The plot in MR is next to non-existant. But except for Night Watch and Going Postal, it is TP's best written book. It is extremely inventive, and Polly is one of his great characters. Pratchett follows the rules for genre fiction pretty closely, which is to say, in every detective novel ever written, the murderer MUST make an appearance before page 30 or so. If you don't believe me, check out Feet of Clay or Guards Guards and see when the bad guy/gal first turns up.... but MR is not a detective but rather a quest or adventure novel. The interesting aspect of the novel is not whether the Reader knows all the soldiers are women, but whether the Characters know it. The convention is disguised sexual identity, straight from Shakespeare, and maybe 10,000 other stage plays! Pratchett is an excellent writer, and he WANTED you to know everyone was a gurl. If he didn't, he wouldn't have made it so obvious.

Besides, nobody in MR is as messed up as the Dwarfs in regard to sexual identity, are they?

I love MR.