Bookshelf - - Jingo and The Last Continent Reviewed by Andrew Wielochowski ** Only two Pratchett reviews for this month. I planned to have three but didn't get around to writing them. So Carpe Jugulum will be next issue.** Where does it start? Well actually more or less with Guards! Guards! because Jingo is another book based around the Ankh-Morpork City Watch nee Ankh-Morpork Night Watch. But there are things stirring in the sea and on the land. In the sea a new island has arisen and is directly in the middle of the sea between Ankh Morpork and Klatch and both countries have the belief that it should be rightfully theirs. Nobody really wants the island or indeed needs it, but they just don't want the other side getting something over them. In the city of Ankh-Morpork the Patrician has been temporarily taken over by war generals and already the people are burning the Klatchian Embassy and trying to assassinate the ambassador. The Watch are naturally on the case of trying to track down the culprits and this eventually leads the members to the Klatch. Mainly because they had to get Angua back from her captor, but Nobby and Colon had no real choice, well unless they counted disagreeing to partake in the Patrician's special mission. The Country of Klatch has many new experiences to offer and as is to be expected the Watch lead by Carrot and Vimes are soon playing football against the opposition and Nobby is communing with his feminine side. **Jingo is also available in Paperback** THE LAST CONTINENT Oh, yes! This is one I've been waiting to comment on. I absolutely adore this one. It has to be one of the best. So I'll begin with the opening phrase from the book. "This book is not a book about Australia, it's about somewhere entirely different which just happens to be, here and there, a bit ... Australian. Still ... no worries, right?" The Last Continent is about the Wet and when the Wet will return. Naturally the Wet will only return when some poor drongo takes up the great mission. The poor drongo is a person who is renowned for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The poor drongo is also very likely to have gotten to that place by running away from something which is in someway after eating him, pulling him apart or trying to send him on a mission of utmost importance. We are talking about Rincewind. Rincewind is, as he would be first to admit, a coward, he'd also probably admit he wasn't a very good wizard either. Still she'll be alright, no worries. Rincewind is stranded on the last continent, known to everybody else as XXXX, it maybe hot and fulla flies but its the best bloody place on the Disc. Far away in the dirtiest and lowest city on the Disc the wizards of the Unseen University are facing a minor mutiny. The books in the library are on the rampage and the Librarian is presently not in the right state, or rather shape to deal with the problem. The wizards finally stubble upon an idea to cure him; a spell. However to cast a spell on a fellow wizard you need to known the wizard's name and no can find any records with the librarian's old name on, because he'd always been afraid of being turned back into a human. In fact they discover that only one person knows the name of the Librarian and that person is ... Rincewind. Whilst the wizards set out on quest to find Rincewind. Rincewind is trying to avoid a quest of-utmost-importance entrusted on him by a talking kangaroo, Scrappy. Unfortunately he knows he can't avoid it because he's already done it in the future, he isn't quite sure about this, but then he wasn't too sure about the talking kangaroo either. During his quest to bring back the Wet he is destined to make new friends, some of which are mad and to be the first man to shear thirty sheep in two minutes. On the other hand his colleagues are battling evolution of the highest kind. **The Last Continent is now available in paperback and it is well worth getting it. It is definitely one of the best.** NEWS FROM THE DISC What has happened: * The Last Continent is in paperback.... * By the time SynTax is out then Discworld 3 should be out in the shops * MAY: The Pratchett Last Continent Signing Tour: SEE BELOW FOR TIMES AND DATES * I think a new map is out?? DEATH'S DOMAIN priced at œ6.99 What's due: * The Fifth Elephant - - his latest book. DATE UNKNOWN ** THE LAST CONTINENT TOUR DATES ** A bit late ... only got them last month. May be a monthly SynTax would be better, hmmm!. Well 15th May is the last date Friday 14th May 12.30pm Waterstones, 65-69 New George Street, Plymouth, PL1 1RE 4.30pm Ottakars, 96 Pydar Street, Truro, TR1 2BD Saturday 15th May 12.30pm WH Smith, Bristol Galleries, Bristol, BS1 3XB "The future's bright, the future's disc shaped!" - - Can't think of a new one! - o -