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

[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.