were a lot of strange things about him. He was very old, and seemed to have been a sergeant to everyone in the army. He always wore red. He loved war. At one point they sang a song with a line like "And the devil will be my sergeant".

And it turns out he was...a woman. Which doesn't explain any of the things that made him interesting. Maybe the foreshadowing of him being some kind of Small God of War was too obvious, and only there as a red herring. But that was still a pretty lame secret.

[sovay]

Janet and Mildred were two of the generals. I had figured from about the midpoint of the story (where everybody's gender had been revealed except Maladict's) that Jackrum would also turn out to be a woman, but I was still expecting some kind of supernatural revelation: when it didn't happen, I figured that was just me, because my default for mysteries is myth.

At one point they sang a song with a line like "And the devil will be my sergeant".

I want to see if that song exists or if Terry Pratchett made it up.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_jb/]

I thought the Sergeant and the Generals were great, but I thought the vampire was too much. He had enough going on with the coffee.

[sovay]

I wasn't impressed by "Going Postal", though I always like when we see the regular characters through the eyes of someone new.

I think much of Going Postal reminded me of a certain kind of film from the 1930's and 1940's which may not exactly be a comedy, and may not exactly be a romance, but has elements of both and very snappy dialogue. Not so much the thread with Reacher Gilt, because the clacks are a much more modern analogue, but the whole relationship between Moist and Miss Dearheart and their respective pasts. And I like films from the '30's and '40's, so it worked for me.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

You did read the Tiffany Aching ones, right? The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky? They're wonderful. And did you read The Last Hero, which is the illustrated one that came somewhere after The Fifth Elephant? Last Hero is one of my two or three favorite Discworld books, and should be required reading for anyone interested in epic poetry.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Is that the one about Cohen the Barbarian?

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Yup.

[sovay]

I've read The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, and I have read the adorably bizarre Where's My Cow? Other than that, I am unlearned in the ways of the spin-offs. May I borrow The Last Hero from you?

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I actually haven't got The Last Hero because it is madly expensive-- I get it out of the library a lot-- but I think I may well give it to myself as a present when I find a job, and you could borrow it then. And I've got both Tiffany Aching books, and you should borrow those.

[chriscrick.livejournal.com]

All of Terry Pratchett's books are reads of a couple hours. But The Last Hero is a quick study even by Pratchett standards, perfectly amenable to reading while standing in the aisle at the bookstore. At least that's how I did it.

[sovay]

A time-honored tradition. (I read the last Harry Potter that way.) Now to find a bookstore . . .

[http://users.livejournal.com/_jb/]

Jingo is earlier than The Truth, and is some of the biting satire that he's written, as is Small Gods. Feet of Clay isn't hilarious, but it's grown on me - it has a quiet meditation on so much hidden behind the silliness, that each time I read it I see it a bit more. Lords and Ladies is also the best meta-novel (novel about stories and myths) he's written, with Witches Abroad and it's mediation on fairy tales a close second. He's been doing the serious stuff for a while - alongside silly books (like most of the Rincewind ones).

The Last Hero is worth getting, especially if you can get it on sale (it shows up in remainder sales, and Amazon mikght have it cheap). The story is definitely short, but the images are worth spending time with and looking at again and again.

[sovay]

Jingo didn't do much for me, although I'm always fond of Vimes and I liked that the Patrician can juggle. Small Gods, on the other hand, is brilliant and one of the best. It wasn't my introduction to the Discworld—that was Moving Pictures—but I know many people who did get in that way.

He's been doing the serious stuff for a while - alongside silly books (like most of the Rincewind ones).

I'm starting to wonder if it's even a case of serious versus silly: there has been a real shift in tone in the last five or six books. Ankh-Morpork has been gradually evolving into the present day in odd directions, and the political angle has been consistently emphasized (perhaps since Jingo) in ways that it previously wasn't, even in Rincewind books like Interesting Times. Sword-and-sorcery has not been the default paradigm of the Discworld for a while now. Maybe it's the distinction between spoof and satire? I'm still working this out.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_jb/]

Did you read it before or after September 11?

I read it about 2003, and it was just so on (having been written in the late nineties, I think) that it was eerie. But I remember not so much the novel, which was entertaining, but not stellar, as the way it encapsulated jingoism.