"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.

War rages on--with one unconventional soldier--in Terry Pratchett's bestselling Discworld(R) series

War has come to Discworld . . . again. And, to no one's great surprise, the conflict centers around the small, arrogantly fundamentalist duchy of Borogravia, which has long prided itself on its unrelenting aggressiveness. A year ago, Polly Perks's brother marched off to battle, and Polly is willing to resort to drastic measures to find him. So she cuts off her hair, dons masculine garb, and--aided by a well-placed pair of socks--sets out to join the army. Since a nation in such dire need of cannon fodder cannot afford to be too picky, Polly is eagerly welcomed into the fighting fold, along with a vampire, a troll, an Igor, a religious fanatic, and two uncommonly close "friends." It would appear that Polly "Ozzer" Perks isn't the only grunt with a secret. But duty calls, the battlefield beckons, and now is the time for all good, er . . . "men," to come to the aid of their country.

Pratchett, Terry

Terry Pratchett was the acclaimed author of the global bestselling Discworld series, the first of which, The Color of Magic, was published in 1983. In all, he was the author of more than fifty bestselling books which have sold more than 100 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 for his young adult novel The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest services to literature was to avoid writing any. He lived in England and died in 2015 at the age of sixty-six.