Terry Pratchett: Monstrous Regiment

Reviewed by DAVID LARSEN*

Terry Pratchett is the Charles Dickens of our time, and if you think otherwise you haven't been paying attention. Twenty years ago he was writing firecracker fantasy satires, playing hell with the absurdities of post-Tolkien sword and sorcery books, and having a ball in the process. For those of us who knew Conan the Barbarian before he became Arnold Schwarzenegger's route to fame, it was lots of fun. Not too appealing to anyone else.

But Pratchett never writes the same book twice, and by the sixth title in his ongoing Discworld series, he'd moved on to broad-spectrum social satire. To put that in perspective, there are, by my count, 24 Discworld books which focus not on Conan, but on us. And they keep getting better.

The latest is about war and feminism, and about women who for one reason or another disguise themselves as men to get into the Army. "I thought they'd be better at it than men," comments the wily sergeant who decided not to give them away. Trouble was, they were better than men at being like men. And if you don't think that nails modern corporate culture, among other things - well, again, you haven't been paying attention.

This is a dark book in some ways, but it's also hilarious. A.S. Byatt has described Pratchett as having "a multifarious genius for strong parody". If you haven't discovered him yet, you've a great many treats in store.

Doubleday, $54.95

* David Larsen is an Auckland reviewer.