Jingo: A Discworld Novel (Paperback)
by Terry Pratchett
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2056)
Read in February, 2007
A strange foreign country across the sea, a moneyed aristocracy eager to send young men off to war, political operatives using a flimsy pretext to incite nationalist and racist fervor to encourage said war....
Sounds unpleasantly familiar, which is probably why I was drawn to reading this book.
This is one of the Watch books in the Discworld series, and like so many of those books deals with the intersection between law and politics. In this case, a mysterious island surfaces halfway betwe...more
Sounds unpleasantly familiar, which is probably why I was drawn to reading this book.
This is one of the Watch books in the Discworld series, and like so many of those books deals with the intersection between law and politics. In this case, a mysterious island surfaces halfway betwe...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
Discworld fans, Night Watch fans
I've read this a few times, actually. Some of the fine details of the plot I still didn't remember until I read it just now. Part of this might just be poor memory (it's sort of nice to have that for books, actually, as some of the contents still come as a surprise upon rereading. I may remember the gist, but how exactly it comes about is still "novel"), and part of it might be that some of the major plot points are actually a bit unclear, even after they are revealed, in a s...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comments
Read in December, 2007
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 cu...more
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 cu...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Jingo reads almost as an "extra" book in the Watch subseries of Pratchett's Discworld series. It's one of the few books of his that I've read that really benefits from a prior knowledge of the characters and their world. The story itself has the feel of something Pratchett felt driven to write, and is perhaps the closest Pratchett has ever come to discussing a specific real-world problem (white racism towards Middle Easterners and Indians) with such specificity. Terry Pratche...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
Definitely one of my favorite Terry Pratchett books. I think especially now, when the United States is still in Iraq and Afghanistan, this book should be on a required reading list in schools. Full of humor and wit, the book also is rich in satire and simple down-to-earth adventure. It amazes me how Terry Pratchett manages to create such likable and three-dimensional characters in a ridiculously comical world.
As a side note, I...more
As a side note, I...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
those who love british humor
I used to confuse Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series with Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Part of this is because I've never read any of them before and the other part is that I keep forgetting who the authors of both respective series are.
While I still haven't read Wheel of Time, I find that I'm rather enamored by Discworld. Fantastically quirky, laugh-out-loud hilarious and absurdly imaginative, I have to say I was surprised by this book.
I've no idea how Jingo compares to the re...more
While I still haven't read Wheel of Time, I find that I'm rather enamored by Discworld. Fantastically quirky, laugh-out-loud hilarious and absurdly imaginative, I have to say I was surprised by this book.
I've no idea how Jingo compares to the re...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
Not my favorite Discworld novel. The commentary on nationalism, xenophobia, and blind patriotism was interesting, and any book that devotes as much time to Vetinari as this one does deserves at least a cursory read-through. However, while there were moments that were entertaining, I didn't feel the plot was held together particularly well, and it stands as one of the weaker of the Discworld novels, in my opinion.
Of course, a weak Discworld novel is still an entertaining read; it's just whe...more
Of course, a weak Discworld novel is still an entertaining read; it's just whe...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in October, 2007
"...when you seek advice from someone it's certainly not because you want them to give it. You just want them to be there while you talk to yourself." p.95
"It was so much better to imagine men in some smoky room somewhere, made mad and cynical by privilege and power, plotting over the brandy. You had to cling to this sort of image, because if you didn't then you might have to face the fact that bad things happened because ordinary people, the kind who brushed the dog and told ...more
"It was so much better to imagine men in some smoky room somewhere, made mad and cynical by privilege and power, plotting over the brandy. You had to cling to this sort of image, because if you didn't then you might have to face the fact that bad things happened because ordinary people, the kind who brushed the dog and told ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
wordplay fans
My husband is not a Pratchett fan, though he likes the character names. Nevertheless, I made him laugh by reading the following paragraph out loud:
"My mom's uncle was a sailor," said Nobby. "But after the big plague he got press ganged. Bunch of farmers got him drunk, he woke up next morning tied to a plow."
I've just started this book, but it seems to be the usual Pratchett excellence -- exquisitely intellectual silliness slathered liberally over sharp observations...more
"My mom's uncle was a sailor," said Nobby. "But after the big plague he got press ganged. Bunch of farmers got him drunk, he woke up next morning tied to a plow."
I've just started this book, but it seems to be the usual Pratchett excellence -- exquisitely intellectual silliness slathered liberally over sharp observations...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
One of the strongest Discworld books, and by far one of the funniest - and certainly now - timiliest - Nightwatch novels. Ankh-Morph is facing war with a neighboring country over a recently found island, and of course, its never the people who want to go to war who are actually making the decision. Throw in plenty of observation about ignorance of western vs. non-western cultures, and immigration and emmigration, and its book well worth reading.
And it will keeping you laughing the ...more
And it will keeping you laughing the ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
As a fan of both the film Lawrence of Arabia, various Atlantis myths, and the Hope and Crosby 'Road' movies, I can't help but love this Discworld volume of Ankh-Morpork's intrepid Watch. Jingo's an epic war movie, Discworld style, and it works on levels both profound and profane-- great for re-reads. Written in 1997, it's still relevant in the post-2001 world. You can pop open a history book and study war, but if you want to pop it between the eyes and give it a goose, Pratchett beats all the ph...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2000
The title comes from an old British song, popular in the late 1800's: "We don’t want to have to fight,/but by Jingo if we do/We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men,/we’ve got the money too." Lampoons imperialistic ambition, H.P. Lovecraft (the city rising from the sea), George Washington (Carrot grabbing two fighting men by the jaws and shaking them into submission), the JFK assassination and lots more. Features the Watch and Lord Vetinari.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
KBYU Radio (of all places) turned me on to Terry Pratchett, and I've been reading him non-stop since. So far, Going Postal is my very favorite, but I've enjoyed them all quite a bit.
Fans of Jerome K. Jerome, George Orwell, and other distinctly English humorous authors will enjoy Pratchett's wit and social commentary very much.
Fans of Jerome K. Jerome, George Orwell, and other distinctly English humorous authors will enjoy Pratchett's wit and social commentary very much.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
This is my favorite Pratchett book yet. You'd think I'd be getting burned out a bit by now on the city of Ankh-Morpork and the characters who make up the City Watch, but I'm not.
Jingo is also amazingly topical these days, although I'm pretty sure it was written before we got embroiled in our current jingoistic disdain for all things Islam.
Pratchett's tongue-in-cheek humor and incisive wit continues to enthrall me.
Jingo is also amazingly topical these days, although I'm pretty sure it was written before we got embroiled in our current jingoistic disdain for all things Islam.
Pratchett's tongue-in-cheek humor and incisive wit continues to enthrall me.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Amazing: I loved this book...
See the head of a parade tossing his sword around in the air and rolling a dogend. See an army arrested for loitering and unruly behavior. See Leondard da Quirm with his automatic rocket launcher... Outrageous political satire, remarking on, among other things, the prejudice against Johnny Klatchian (who can't stand the taste of steel)...
A great book, one of my favorites...
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
It took me a little while to get used to Nigel Planer's voices - I'm still not crazy about the voice he used for Angua - but this was a great book to listen to while exercising or doing housework. Pratchett is always very funny, and Planer does a good job. Jingo is not one of my absolute favourite Discworld novels, but I do love the scenes with Colon, Nobby and the Patrician in Klatch.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I'm addicted to Discworld novels about the Watch. Help me . . . oh wait, don't help me. They're fun and I really like reading them. This one was really good, and had some really great moments. Especially the organizer on an alternate timeline . . .
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in March, 2007
recommends it for:
pratchett lovers
Was a pretty good City Watch novel and got to see a lot of Klatch. Was a little unsettling in that it was about the City Watch but not in Anhk-Morpork. I'm not sure why I felt that Uberwald, in The Fifth Elephant, was a better setting than Klatch. Perhaps, the setting and the characters were richer and better developed in The Fifth Elephant.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2008
Kind of like a Catch 22,in that it pokes at the absurdities of war. Except with a police chase, werewolf, zombie, troll -all on the force, and a Da Vinci-esque character. So not really like it, but maybe it will get some of you haters to read a Prachett.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2008
Sadly, I didn't like this book as much as most of the other Terry Pratchett books I've read. A lot of the jokes were recycled and just plain tired, turning it into somewhat of a labor to read. But I liked the message about tolerance this book conveys.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.86 (2056 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.88 (1633 ratings) number of reviews: 51popular shelves
other editions
quote
"Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual."
more quotes »