I have always been partial to Terry Pratchett books about the Watch. In fact, almost all of my top favorite novels by this author revolve around the Discworld police folk. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when I was won over by a novel that was not at all related to the Watch. That brings me to Monstrous Regiment.

I get the feeling this one is more topical than most of his other works. But then, I said that about Truckers too, didn't I? Well, the author loves making interesting observations. This particular story is about a little-known nation on Discworld called Borogravia. The tiny nation has been fighting everyone and anyone for a very long time. A lot of Borogravian men are caught up in this war and thus, a lot of families have been torn apart by constant recruitment. And that's why Polly, an innkeeper's daughter, ends up signing up for service; she is looking for her brother who is missing in action, so to speak. Oh, and did I mention that pulls a Mulan-style antic and pretends to be a boy? You know this story is only get quirkier, especially with Sir Terry Pratchett's imagination.

The overall story covers Polly's little regiment (consisting of, among others, an Igor, a golem and a vampire) trying to make sense of the war whilst they are fending off enemy attacks. They go through the motions of war and make weird little discoveries at the same time (explore villages, encounter spies, uncover corruption on their side). Lucky for them, they become celebrities of sorts when Mr Word writes about their brave antics. Now you have Ankh-Morpork rooting for them (as the regiment becomes a symbol of the little guy standing up to the big bullies) and Commander Vimes and his band of police folk are in town, hoping for some diplomatic magic (Alright, so the Watch is in it but only in a tiny cameo role).

What's not to like about this novel? Pratchett's treatment of female characters is always a welcome sight for me. A lot of them (like Angua and Lady Sybil) are strong characters who don't fall into the usual gender stereotypes. Hence, no one's there as a kindly, blushing, sobbing mess. At the same time, none of them are might-have-been-cool warriors dressed in skimpy outfits (ever notice, with such one-dimensional characters, they might be formidable fighters but they are second rate to the main lead? Weird chosen one complex, anyone?). Alright, so the man has a flair for doing justice to female characters. Now imagine a book where he teases the boundaries of gender roles by placing a woman in the army and trying to make it in a man's world? It's hilarious but man, he makes some sharp observations about society in general. I love the bit where Polly, the main protagonist, considered that it was men who were setting up silly rules about how people should act. Then she figured that she would not trust some of the older women in her town to enforce any law either. Point being, sometimes older women work towards reinforcing suppressive norms as opposed to making it easier for the young ones.

Then there is Nuggan. Nuggan is the god that the folks of that small town worship and over time it has evolved into this horridly oppressive system. The book of Nuggan is fast becoming bloated with abominations (i.e. stuff that folks must not do, like say, look at the sky) and people can't cope with all the restrictions. No one is questioning it though. At least no one appears to be, until Polly discovers that folks don't quite believe in it anymore. Rather than ranting about how evil an oppressive religion can be, Pratchett uses the concept of Nuggan to explain how rituals started out for a reason. And that, when folks forget why a ritual was undertaken in the first place, things become a little bit crazy. His take on Nuggan is the reason why this book continues to be a good read, no matter how often I re-read it.