A review by bluejayreads
Jingo by Terry Pratchett

fast-paced

4.5

This is the most thematic Discworld book I’ve read yet. Most of the ones with strong themes have a main plot with the themes underneath. Jingo‘s whole plot is “war is stupid, so is nationalism, and so is racism too for that matter.” It makes its point very well (in my opinion), but my experience with other theme-heavy Discworld books did not lead me to expect the message to be so in-your-face. 

Interestingly, somewhere along the line the City Watch sub-series has shifted protagonists. There’s a lot of major characters in the watch, but the series started off with Carrot as the main protagonist. Somehow, without my really noticing, it shifted to Vimes. Carrot is still there and being himself, but now Vimes is the one that the story is following. Which feels like a natural progression, all things considered. Carrot’s whole thing is that he is a simple Dwarven boy in the big city whose innocence and general good humor encourage those around him to be better. He was entertaining, but there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for growth, which makes him a poor choice for the protagonist of an eight-book sub-series. Vimes, on the other hand, is a great candidate in terms of character growth. Considering the first City Watch book opened with him drunk off his ass and laying in the gutter in the rain and I know from reading Snuff first that he ends up with a wife, a kid, and a nice vacation home in the country, there’s a ton of room for him to grow and adapt. And though I did like Carrot, I’m glad to see the focus shift. 

Anyway. I’m not really sure what Vimes’ goal is in this book, and to be honest I’m not sure he does either. Things go very badly very quickly, and he’s just trying to keep things together and do his job while they people around him dissolve into warmongering and xenophobia. Technically his job description is “keeping the peace,” so obviously this whole war thing is gonna put a wrench in that. He’s very much had enough of this nonsense (which is a character trope I thoroughly enjoy), but gods damn it he is going to do his job even if he has to arrest both armies to do it. He got to be a nuanced character with solid motivations and definite flaws and strong emotions and I enjoyed it very much. 

Some parts of this book, though, didn’t quite land. There’s a bit about Vimes’ wife being unhappy that he’s gone so much, but there is so much other stuff happening in the book that there’s no time to do anything with that plot thread. The climax also had a weird quantum parallel universe bit where you find out what would have happened if Vimes had made a different choice earlier in the book. It was interesting in a bizarre way, but I’m not entirely sure what the point was. 

Considering this book isn’t unreasonably long, there’s a lot going on. I generally like fast-paced books, and I don’t have any particular objections to breakneck paces. But I do think it could have benefited from being just a little longer and slowing down. This book tackles a lot of heavy topics about war, xenophobia, racism, and tensions between countries, and it’s hard to process all that when the plot is rocketing by you at a thousand miles an hour. Even Vimes’ strong emotional moments don’t have time to land. Just a few breaks to give the reader a chance to breathe, reflect, and process would have been beneficial in my opinion. 

As it is, though, Jingo is still quite good. Despite everything happening, it wasn’t hard to follow. It was entertaining throughout and had its amusing moments (although less flat-out humor, which fits with the more serious topics discussed). And I’m quite pleased with the direction the City Watch sub-series is taking. There are still several more City Watch books to go, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next. 
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