Set in the fictional war zone of Borogravia, Monstrous Regiment details the struggles of a bunch of raw recruits, veterans and vampires, a la The Dirty Dozen and Band Of Brothers.
Or rather band of brothers and sisters, because although Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld hardback best-seller is about the futility of war, it touches more on the battle between the sexes. Yes, the undisputed king of satirical fantasy has gone all gender-specific on us.
Pratchett is suffering from flu, forcing him to abandon his book signings and personal appearances, which is as big a turn-up for the book - if you can forgive a pun being turned on its head - as him discussing gender roles. Pratchett is famed for attending almost anywhere to sign copies and give talks, be it at Discworld conventions or bookshops in the United States and Britain, his two primary markets, according to his Doubleday publicist Pru Jeffreys. Such promotion helped him achieve 6.5 per cent of all hardback sales in Britain in 1998. A dozen titles at least have reached the No 1 spot.
While poignant and funny - Pratchett is never dull - the book is darker than most of its 30-odd Discworld predecessors. As one reviewer put it: 'Monstrous Regiment is more a serious novel that also makes you laugh a lot than a comedy that has serious bits.'
'It depends on what reviewers mean by dark; they said it about Night Watch too, by the way,' says Pratchett. 'It is a book about a nasty, bloody little war, and that influences the humour which is, I'd say, closer to that of M*A*S*H. Discworld contains more than 30 books now, and the reason it has stayed successful is that it's changed and evolved.'
Did the lead-up to the Iraq war have much of an influence? 'Not really, the world has had a more than adequate supply of stupid, pointless wars,' he says.