Jingo is another novel in the famous Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (the 21st, in fact), this time dealing with the subjects of war, national pride, and the like. Well, actually it deals rather more with Politics than actual war…

In case you’ve never read a Discworld novel before, let me tell you something about the place. It’s flat… that is, it has its lakes and mountains etc, but overall the world is a disc (thus Discworld - smarter ones may have already picked up on that! :-P), which is carried on the back of four giant elephants, which in turn sit atop the great A’Tuin, an even more giant turtle that slowly makes his way across time and space. On this world there is magic and mayhem, and other things commonly known to our world such as Love, Hate, Politics, Pride, Religion, Discrimination, Stupidity, etc etc, along with quite a few other things not in our world, such as Trolls, Golems, Gargoyles, and Nobby (who is of indeterminate race and, in this one, gender… well not quite but you’ll see what I mean when you read it…) Generally there is some havoc going on in the capital city, Ankh-Morpork, and very often it falls upon the Patrician (Lord Vetinari) and the Commander of the Watch (Sam Vimes) to sort it out. This is the case in Jingo, where war seems imminent with the neighbouring country of Klatch, whose Prince just survived an assassination attempt while on a visit to Ankh-Morpork. But Vimes finds out that things are a lot more complicated than they at first appear, especially when it becomes evident that fearsome Klatchian 㦳-Hour Ahmed” knows a lot more than he’s letting on… (Incidentally, if you haven’t read Discworld / Pratchett before, it would probably be useful if I mentioned that the style is comedy fantasy. So I did.)

And so we have a classic Discworld caper full of hilarious characters and situations, sharp observation of human nature, and a generally highly entertaining read on our hands. Well… not quite. Though there are certainly many funny scenes in the book, it’s not among Discworld’s best efforts. Though the bad language here is nothing terrible in comparison to many other authors, when Pratchett uses it, it seems to be a sign that he’s run out of steam a little and hasn’t got anything genuinely funny to write. It’s still better than Monstrous Regiment, and the new characters are good while the established characters are used well (apart from Death, who as is too often the case merely has a brief cameo appearance). Vetinari has a big part to play as does Vimes, and as usual they spend time verbally sparring though they are very much on the same side. Corporal Carrot (the 7-foot Dwarf… adopted, of course) has probably his biggest role in a Discworld novel apart from Men At Arms, and Sergeant Fred Colon and of course Corporal Nobby are also very much in on the act. Leonard of Quirm, the famous genius inventor, also has a lot more to do than normal, which is a good thing. The satire is pretty good throughout the book as are the plot twists, but thy just seem a little under-par considering what Pratchett is capable of. No Discworld fan is likely to be very disappointed, but this isn’t one of the very best. You’re probably better off having red at least one of the earlier novels that deal with the Watch (Men At Arms, The Fifth Elephant) to know the characters a bit better and properly enjoy this book, otherwise some of the humour / references will be lost on you.

One thing that I did find very annoying though is the number of typos and printing errors in the book. There are quite a few, and you really expect better of a mass-market paperback these days. (Naturally I can’t be sure whether this only affecting a small print run or the whole edition.) The only other book I remember reading that had as many typographical / printing erros in was End of Eternity.

Overall Jingo is a good read and deserves its place in the Discworld collection, it just doesn’t belong near the top of the list.

Other Discworld Novels starring Sam Vimes

The Fifth Elephant
Nightwatch

Discworld Computer Games

Discworld
Discworld Noir


Recommended: Yes