Jingo by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #21)

 Jingoism: the feelings and beliefs of people who think that their country is always right and who are in favor of aggressive acts against other countries

Jingo is the 21^th book in Sir Terry Pratchett's beloved fantasy series, Discworld. It is also the 4^th book in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch sub-series. In this book, Terry Pratchett took his readers away from Ankh-Morpork, and journey to the desert country of Klatch, where a diplomatic crisis brought Ankh-Morpork to the brink of war.

This book is witty and humorous, and it is certainly a solid entry to the long-running Discworld series. However, while I did like this book, but I personally did not find Jingo as a good book as other Discworld novels. Today, I will like to provide a review and share my thoughts about this book.

Synopsis:

On a silent night in Discworld, a small, and literally worthless island suddenly emerged from the sea. This island is at the half way point between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch, causing these two nations to dispute over the island's ownership.

Amidst the dispute, the Klatchian prince came to visit Ankh-Morpork. During the welcoming ceremony, a crossbow man made an assassination attempt at the prince's life. Fortunately, the assassination was foiled by the City Watch. Yet, this event fueled the already burning conflict between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch, bringing the two nations to the brink of war. Furthermore, the spirit of nationalism rose among the citizens of Ankh-Morpork, as ambitious politicians seek to rip personal profits from the war by encouraging people to bear arms, join the army, and “defend” what is rightfully theirs. The Ankh-Morporkians' line of thought is as simple as this: In a conflict against Klatch, Ankh-Morpork is "obviously" on the side of the right.

At this turbulent time, commander Samuel Vimes and the City Watch race against the clock to find the mastermind behind the devious assassination plot. Should they fail, then an all-out war between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch will be inevitable.

My thoughts on this book:

Jingo is a good book, but I did not enjoy this book as much as other Discworld novels. Instead, I have a lukewarm reaction about this book. Let me begin by sharing what I liked about this book.

Jingo has everything that made Discworld novels great. This novel can be seen as a social commentary, where humors are in good supply. Readers will find a story packed with witty satires. With a light-hearted, funny story, Terry Pratchett subtly invites his readers to think about topics such as racism, immigration, tribalism, and jingoism. I personally think this book is an excellent social commentary for the socio-political clime in the western world for the past 15 years.

Jingo features a cast of intriguing, and memorable characters. I like every character in this book, especially Samuel Vimes, who offers readers a view into the world through his unique perspective. Other characters, such as Carrot, Detritus, and Cheery also played interesting and major roles in this book. However, the same cannot be said about Angua. For some reason, in Jingo, the role assigned to Angua was somewhat uninteresting in comparison to her roles in the previous novels.

The story of Jingo treads along the line of a detective/mystery novel, and it managed to spin a web of suspense around the central story. However, the story structure in this book is what caused my lukewarm reaction. Allow me to explain. In this book, readers follow 2 major plots, which converged at the end. The first plot features the journey of Samuel Vimes and the City Watch in the land of Klatch, which was very interesting and funny. The second plot follows the sea adventure of Lord Vetinari , Leonard, Colon and Nobby. When I was reading this book, I found Vetinari's sea adventure uninteresting and difficult to follow, because there are too many random events here. In other words, I thought the story about Vetinari's sea adventure didn't feel cohesive. As a result of this, I found myself skimming through parts of the book, missing out crucial information in the story. At the end of the novel, I became a bit confused about the story.

Therefore, the bottom line is, while I did not enjoy Jingo as much as other Discworld novels, but I still think it is a good book. The themes about racism, immigration and jingoism are thought-provoking. It is in the human nature to slip into the "us" vs "them" mentality. This mentality is deeply rooted in a variety of human conflicts, from politics to culture, where we usually think "we" are always right and "them" are obviously wrong. But are "we" always right and "them" always wrong? Also, are we really that different? Terry Pratchett masterfully wrapped these topics in a good and humorous story, inviting us to re-think our assumptions, then put ourselves in other people's shoes, this is the true value of Jingo as an important piece of literature. What prevents me from liking this book as much as other Discworld novels, is the story in this book has too many random events and they are distracting. But that shouldn't stop anyone from reading Jingo, especially if you are reading the City Watch sub-series. A few words of advice, if you are going to read Jingo, just remember, don't skim through the parts of the book about Vetinari's sea adventure like I did.