{"id":4614,"date":"2018-07-13T05:00:33","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4614"},"modified":"2018-07-08T08:01:45","modified_gmt":"2018-07-08T15:01:45","slug":"mark-reads-monstrous-regiment-part-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/07\/mark-reads-monstrous-regiment-part-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Monstrous Regiment&#8217;: Part 21"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the twenty-first part of <i>Monstrous Regiment<\/i>, I feel like the only pure reaction to this section would be to make the whole review one big keysmash. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <i>Discworld<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I am only now realizing that the big reveal of this book has been repeated so many times that I keep thinking, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Surely, Pratchett isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to do this again.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d BUT GUESS WHAT. HE DOES. In doing so, he exposes the systemic mistreatment of women in Borogravian society, but then reveals that WOMEN FOUND A WAY AROUND IT. (Though, slight point of <i>possible<\/i> contention: do these older soldiers identify as women? Have they maintained this disguise for so long to do their job, or is it not a disguise at all? I am not quite sure and am very interested in discussing that with y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.) It is TOO MUCH for ONE PERSON to deal with SO HERE WE GO.<\/p>\n<p><b>Jackrum<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Look, I absolutely did not expect Jackrum to save the day. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t! I still can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even guess how he <i>knew<\/i> that they needed help. How did he get this information? Not important, though, because what <i>is<\/i> important is what Jackrum does once he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the room where it happens. (Heh. I had to.) I figured out pretty quickly that he was looking to leverage something in order to free his squad, and I <i>also<\/i> figured that it was due to the mystery of his records, the very thing Strappi set out to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153investigate.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (And fail to get to the truth, I might add.) But once he asked for some of the generals and leaders to step <i>out<\/i> of the room&#8230; that confused me. Everyone knew that Jackrum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most recent squad was comprised of entirely women; that was the whole point of the tribunal. And what secret information did Jackrum have that would require the confidence of only a <i>few<\/i>? It made no sense to me!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I should have known. What does Jackrum exceed at? Cunning. Manipulating his superiors. Getting exactly what he wants. And these qualities\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich I admittedly interpreted pretty negatively when I first met Jackrum\u00e2\u20ac\u201dare suddenly on full display, and I <i>don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> hate it??? WHAT IS THIS BOOK DOING TO ME.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>One of Their Own<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In the most shocking moment of <i>Monstrous Regiment<\/i> so far (and I have to add that caveat because <i>who fucking knows<\/i> if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be another plot twist after this, I HAVE TO PROTECT MYSELF), Jackrum confronts the remaining military leadership and reveals the secret he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s held, the one that gets him stationed wherever he wants, the one that allows his record to be edited and changed, and<\/p>\n<p>Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all<\/p>\n<p><i>There have been women in the Borogravian military for a long time<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In fact, a handful of them are revealed to be in that very room, in charge of THE ENTIRE FUCKING ARMY, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been doing it for years&#8230; with Jackrum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s help. One major freaked out on the battlefield and nearly deserted their troops&#8230; until Jackrum helped them out, handed them a victory, and gave them the mental strength to survive a war. Another nearly died of a sword wound that would have revealed their secret, and Jackrum nursed them back to health. Even Froc owes their entire career to Jackrum. ALL OF THEM DO. Which explains how the <i>hell<\/i> he know how to help Polly and the others earlier in the novel. (And lord, do I ever love stories where tiny details completely matter to later twists.) HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S BEEN DOING THIS FOR SO LONG. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I feel like I immediately need to re-read the entire book because&#8230; shit, I got Jackrum so <i>wrong<\/i>? Which is a credit to Pratchett that he wrote the character in a way that made it easy for me to take the bait. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really like Jackrum, but now I feel&#8230; I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know??? All I am certain of is that he is not the character I thought he was, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a mess.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Yet even with an out provided to her, Polly still resists. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I <i>love<\/i> a stubbornly moralistic character, so SURPRISE. Polly is my JAM. But what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so great about her reaction is that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to just be swept under the rug or to be pushed away by a complication. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a woman, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a soldier, and she kissed that image of the Duchess, so she is not going to accept anything less than full credit. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to exist as a contradiction or a secret. She wants to be herself.<\/p>\n<p><b>The Duchess<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Which is when the Duchess arrives. The real Duchess. WAZZER REALLY WAS POSSESSED BY HER. Which heavily suggests that belief in the Duchess <i>increased<\/i> over the course of this book, so much so that she was able to materialized in the body of her most faithful believer. And holy shit, her message is a shock: she wants <i>all<\/i> of them to give up, to make truces, to vow to <i>stop dying in battle for her<\/i>. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, she was given the power of existence as a deity, but she wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t given <i>power itself<\/i>. So the more people prayed to her, the more frustrated she became because SHE LITERALLY COULDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Thus, her sole requirement is an invasion in reverse: she wants the Borogravians to return to their own homes. To build up their own lives and families and communities. To&#8230; well, in her own words:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Find yourself a worthier god. And let&#8230; me&#8230; go! All those prayers, all those entreaties&#8230; to me! Too many hands clasped that could more gainfully answer your prayers by effort and resolve!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yeah, the Duchess doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give a shit about your thoughts and prayers, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. NOT ONE SHIT. Neither does Polly, who is so inspired by all of this that she gets her own little revenge on Strappi, and LORD, WAS IT EVER SATISFYING. Actually, this is already deeply satisfying, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know what Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fate is yet. But Pratchett manages to hit all the things I needed (like Strappi) to be resolved. I still want to know more about the individual women of the squad, and I suspect we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see Paul in the next section. Until then, though, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m blown away. I FELL FOR ALL OF THIS.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/-mqOY9Cukbs<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>My YA contemporary debut, <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/AngerIsAGift\">ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><strong>If you&#8217;d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, <a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/ey636\">sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the twenty-first part of Monstrous Regiment, I feel like the only pure reaction to this section would be to make the whole review one big keysmash. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[463,545,248],"class_list":["post-4614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-monstrous-regiment","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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