When your daughter gets a little older, read her the Tiffany Aching series (starting with the Wee Free Men) - so entertaining and great for reading out loud 😊
I grew up reading Pratchett. I love him and his writing to bits. Definitly shaped my sence of humour and world view. So glad you enjoyed Monstrous Regiment.
Pratchett is by far my favourite author. I started reading his books when I was 11 and switched to reading them in English when I ran out of Finnish translations by age 13. This resulted in my English vocabulary getting quite large pretty quickly, but I also used some pretty esoteric words all the time so sometimes not even my English teacher understood what I was saying. I started out loving the books with Death as a main character the most, and while I still absolutely adore Death, the later entries into the City watch series really hit home for me and cemented that as my favourite Discworld series. I really, really recommend you find time to read more of them. I think your daughter might love the Wee Free Men (and the rest of the Tiffany Aching series) maybe the two of you should read them together! (Okay, feels weird to talk about your daughter, but I just watched a video where you said she prefers stories where conflicts are solved in ways other than battles and I think most, if not all of Pratchett's books are like that.) The books from Pratchett that are labeled as children's books even have chapters! (and do not make the assumption that the children's books are in any way childish. The Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents is the scariest, most tense book Pratchett has ever written!)
Be me, a guy in his mid-20 when the book came out in my country. Son of professional army officer. Both of us had read and seen "All Quiet on the Western Front", we had seen "Platoon", "Deer Hunter", 'Apocalypse Now" (me in "original" and 'director's cut' versions), I have seen Russian Afgan war era movie "9th Company". And still I think that "Monstrous Regiment" is a great piece of anti-war art. Also - let's not forget how this book is about fighting patriarchy.
@@TonksMoriarty I mean, it helps to understand the History Monks, but I think if you're mildly savvy when it comes to time travel tropes in general, you can kind of intuit that part. Understanding who Sam Vimes is as a person is wayyyy more important, imho.
I'm glad to hear that you like Pratchett's dry wit. His way with words is just exceptional. He had a way of putting complex things simple, 'explaining' the world to you not in a scholarly fashion, but with a certain wink and a smile. Almost every book of him has that handful of sentences that just rang... purest true. And really hit home one fact: Terry Pratchett was incredibly smart in figuring out how the world worked - and decided to show us through dry-witted fantasy.
It’s really fascinating, and quite heartwarming, to see Pratchett slowly grow more enlightened and thoughtful about racial, gender, and LGBT issues over the course of three plus decades writing this series. There’s some truly cringey stuff early on, but he very much put forth an effort to be better as time went on, and it really shows.
@@roguemeteorite6778 Most of all the horrible Asian stereotypes in Interesting Times, but there's also a fair share of mocking gay people and "Women be crazy, right?" jokes.
@@Rmlohner Do you have examples of these mocking gay people jokes, because I've only read a few of Pratchett's books and I don't remember seeing that, so i'm curious about what you mean. (I understand if you don't though, I do realise that's a very specific question). I do know Pratchett made quite a few jokes about both men and woman and he did play with and mock sterotypes a lot. Everyone has different opinions though and I haven't read that many of Pratchett's early works.
@@maurinet2291 God, Mr Teatime (sorry, Mr "Tay-ah-ty-mee") is so awesome and creepy. Got to love a guy who dedicates his free time to figuring out ways to kill Santa...
My dear sweet summer child, you are so innocent. I wish I could delete all of the Discworld books from my head so I can read them again for the first time. I love them to bits and I am very happy for you to have started with this one for reasons that are pretty obvious. You have read Good Omens? I just finished the book for the trillionth time in preparation for the upcoming series (please, review it too, pretty please *puppy eyes*).
DISCWORLD! I love Terry Pratchett and his Discworld books. It is so hard to pick a favorite but Guards! Guards! or The Fifth Elephant...or Hogfather...or Feet of Clay...or A Hat Full of Sky...or...
So lovely to see you dipping a toe into the world of one my favourite authors. At his best (which was often) Pratchett was the warmest, wisest, wittiest and most humane voice in contemporary fantasy. The first of many such reviews, perhaps?
There are also jokes you will understand better if your dad made you watch old British war movies. However, the thing I love about Pratchett is that even if you don't get the reference joke, you can still enjoy the face-value jokes.
I love, love, love Discworld. When I legally changed my name earlier this year, I chose the surname "Sto Helit" after Death's granddaughter because Discworld and Sir Pterry have meant so much to me for so long. :D
I Normally save your videos to watch with my morning coffee, but as soon as I saw the title I had to watch! I love Terry Pratchett, and the Discworld is my favourite series! I’ve tried to pick a favourite but it’s so difficult because of how intertwined characters can be. Discworld can be very roughly divided into the Rincewind books, the Witches books, the Guards books, the Death books, the Moist Von Lipwig books and the standalone books, and people tend to pick them up like that. I’m currently reading Rincewind and I’m on Interesting Times. If I absolutely had to pick one, like my desert island book, it would be Moving Pictures.
My son has just finished Men at Arms, his first Discworld novel. My jealousy and delight of the adventure he is about to embark. One of the greatest, most insightful authors of all time. What a journey awaits!
Monstrous Regiment is one of my favorite books period. If you want to read another Discworld book, I suggest Hogfather. It was the first one I read and it's really one of the best. Also, given your limited reading time, by the time you get around to it it will probably be Christmas anyway 😉
I'm so glad you fell in love with the book (and didn't give anyway any of the spoilers :3) If you don't have time to sit down and read more of Discworld try and get your hands on the film adaptions. Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters are both animated films from the 90s. Sky One did the live action adaptions of Hogfather, Colour of Magic and Going Postal mini series (don't watch Colour of Magic, its awful). And just this year an animated short, Troll Bridge was made in honour of Terry Pratchett's memory.
I've followed Discworld for years and it's my favorite universe. It's like D&D meets Monty Python and you know it's good when the worlds greatest mathematician is a camel.
*one of my favourite TH-camrs reads one my favourite books by my favourite author* This is going to be good! :D I'm so happy you liked it! (It's the one I recommend to people to hook them in! "The Truth" is William de Worde and Otto Chriek's introductory book and is also a standalone.)
I know that breathless, wide-eyed fans telling you how much you "have" to check something out are a...dubious persuasion method at best, but I love Discworld with my whole heart and would love to see you read/review more of the books.
I think one of the great things about Pratchett is his ability to take obvious, tried and tested stories and just sort of breaking them in interesting ways. There's a really good animated version of Wyrd Sisters, which is worth checking out. It's another story that you can go straight into without reading any of the previous ones. I believe is currently on TH-cam in full. Not sure what quality though.
Hint Discworld makes great audiobooks. If you commute or have to do long boring tasks, it's far more interesting doing them with Sam Vines, Granny Weatherwax, or Rincewind in your ear.
Really glad you enjoyed it. My mum and older sister have always been avid Terry Pratchett and Discworld fans, so I grew up surrounded by these books. But even so, to this day I think I've only read about half of them, and ALL out of order. Still great. If you find some spare time and you feel like it, I DEFINITELY recommend picking up more of his books in the future.
I am a huge fan of Discworld. My dog is named for one of the characters (Carrot - he has all the qualities you'd want in a dog) My favourite Discworld books are the ones centred on the city guards of Ankh Morpork. I think Vimes is one of my favourite ever fictional characters.
I love all Terry's writings, with a little hesitation, for Maskerade; Lords and Ladies; and some of the early Rincewind stuff. I adore Sam Vimes and the Nightwatch, the witches and wizzards. 'The Shepherd's Crown' in floods of tears, knowing I was reading his last book. Still hurts now! I discovered discworld, when he was about 2/3 books in, my favourite is 'Jingo', but each of the characters, inventions are beautifully imagined, and brought to the page. Be it _Hex_ of _The Clacks_ I still feel his loss. Oh, and a massive shout out for his non-discworld books. Whether it's 'Nation', or 'Maurice', he wrote characters the leapt off the page. His body of work is an incredible legacy, but I want him back!
I am glad you liked it because I'm not sure I can gain anything from a review by a person that does not like the works of the late great Terry Pratchett. (not in the sense that I think people who dislike Pratchett's work are bad but our tastes would simply be too different)
I haven't read this specific book, but Terry Pratchett in general is amazing. My personal favourite that I've read is Going Postal, which has his trademark style of whimsy combined with his almost analytical approach to how society and people work, as someone tries to build up a post office.
If you want to read another Discworld book that isn't a part of a "series" (for lack of better term, you can still read them out of order and get it, I started with "Night Watch" and then went back and enjoyed the others), "Small Gods" is an excellent one and is a total standalone.
2:20 Chapters were a late addition for Terry, making it rather odd when you choose to put it down. I must have been to 2/3 signings for various releases. The man was endlessly kind, polite and full of fun. Loved meeting his readers, a passion that lasted from my early twenties, 'til just before turning fifty. Glad you didn't start at the beginning 'Colour of Magic' and 'Light Fantastic' are Terry finding his feet. Just reading through the comments, it reminds me of all the great moments I'd forgotten. Wondering how I could've forgotten. Whether it's Pyramids, Small Gods, or his take on Golems, Librarians, Vampires or strained Troll / Dwarf relations each. Hope you too, get bitten by the Pratchett bug, it's quite infectious. [Edit] Oh, God. None of my comments mention Vetinari, Death, Susan, the Hogfather, Leonard of Quirm....
There is a TH-cam channel called Mark Reads , well worth a look He has done the whole of discworld in 1/2 hr chunks in order , it took him about 8 years He was a new reader so every reaction and growth of his understanding of the world gives you a sense of newly discovering Terry Pratchettthrough another’s eyes 10/10
I need to re-read Monstrous Regiment. I remember the big reveal in the end, but I read it for a school assignment some years ago and bulldozed 300 pages in one day before the dedline. I would definitely appreciate it a lot more these days, but I remembered it being a quite book all in all.
Such a weird coincidence that you should have picked this book to review and put the review up today. Yesterday, I went to the thrift store and found a copy of Monstrous Regiments for 50 cents (you know, along with 13 other books because I have a problem). It's my first physical copy of a Discworld book (I own ebooks of all the books featuring Death as a major character and have for years, but there are just so MANY Discworld novels that I've been putting off starting to get them all since, once I start a series, I kind of have to complete it). And now I'm looking forward to reading it even more than I was yesterday. Fully immersing myself in the Discworld is going to get expensive fast, lol. Good thing I should be getting a fairly decent bonus at work in May...
Monstrous Regiment like so many of Pratchett's novels is a stone cold MASTERPIECE! Unfortunately it's one of the very few that are self-contained and not part of a larger story {Good Omens of course is another}. Some of his best work is later stories in over-arching storylines for his main characters - Sam Vimes, Esme Weatherwax, Rincewind, Susan, Moist Von Lipwig. Here's some of the others that you can jump straight into without missing anything... Strata {A sort of proto-discworld Sci-Fi novel} The Colour of Magic {His first Discworld Novel and the first to feature Rincewind the Cowardly Wizard} Equal Rites {the first Granny Weatherwax Novel and his first Female focused story} Mort {the first novel to feature Death in a starring role rather than as a cameo} Pyramids {Totally Self-Contained Novel set in the Discworld} Guards Guards {the first Sam Vimes Novel} Moving Pictures {Totally Self-Contained Novel set in the Discworld that skewers the Golden Age of Hollywood} Small Gods {Totally Self-Contained Novel set in the Discworld} If you really want to get the best out of Pratchett these are where I would start {although the first one I read was his 6th Discworld Novel and second Granny Weatherwax story - Wyrd Sisters {heavily based on Macbeth and one of his tougher reads}. After that try to take them in order of when they were written if at all possible. 2. The Light Fantastic {a straight sequel to Colour of Magic} 5. Sourcery {Rincewind's 3rd Novel} 6. Wyrd Sisters {as mentioned above} 8. Eric {Rincewind's 4th Novel} 10. Reaper Man {Death's second star appearance} and so on...
One of my favourite parts. So why do you carry a sword, private, if you can't use it. Self defence sir, they see the sword and don't attack me? And if they do? What then private? I'm a Vampire sir, so I just rip their heads off! That's the gist of it anyway!
Iv'e read the first two Discworld books, 'The Colour of magic' and 'The Light fantastic' I enjoyed them. I believe they are the more fantasy based ones, since the main character is Rincewind, a wizard. I'm looking to read Mort next.
Glad you liked the book. I've read almost all the Discworld books and some of Pratchett's other books; but I just read a lot more books than you do. And you watch a lot more on-screen fiction than I do. I was surprised that you liked this one so much, because it seemed to me one of his lesser books; the story gets rather aimless towards the end, and overall it seemed like a draft that needed some more months of work done on it. But Pratchett turned out a lot of books, and I suppose he didn't want to spend more than the usual amount of time on this one, so he called it a day and published it as it was. Which are the best Discworld books? It depends on individual taste and what kind of book you're looking for. "Wyrd sisters" (1988) is the best of the early books, and funnier than the later ones. "Men at arms" (1993) is an exciting story about the City Watch. "Night watch" (2002) is relatively serious and really good, featuring time travel (!), but it helps to have read other City Watch books first, to have some background. "Going postal" (2004) is the best of the later books, and you don't need background, because most of the characters are newly introduced. It's been filmed, and the result is quite good, but the book is better.
If interested, there are three standalone live action Discworld movies, each with two parts. They are (in order): The Color of Magic, Hogfather, and Going Postal. I highly recommend all three. Loved seeing this review on your channel, here! Thanks!
Side note Most of the books are out on audiobook. Explaining Igors in brief - the discworld by and large is sustained by magic, and magic liking to act like physics tends to gather aroung the giant mountain hub of the disk - where the Gods of the discworld live. One of the biggest countries near the hub is Uberwald, which is populated mainly by vampires and warewolves, and where the law is pretty much whatever the local lord says cause the People are more like sheeple. Except for the Igors. The Igors are were the native people before the influx of tourists and In disworld lore it is said they used to be skin walkers and shape shifters etc which they express literally nowdays through medical operations. In the current political climate to maintain their culture they have become "Yethhmen" for the local despots. But as most igor's say "Overlordthh come and go - but the Igorthhh alwaythh thhurvive!" The Hublands also include Lancre the homeland of Witches, and a bunch of other interesting fanasy terrain.
Hunh, I'm really surprised you had this one recommended to you as a starting point. It's a standalone, so it has that going for it, but it's also an odd place to start. Not that there are many *bad* places to start; Terry Pratchett always went out of his way to make it possible to start practically anywhere in the Discworld series with absolutely zero background knowledge. :) But what I'm really surprised about us how little you talked about the gender dynamic. I would think that that's the main reason someone would suggest this novel to you as a place to start, because it deals with gender roles more than practically any other Discworld novel. (I also don't think I would have been able to film a review like this without mentioning Mulan even once, haha.) Anyway, thanks for the review!! I'm very familiar with Discworld, and I've read this one, but I'm always glad to see others given an opening for trying Discworld, even if it's just a one-and-done single novel.
Yup. Person: Why do you like this Prachett guy so much? Me: *makes tea, sets up podium, turns on powerpoint, shuffles cards, coughs* I hope you are comfy, we are gonna be here for a while.
I love Discworld. Monstrous Regiment was one of the first books I read of the series, and it's also one of my favourites. Another favourite is The Truth, that focuses on the first Newspaper coming together (that one stars William de Worde, the reporter that shows up in Monstrous Regiment).
I am happy you enjoyed the book. Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors. He is witty, clever, and really, really good at looking at his own charcters from all sides. You will have seen an important recurring character in the book you read and probably not thought overly much about him. In another book focussing on another character the same reecurring charcter will be seen as an annoying obstruction, and in several more books focussing on him and his supporting cast of charcters he goes through a whole freaking lot and you can see closer up what sort of man he is (and was). Oh yeah, read the watch books, they are great. ( best one is "Night Watch" , but it is not good stand alone. Other watch books should have been read first) Though, honestly, the witches of lancre books are great, too. Hell, even Pratchett's kids books are great. Plus, they have chapters. :)
One of the best thing about Discworld is that you can pretty much pick up any of the books and read them without any of the other books. Sure, there are series within the series such as Rincewind, Death, Guards, Witches, & Moist Von Lipwig, and they make more sense if you read them in order, you don't need to read any of the previous ones to enjoy the one you've picked up. Possibly one of my favourite books is Small Gods, which is an excellent satire of organised religion
Great review. I haven’t read a Discworld novel since I was a teenager but really want to start picking them up again. Have you heard about the Discworld set TV series “The Watch” that is currently being developed by BBC America?
A bit late for a recommendation, but I would definitely say Nation is an excellent example of Pterry's strengths while being independent of the Discworld. It's a slight yet deep book that will leave you going "hmmm" for a while afterwards.
I just finished Monstrous Regiment (after reading all the watch series, going postal, the color of magic and thief of time) and absolute love it, the satire is genius, the portray of misogyny is scarily accurate ranging from paternalist to outright aggression and including internalized misogyny. Polly is a great and relatable protagonist, she try to focus just in her objetive but take time to thinks of would had been her life having the experiences of the other reclutes and can apologize instead engange in silly arguments and help her country. I feel in love with the whole company and feel crestfallen that I would never know how things will change in their country, and really want more of my beloved characters, but is imposible.My favorite line is: “The enemy wasn't men, or women, or the old, or even the dead. It was just bleedin' stupid people, who came in all varieties. And no one had the right to be stupid.”
Discworld changes greatly over the years. It starts as a satire of pulp sword & sorcery fantasy and ends as more of a fantasy political series, and passes through a few other genres along the way. Even if you don't like one "era" of the series, you might like another. Beyond that, different books tell stories for different recurring characters. If you don't like Rincewind stories, you might like Witch stories or Guard stories or Death stories (which themselves still change over the years.) Monstrous Regiment is a decent introduction for the later era as not only do the "regular" characters only play minor roles, it is set in a new one-off location.
My favorite Discworld book is The Truth. It exemplifies one of the two concepts of Discworld, which is that it seems like ideas from our world leak on to Discworld, in this case a newspaper is created. Fortunately most Discworld novels are written in a way that doesn't leave you lost if you haven't read others, but the references to earlier books do make you curious.
If it takes you a long time to find time to read (same for me, these days) then you have about thirty years of Discworld ahead of you. I hope you do read more. There are recommended reading order lists online, as his early stuff isn't considered quite as good as his later stuff. Monstrous Regiment is one of the more obscure of his novels, but I like it a lot. If you want more that are more directly satirical, there's Small Gods, Jingo, and Going Postal. But really start at somewhere like Mort or Guards Guards and then wend your way through them all. You won't regret it.
The Death, and later the Death and Susan novels are my favorite in Discworld (Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather, & Thief of Time... Thief of Time being my favorite overall)
Nice development! Do more books. I realise this is utterly impractical advice, because of the time sink. Although, worth noting both Pratchett and Adams were compared to earlier writer PG Wodehouse, and there is a tv series of his books with Fry and Laurie. Which would take less time than reading all the books. So... I’m really not sure what I’m saying here, probably should be patreoning if I’m going to be this commenty... also I really like the Discworld books Pyramids and Mort.
I have read Pratchett since I was in school and his death is a loss to the literary world, but his later books, Raising Steam particularly, were not that great. Maybe it was down to the condition he was suffering with, but although I enjoyed Monstrous Regiment it is by no means one of his best. For those I would suggest going back to Mort, Guards Guards or Wyrd Sisters as a good beginning into Disc World lore.
You could see signs of Pratchett's Alzheimer's in his last books, making them feel a bit "off" compared to others of the same period and just before. Similar to how you can sometimes notice a new editor being worse than a previous editor, a ghost writer being brought in to help, or a writer just being badly distracted or rushed or losing interest.
I can't choose a single Discworld book, however, my 2 fave characters in the 'verse are Granny Weatherwax and Moist Von Lipwig. I love any book that has a grouchy, old, brilliant, misanthropic witch or a fast-talking, heart-of-gold semi-reformed con man.
Terry Prachet has long been one of my fav authors. I relate to his sarcasm and humor. The way he points out the hypocrisy of humans and governments is amusing without being preachy.
If you don't have time to or don't enjoy reading a book, you could always listen to it, like you might a podcast or music. Here is someone on youtube reading monstorous regiment th-cam.com/video/f1SjYo3n9SM/w-d-xo.html Mark Reads 'Monstrous Regiment': You can listen while doing something else, multitasking and all that. You can slow it down, speed it up... With more popular novels you will probably have several verions to choose from. Also, as in this case, it's oftten free. So that's a possible solution to a problem some may have. Edit: Ok, that may not be the best example. Here's an audio TMNT novelization: th-cam.com/video/rXZ_95yYzMw/w-d-xo.html And a terminator 2 novelization read out reasonably well i think : th-cam.com/video/Aif3g60XJmo/w-d-xo.html and, wait for it, ghostbusters (not quite the same as the movie of courese but similar and some people seem to like it): th-cam.com/video/4eWR5PM64dU/w-d-xo.html
![Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchett [SPOILER] Discussion | Discworld](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jWM85jSkIKg/mqdefault.jpg)
When your daughter gets a little older, read her the Tiffany Aching series (starting with the Wee Free Men) - so entertaining and great for reading out loud 😊
It is souch a good sirease to grow up with!!:)
YES good recommendation. You need to learn to talk with a feegle accent though.
I grew up reading Pratchett. I love him and his writing to bits. Definitly shaped my sence of humour and world view. So glad you enjoyed Monstrous Regiment.
Diskworld is an amazing series to get into. Congratulations, I wish you more free time.
Pratchett is by far my favourite author. I started reading his books when I was 11 and switched to reading them in English when I ran out of Finnish translations by age 13. This resulted in my English vocabulary getting quite large pretty quickly, but I also used some pretty esoteric words all the time so sometimes not even my English teacher understood what I was saying. I started out loving the books with Death as a main character the most, and while I still absolutely adore Death, the later entries into the City watch series really hit home for me and cemented that as my favourite Discworld series. I really, really recommend you find time to read more of them. I think your daughter might love the Wee Free Men (and the rest of the Tiffany Aching series) maybe the two of you should read them together! (Okay, feels weird to talk about your daughter, but I just watched a video where you said she prefers stories where conflicts are solved in ways other than battles and I think most, if not all of Pratchett's books are like that.) The books from Pratchett that are labeled as children's books even have chapters! (and do not make the assumption that the children's books are in any way childish. The Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents is the scariest, most tense book Pratchett has ever written!)
Tiffany Aching books are amazing and a must read for girls :)
Be me, a guy in his mid-20 when the book came out in my country. Son of professional army officer. Both of us had read and seen "All Quiet on the Western Front", we had seen "Platoon", "Deer Hunter", 'Apocalypse Now" (me in "original" and 'director's cut' versions), I have seen Russian Afgan war era movie "9th Company".
And still I think that "Monstrous Regiment" is a great piece of anti-war art.
Also - let's not forget how this book is about fighting patriarchy.
I love hearing people gush about Terry Pratchett, so this video made me really happy.
Read the Watch Books:
- Guards! Guards!
- Men At Arms
- Feet of Clay
- Jingo
- Fifth Elephant
- Night Watch (Best one)
- Thud!
- Snuff
Sir Pterry would have loved your comparison with Douglas Adams. Difference , sir Pterry loved to write. Douglas hated it. But both were word geniuses.
I agree on Night Watch ... But only after you read as many of the previous books (not just the Watch books) as possible
@@obikenobi8855 The only other book that is required reading for Night Watch is Thief of Time, so that does mean reading the Death/Susan series.
@@TonksMoriarty See, I didn't like Thief of Time at all. I've read it a couple of times thinking I missed something. Nope. A real clunker for me.
@@TonksMoriarty I mean, it helps to understand the History Monks, but I think if you're mildly savvy when it comes to time travel tropes in general, you can kind of intuit that part. Understanding who Sam Vimes is as a person is wayyyy more important, imho.
I'm glad to hear that you like Pratchett's dry wit. His way with words is just exceptional. He had a way of putting complex things simple, 'explaining' the world to you not in a scholarly fashion, but with a certain wink and a smile. Almost every book of him has that handful of sentences that just rang... purest true. And really hit home one fact: Terry Pratchett was incredibly smart in figuring out how the world worked - and decided to show us through dry-witted fantasy.
It’s really fascinating, and quite heartwarming, to see Pratchett slowly grow more enlightened and thoughtful about racial, gender, and LGBT issues over the course of three plus decades writing this series. There’s some truly cringey stuff early on, but he very much put forth an effort to be better as time went on, and it really shows.
What would you say was cringey in his earlier books?
@@roguemeteorite6778 Most of all the horrible Asian stereotypes in Interesting Times, but there's also a fair share of mocking gay people and "Women be crazy, right?" jokes.
@@Rmlohner Do you have examples of these mocking gay people jokes, because I've only read a few of Pratchett's books and I don't remember seeing that, so i'm curious about what you mean. (I understand if you don't though, I do realise that's a very specific question). I do know Pratchett made quite a few jokes about both men and woman and he did play with and mock sterotypes a lot. Everyone has different opinions though and I haven't read that many of Pratchett's early works.
Every year around Christmas, I watch Hogfather. It's here in TH-cam. A lovely romp in Discworld!
Hogfather was my introduction to the Discworld. Needless to say, I adore Death and want to marry Susan when I grow up :D
I love Susan. She and Tiffany are my favourite recurring Protags.
@@tintinaus Just read a short non-spoiler blurb on Tiffany. She looks like fun. Can't wait to read about her :)
I read the book every year. HO. HO. HO. Also, what a fantastic villain is Teatime?
@@maurinet2291 God, Mr Teatime (sorry, Mr "Tay-ah-ty-mee") is so awesome and creepy. Got to love a guy who dedicates his free time to figuring out ways to kill Santa...
I adore Discworld books, I would personally recommend the trilogy Going Postal, Making Money and Snuff.
Don't you mean Rising Steam? Snuff is the last Watch book, and Moist ain't in that one.
HOLY SHIT I LOVED THIS DANG BOOK i literally read it back to back 2,5 times, didnt realize you did a video on it!!!!!!!!
Small Gods is another good stand alone. Really pleased you enjoyed!
My dear sweet summer child, you are so innocent.
I wish I could delete all of the Discworld books from my head so I can read them again for the first time. I love them to bits and I am very happy for you to have started with this one for reasons that are pretty obvious.
You have read Good Omens? I just finished the book for the trillionth time in preparation for the upcoming series (please, review it too, pretty please *puppy eyes*).
but if you COULD delete them all from your head, what order would you re-read them?
@@Great.Milenko Good question. Probabyl start with the singles, then Witches, then Death, UU then Moist then Tiffany.
@@Lucylle gotta be the watch series first for me I think ☺️
@@Great.Milenko never really got the hang of the Watch. I do like it, just less then, say, Death.
DISCWORLD! I love Terry Pratchett and his Discworld books. It is so hard to pick a favorite but Guards! Guards! or The Fifth Elephant...or Hogfather...or Feet of Clay...or A Hat Full of Sky...or...
I can't believe the madman! Book review?! Crazy! And by one of my favorite authors to boot!
So lovely to see you dipping a toe into the world of one my favourite authors. At his best (which was often) Pratchett was the warmest, wisest, wittiest and most humane voice in contemporary fantasy. The first of many such reviews, perhaps?
Welcome to the gift that is Terry Pratchett
There are also jokes you will understand better if your dad made you watch old British war movies. However, the thing I love about Pratchett is that even if you don't get the reference joke, you can still enjoy the face-value jokes.
I love, love, love Discworld. When I legally changed my name earlier this year, I chose the surname "Sto Helit" after Death's granddaughter because Discworld and Sir Pterry have meant so much to me for so long. :D
I love Terry Pratchett books. I've read them all. My favourite is Wyrd Sisters, but it changes.
I'd recommend Night Watch, book 29 of the Discworld series... Carrot... *Remembers happily*
Yeah, but you definitely need to read the previous Watch Books to get the most out of it!
@@TonksMoriarty Quite so... But that might be TOO many books for his already crowded schedule... But you can never have too much Sam Vines...
Is this one the one with Littlebottom sorting out gender issues or am I mixing up my books again?
@@Lucylle That's earlier. Think it's Feet of Clay onwards.
@@TonksMoriarty Right. Feet of Clay is another very good one. Dang, Im getting old and cant tell my Discworlds apart.
You should read Mort, it's not just my favourite Terry Pratchett book but my favourite book full stop
I Normally save your videos to watch with my morning coffee, but as soon as I saw the title I had to watch! I love Terry Pratchett, and the Discworld is my favourite series! I’ve tried to pick a favourite but it’s so difficult because of how intertwined characters can be. Discworld can be very roughly divided into the Rincewind books, the Witches books, the Guards books, the Death books, the Moist Von Lipwig books and the standalone books, and people tend to pick them up like that. I’m currently reading Rincewind and I’m on Interesting Times. If I absolutely had to pick one, like my desert island book, it would be Moving Pictures.
My son has just finished Men at Arms, his first Discworld novel. My jealousy and delight of the adventure he is about to embark. One of the greatest, most insightful authors of all time. What a journey awaits!
Monstrous Regiment is one of my favorite books period. If you want to read another Discworld book, I suggest Hogfather. It was the first one I read and it's really one of the best. Also, given your limited reading time, by the time you get around to it it will probably be Christmas anyway 😉
If you drive a lot, consider listening to the audio versions. The Nigel Planer earlier and Scott Briggs (?) are masterfully done.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this, one of my favourite Pratchett books. First TP book and still in my top 5 fav is MORT.
I'm so glad you fell in love with the book (and didn't give anyway any of the spoilers :3)
If you don't have time to sit down and read more of Discworld try and get your hands on the film adaptions. Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters are both animated films from the 90s. Sky One did the live action adaptions of Hogfather, Colour of Magic and Going Postal mini series (don't watch Colour of Magic, its awful). And just this year an animated short, Troll Bridge was made in honour of Terry Pratchett's memory.
Last time I looked the Sky One Hogfather adaption was on TH-cam.
I'd give Colour of Magic a watch just for Sean Astin's role as Twoflower.
I've followed Discworld for years and it's my favorite universe. It's like D&D meets Monty Python and you know it's good when the worlds greatest mathematician is a camel.
Good review. Pratchett will always be my favorite. I re read him constantly. I just found you and will now look for what else you do here.
*one of my favourite TH-camrs reads one my favourite books by my favourite author*
This is going to be good! :D
I'm so happy you liked it!
(It's the one I recommend to people to hook them in! "The Truth" is William de Worde and Otto Chriek's introductory book and is also a standalone.)
Your description of Igors made me chuckle. A great video!
I know that breathless, wide-eyed fans telling you how much you "have" to check something out are a...dubious persuasion method at best, but I love Discworld with my whole heart and would love to see you read/review more of the books.
Hogfather was my first Pratchett book. It was a random pick. A Santa figure that passes out pork products? Yes please!
I love Monstrous Regiment, definitely my favorite Discworld book after Going Postal
I think one of the great things about Pratchett is his ability to take obvious, tried and tested stories and just sort of breaking them in interesting ways.
There's a really good animated version of Wyrd Sisters, which is worth checking out. It's another story that you can go straight into without reading any of the previous ones. I believe is currently on TH-cam in full. Not sure what quality though.
I recommend you checking out the Discworld audio books narrated by Stephen Briggs they are addictive.
Hint Discworld makes great audiobooks. If you commute or have to do long boring tasks, it's far more interesting doing them with Sam Vines, Granny Weatherwax, or Rincewind in your ear.
Really glad you enjoyed it. My mum and older sister have always been avid Terry Pratchett and Discworld fans, so I grew up surrounded by these books. But even so, to this day I think I've only read about half of them, and ALL out of order. Still great.
If you find some spare time and you feel like it, I DEFINITELY recommend picking up more of his books in the future.
Invent more hours? That's very Pratchett! I have to admit that I like the Tiffany Aching books as well as the Nightwatch books.
Soldier: WE'RE ALL WOMEN! Except Polly, The Troll, Igor and the vampire!
Troll: ....Actually, my real name is Jade.
Polly: Really?!
Any chance you could do one of the Skulduggery books please?
More book reviews! And the more I hear about Terry Pratchett the more I want to read his books.
I am a huge fan of Discworld.
My dog is named for one of the characters (Carrot - he has all the qualities you'd want in a dog)
My favourite Discworld books are the ones centred on the city guards of Ankh Morpork. I think Vimes is one of my favourite ever fictional characters.
Not 'Angua'?
Nope - Carrot. He is loyal, honest, strong, kind of sweet and thinks in straight lines.
I love all Terry's writings, with a little hesitation, for Maskerade; Lords and Ladies; and some of the early Rincewind stuff. I adore Sam Vimes and the Nightwatch, the witches and wizzards. 'The Shepherd's Crown' in floods of tears, knowing I was reading his last book. Still hurts now!
I discovered discworld, when he was about 2/3 books in, my favourite is 'Jingo', but each of the characters, inventions are beautifully imagined, and brought to the page. Be it _Hex_ of _The Clacks_ I still feel his loss.
Oh, and a massive shout out for his non-discworld books. Whether it's 'Nation', or 'Maurice', he wrote characters the leapt off the page. His body of work is an incredible legacy, but I want him back!
I am glad you liked it because I'm not sure I can gain anything from a review by a person that does not like the works of the late great Terry Pratchett. (not in the sense that I think people who dislike Pratchett's work are bad but our tastes would simply be too different)
I haven't read this specific book, but Terry Pratchett in general is amazing. My personal favourite that I've read is Going Postal, which has his trademark style of whimsy combined with his almost analytical approach to how society and people work, as someone tries to build up a post office.
if you want sci fi, pratchett's only you can save mankind is magnificent.
"Strata" and "Dark Side Of The Sun" are also good! :)
Pratchett, satarises the world whilst letting you know that he likes living there for the most part. A fondness.
If you want to read another Discworld book that isn't a part of a "series" (for lack of better term, you can still read them out of order and get it, I started with "Night Watch" and then went back and enjoyed the others), "Small Gods" is an excellent one and is a total standalone.
You should check out the 3 Discworld TV movies (Hogfather, Colour of Magic, and Going Postal)
There’s also the Sky Tv adaptations
Oh, I'm so happy you like it! Also, you've read Good Omens, that's amazing, what do you think about the upcoming series?
2:20 Chapters were a late addition for Terry, making it rather odd when you choose to put it down. I must have been to 2/3 signings for various releases. The man was endlessly kind, polite and full of fun. Loved meeting his readers, a passion that lasted from my early twenties, 'til just before turning fifty. Glad you didn't start at the beginning 'Colour of Magic' and 'Light Fantastic' are Terry finding his feet. Just reading through the comments, it reminds me of all the great moments I'd forgotten. Wondering how I could've forgotten. Whether it's Pyramids, Small Gods, or his take on Golems, Librarians, Vampires or strained Troll / Dwarf relations each. Hope you too, get bitten by the Pratchett bug, it's quite infectious.
[Edit]
Oh, God. None of my comments mention Vetinari, Death, Susan, the Hogfather, Leonard of Quirm....
Have you tried the audiobooks? That might be a way around it time wise.
Ocassionally BBC radio does adaptions too, which I believe are available internationally. I remember one of Night Watch.
There is a TH-cam channel called Mark Reads , well worth a look
He has done the whole of discworld in 1/2 hr chunks in order , it took him about 8 years
He was a new reader so every reaction and growth of his understanding of the world gives you a sense of newly discovering Terry Pratchettthrough another’s eyes
10/10
love the audiobooks, listen to them all every year.
I need to re-read Monstrous Regiment. I remember the big reveal in the end, but I read it for a school assignment some years ago and bulldozed 300 pages in one day before the dedline. I would definitely appreciate it a lot more these days, but I remembered it being a quite book all in all.
I love this book - well most Terry Pratchet to be honest. But the Witches of Lancre books and the stories of Death sre yhe ones that most amuse me.
Such a weird coincidence that you should have picked this book to review and put the review up today. Yesterday, I went to the thrift store and found a copy of Monstrous Regiments for 50 cents (you know, along with 13 other books because I have a problem). It's my first physical copy of a Discworld book (I own ebooks of all the books featuring Death as a major character and have for years, but there are just so MANY Discworld novels that I've been putting off starting to get them all since, once I start a series, I kind of have to complete it). And now I'm looking forward to reading it even more than I was yesterday.
Fully immersing myself in the Discworld is going to get expensive fast, lol. Good thing I should be getting a fairly decent bonus at work in May...
Monstrous Regiment like so many of Pratchett's novels is a stone cold MASTERPIECE!
Unfortunately it's one of the very few that are self-contained and not part of a larger story {Good Omens of course is another}.
Some of his best work is later stories in over-arching storylines for his main characters - Sam Vimes, Esme Weatherwax, Rincewind, Susan, Moist Von Lipwig.
Here's some of the others that you can jump straight into without missing anything...
Strata {A sort of proto-discworld Sci-Fi novel}
The Colour of Magic {His first Discworld Novel and the first to feature Rincewind the Cowardly Wizard}
Equal Rites {the first Granny Weatherwax Novel and his first Female focused story}
Mort {the first novel to feature Death in a starring role rather than as a cameo}
Pyramids {Totally Self-Contained Novel set in the Discworld}
Guards Guards {the first Sam Vimes Novel}
Moving Pictures {Totally Self-Contained Novel set in the Discworld that skewers the Golden Age of Hollywood}
Small Gods {Totally Self-Contained Novel set in the Discworld}
If you really want to get the best out of Pratchett these are where I would start {although the first one I read was his 6th Discworld Novel and second Granny Weatherwax story - Wyrd Sisters {heavily based on Macbeth and one of his tougher reads}.
After that try to take them in order of when they were written if at all possible.
2. The Light Fantastic {a straight sequel to Colour of Magic}
5. Sourcery {Rincewind's 3rd Novel}
6. Wyrd Sisters {as mentioned above}
8. Eric {Rincewind's 4th Novel}
10. Reaper Man {Death's second star appearance}
and so on...
One of my favourite parts. So why do you carry a sword, private, if you can't use it.
Self defence sir, they see the sword and don't attack me?
And if they do? What then private?
I'm a Vampire sir, so I just rip their heads off!
That's the gist of it anyway!
Iv'e read the first two Discworld books, 'The Colour of magic' and 'The Light fantastic' I enjoyed them. I believe they are the more fantasy based ones, since the main character is Rincewind, a wizard. I'm looking to read Mort next.
Do read the unseen academicals
Glad you liked the book. I've read almost all the Discworld books and some of Pratchett's other books; but I just read a lot more books than you do. And you watch a lot more on-screen fiction than I do. I was surprised that you liked this one so much, because it seemed to me one of his lesser books; the story gets rather aimless towards the end, and overall it seemed like a draft that needed some more months of work done on it. But Pratchett turned out a lot of books, and I suppose he didn't want to spend more than the usual amount of time on this one, so he called it a day and published it as it was.
Which are the best Discworld books? It depends on individual taste and what kind of book you're looking for. "Wyrd sisters" (1988) is the best of the early books, and funnier than the later ones. "Men at arms" (1993) is an exciting story about the City Watch. "Night watch" (2002) is relatively serious and really good, featuring time travel (!), but it helps to have read other City Watch books first, to have some background. "Going postal" (2004) is the best of the later books, and you don't need background, because most of the characters are newly introduced. It's been filmed, and the result is quite good, but the book is better.
Monstrous Regiment was my first Discworld book too. I really need to go back to it now that I've read the rest of the series.
If interested, there are three standalone live action Discworld movies, each with two parts. They are (in order): The Color of Magic, Hogfather, and Going Postal. I highly recommend all three. Loved seeing this review on your channel, here! Thanks!
You should explain the physics of Discworld but I guess everyone on the council is a fan who knows this already
Some of the Discworld books are smaller. I don't really have a favorite but any with The witches or Wizards or the Watch.
"I need to invent more hours!" That is a very Pratchett-y thing to say ;-)
my all time favorite author! I encourage you to read more!
Side note Most of the books are out on audiobook. Explaining Igors in brief - the discworld by and large is sustained by magic, and magic liking to act like physics tends to gather aroung the giant mountain hub of the disk - where the Gods of the discworld live. One of the biggest countries near the hub is Uberwald, which is populated mainly by vampires and warewolves, and where the law is pretty much whatever the local lord says cause the People are more like sheeple. Except for the Igors. The Igors are were the native people before the influx of tourists and In disworld lore it is said they used to be skin walkers and shape shifters etc which they express literally nowdays through medical operations. In the current political climate to maintain their culture they have become "Yethhmen" for the local despots. But as most igor's say "Overlordthh come and go - but the Igorthhh alwaythh thhurvive!" The Hublands also include Lancre the homeland of Witches, and a bunch of other interesting fanasy terrain.
@Anna Lesovikova more like "The handth of my father and his father before him" but I suppose so.
Hunh, I'm really surprised you had this one recommended to you as a starting point. It's a standalone, so it has that going for it, but it's also an odd place to start. Not that there are many *bad* places to start; Terry Pratchett always went out of his way to make it possible to start practically anywhere in the Discworld series with absolutely zero background knowledge. :)
But what I'm really surprised about us how little you talked about the gender dynamic. I would think that that's the main reason someone would suggest this novel to you as a place to start, because it deals with gender roles more than practically any other Discworld novel.
(I also don't think I would have been able to film a review like this without mentioning Mulan even once, haha.)
Anyway, thanks for the review!! I'm very familiar with Discworld, and I've read this one, but I'm always glad to see others given an opening for trying Discworld, even if it's just a one-and-done single novel.
Also, 15 minutes is clearly not enough for impressions on a Pratchett's book, haha
Yup.
Person: Why do you like this Prachett guy so much?
Me: *makes tea, sets up podium, turns on powerpoint, shuffles cards, coughs* I hope you are comfy, we are gonna be here for a while.
I love Discworld. Monstrous Regiment was one of the first books I read of the series, and it's also one of my favourites. Another favourite is The Truth, that focuses on the first Newspaper coming together (that one stars William de Worde, the reporter that shows up in Monstrous Regiment).
I am happy you enjoyed the book.
Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors. He is witty, clever, and really, really good at looking at his own charcters from all sides. You will have seen an important recurring character in the book you read and probably not thought overly much about him. In another book focussing on another character the same reecurring charcter will be seen as an annoying obstruction, and in several more books focussing on him and his supporting cast of charcters he goes through a whole freaking lot and you can see closer up what sort of man he is (and was).
Oh yeah, read the watch books, they are great. ( best one is "Night Watch" , but it is not good stand alone. Other watch books should have been read first)
Though, honestly, the witches of lancre books are great, too.
Hell, even Pratchett's kids books are great. Plus, they have chapters. :)
One of the best thing about Discworld is that you can pretty much pick up any of the books and read them without any of the other books. Sure, there are series within the series such as Rincewind, Death, Guards, Witches, & Moist Von Lipwig, and they make more sense if you read them in order, you don't need to read any of the previous ones to enjoy the one you've picked up.
Possibly one of my favourite books is Small Gods, which is an excellent satire of organised religion
Great review. I haven’t read a Discworld novel since I was a teenager but really want to start picking them up again.
Have you heard about the Discworld set TV series “The Watch” that is currently being developed by BBC America?
A bit late for a recommendation, but I would definitely say Nation is an excellent example of Pterry's strengths while being independent of the Discworld. It's a slight yet deep book that will leave you going "hmmm" for a while afterwards.
I think Mort is my favorite, but they are all brilliant books!
Do you intend to review the good omens tv series(from the neil gaiman and terry pratchett book)?
I believe in the Duchess and I too need to suck a bag of beans at times or I hallucinate.
Pretty much all the Night Watch Novels are great. I particularly enjoyed Feet of Clay, Thud! and Jingo. Just a lot of relevant stuff even today.
I just finished Monstrous Regiment (after reading all the watch series, going postal, the color of magic and thief of time) and absolute love it, the satire is genius, the portray of misogyny is scarily accurate ranging from paternalist to outright aggression and including internalized misogyny. Polly is a great and relatable protagonist, she try to focus just in her objetive but take time to thinks of would had been her life having the experiences of the other reclutes and can apologize instead engange in silly arguments and help her country. I feel in love with the whole company and feel crestfallen that I would never know how things will change in their country, and really want more of my beloved characters, but is imposible.My favorite line is: “The enemy wasn't men, or women, or the old, or even the dead. It was just bleedin' stupid people, who came in all varieties. And no one had the right to be stupid.”
Discworld changes greatly over the years. It starts as a satire of pulp sword & sorcery fantasy and ends as more of a fantasy political series, and passes through a few other genres along the way. Even if you don't like one "era" of the series, you might like another. Beyond that, different books tell stories for different recurring characters. If you don't like Rincewind stories, you might like Witch stories or Guard stories or Death stories (which themselves still change over the years.) Monstrous Regiment is a decent introduction for the later era as not only do the "regular" characters only play minor roles, it is set in a new one-off location.
Pratchett is such a joy to read!
My favorite Discworld book is The Truth. It exemplifies one of the two concepts of Discworld, which is that it seems like ideas from our world leak on to Discworld, in this case a newspaper is created. Fortunately most Discworld novels are written in a way that doesn't leave you lost if you haven't read others, but the references to earlier books do make you curious.
If it takes you a long time to find time to read (same for me, these days) then you have about thirty years of Discworld ahead of you. I hope you do read more. There are recommended reading order lists online, as his early stuff isn't considered quite as good as his later stuff. Monstrous Regiment is one of the more obscure of his novels, but I like it a lot. If you want more that are more directly satirical, there's Small Gods, Jingo, and Going Postal. But really start at somewhere like Mort or Guards Guards and then wend your way through them all. You won't regret it.
The Death, and later the Death and Susan novels are my favorite in Discworld (Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather, & Thief of Time... Thief of Time being my favorite overall)
Nice development! Do more books. I realise this is utterly impractical advice, because of the time sink. Although, worth noting both Pratchett and Adams were compared to earlier writer PG Wodehouse, and there is a tv series of his books with Fry and Laurie. Which would take less time than reading all the books. So... I’m really not sure what I’m saying here, probably should be patreoning if I’m going to be this commenty... also I really like the Discworld books Pyramids and Mort.
I recommend Carpe Jugulum as the next disc world read and Nation as a non-disc world Pratchett story.
Have you heard of/read Dr. Who Scratchman novel? If you have I would live to hear your opinion on it.
I have read Pratchett since I was in school and his death is a loss to the literary world, but his later books, Raising Steam particularly, were not that great. Maybe it was down to the condition he was suffering with, but although I enjoyed Monstrous Regiment it is by no means one of his best. For those I would suggest going back to Mort, Guards Guards or Wyrd Sisters as a good beginning into Disc World lore.
You could see signs of Pratchett's Alzheimer's in his last books, making them feel a bit "off" compared to others of the same period and just before. Similar to how you can sometimes notice a new editor being worse than a previous editor, a ghost writer being brought in to help, or a writer just being badly distracted or rushed or losing interest.
My favourites are: Night Watch, Hogfather, Reaper Man, and Thief of Time
I can't choose a single Discworld book, however, my 2 fave characters in the 'verse are Granny Weatherwax and Moist Von Lipwig. I love any book that has a grouchy, old, brilliant, misanthropic witch or a fast-talking, heart-of-gold semi-reformed con man.
[Spoiler]
The title is taken from the 16th century book "The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women" by John Knox
I utterly love all the books, but Guards, Guards and Thud! are among my favorites.
This is one of my favourite Pratchett novels!!!
What the heck is someone reviewing monsterous regiment? FUCK YEAH!!!! I grew up on terry pratchett and his books are the. Best. Things. Ever.
Terry Prachet has long been one of my fav authors. I relate to his sarcasm and humor. The way he points out the hypocrisy of humans and governments is amusing without being preachy.
If you don't have time to or don't enjoy reading a book, you could always listen to it, like you might a podcast or music. Here is someone on youtube reading monstorous regiment th-cam.com/video/f1SjYo3n9SM/w-d-xo.html
Mark Reads 'Monstrous Regiment':
You can listen while doing something else, multitasking and all that. You can slow it down, speed it up... With more popular novels you will probably have several verions to choose from. Also, as in this case, it's oftten free. So that's a possible solution to a problem some may have.
Edit: Ok, that may not be the best example.
Here's an audio TMNT novelization: th-cam.com/video/rXZ_95yYzMw/w-d-xo.html
And a terminator 2 novelization read out reasonably well i think : th-cam.com/video/Aif3g60XJmo/w-d-xo.html
and, wait for it, ghostbusters (not quite the same as the movie of courese but similar and some people seem to like it): th-cam.com/video/4eWR5PM64dU/w-d-xo.html