3 November, 2002
Jingo
Terry Pratchett
1997
437 pp, MMPB
This is an Ankh-Morpork City Watch novel. A small island rises from the sea between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch, and both sides lay claim to it. Before long, people on both sides are agitating for war over the new (and rather useless, in a practical sense) territory. City government is taken over by the pompous, aristocratic Lord Rust. Meanwhile, Ankh-Morpork's peacetime ruler, Lord Vetinari, sets out to investigate the mysterious island; he's accompanied by uber-inventor Leonardo of Quirm, and two of the City Watch's finest, Platonic man-on-the-street archetype Fred Colon and his unsavory sidekick Nobby Nobbs. Meanwhile-meanwhile, the rest of the Watch, commanded by Commander Vimes and Captain Carrot, set off on an expedition to Klatch, in pursuit of a suspicious character.
Like most Discworld books, this one is about more than a silly adventure plot. It's about war, and xenophobia, and, well, jingoism. Pratchett and his heroes clearly come down on the side of righteousness, and against leaders who try to manipulate their countries into bloody wars in order to further their personal agendas. (Good thing this is a fantasy novel, and that sort of thing never happens in real life, right? Right?)
I always enjoy Discworld stories, especially those which deal with Ankh-Morpork and the Watch. Vimes, Carrot, Angua, Colon and Nobby, Detritus: they're a great ensemble of characters. Lord Vetinari is the sort of intelligent, benevolent dictator/political boss that we all wish could run our own cities. (Oh, is that just me? I guess I'm used to Chicago-style politics, or something.) Most of the plot of Jingo is good, and the character interactions are great-- I particularly like the interactions between Vimes and his Klatchian counterpart. The climax is a little lacking in something; the conflict was too easily resolved, I think.