Terry Pratchett

DISCWORLD GOES TO WAR, WITH ARMIES OF SARDINES, WARRIORS, FISHERMEN, SQUID AND AT LEAST ONE VERY CAMP FOLLOWER. As two armies march, Commander Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch faces unpleasant foes who are out to get him... and that's just the people on his side. The enemy might be even worse. JINGO, the 21st in Terry Pratchett's phenomenally successful Discworld series, makes the World Cup look like a friendly five-a-side.

Jingo

A new land has surfaced and so have old feuds. And as two armies march, Commander Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch has got just a few hours to deal with a crime so big that there’s no law against it. It’s called “war.” He’s facing unpleasant foes who are out to get him . . .that’s just the people on his side. The enemy might even be worse. And his pocket Dis-organizer says he’s got “Die” under “Things to do today.

Sarah Sammis

Jingo looks at the dangers of politics on international policy. Ankh-Morpork finds itself in dispute with Klatch over a tiny island. Assuming the worse, Ankh-Morpork plans to go to war even though the city is broke.

Like in Miss Bianca in the Orient, Klatch is an amalgamation of the old British Empire holdings. Unlike the Margery Sharp book, Klatch is actually described in enough detail that the different cultures are recognizable. While everything is open for parody in Jingo the different cultures are also treated with respect making the book entertaining and thought provoking.

The best part of Jingo though is the alternate reality that opens up when Vimes goes down the wrong leg of the "trousers of time". This alternate reality, shown through his "dis-organizer" shows what would have happened if Vimes hadn't decided to take action contrary to orders and common sense.

Ryan LaFerney

Jingo is the #21 book in the Discworld series and is the #4 book in the City Watch sub-series by Sir Terry Pratchett. It's not as great as Guards! Guards! or Men at Arms but is still a thought-provoking, silly, satire of a novel with a few things to say about the nature of war.

Jingo is a long-lost island floating up from the middle of the Circle sea, right smack dab in the middle of Ankh-Morpork and Klatch, and both nations claim ownership of it. This leads, of course, to war. Both nations start plotting and scheming. But this isn't a war book like normal war books. It's a Pratchett book after all.

Jingo focuses on some of my favorite Discworld characters: Commander Vimes; Captain Carrot and the rest of the Ankh-Morpork Watch; and Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. The plot in particular focuses on Commander Vimes, because after all, isn't war just an excuse for Captain Sam Vimes to get involved. If war is a crime, then who better to go after the criminals and stop it than a copper? And he brings the whole Watch with him. And It's not just war that Pratchett sends up here. He also takes jabs at racism, sexism, nationalism. 

Of course, there is a lot more going on than just two nations setting out to wage war. Commander Vimes feels like he's out of touch and losing control of the Watch to Captain Carrot, who has been actively recruiting new guardsmen. Since Carrot joined the Watch, the number of guards has grown from three men to over forty men, or actually, creatures. Thanks to Carrot, the Watch now includes dwarfs, gargoyles, a golem, a troll, a gnome, a werewolf and a zombie. Carrot is, of course, totally oblivious to Vimes's concerns, as his only objective is to uphold the law and protect the citizens of Ankh-Morpork. He has the kind of charisma that lets him organize a football game between two armies poised at the brink of war, and make criminals beg to confess. There's also a subplot about Corporal Nobbs trying to get in touch with his feminine side, which was quite frankly, one of the funniest bits of the books.

The ending is brilliant and quite hilarious (I won't spoil it for you). Let's just say the power of football and Carrots' charisma as well as Vimes' desire to peg war as crime saves the day.

Give a warring crowd sports, a strong leader to unify them, and threaten them with the legal system - if you want to stop war or at least, keep it at bay.

Jingo

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