17 Feet of Clay

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Feet of Clay (novel)
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Feet of Clay is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the nineteenth
book in the Discworld series, published in 1996. The story follows the members of
the City Watch, as they attempt to solve murders apparently committed by a golem,
as well as the unusual poisoning of the Patrician, Lord Vetinari.
Feet of Clay
Feet-of-clay-2.jpg
First edition
Author
Terry Pratchett
Cover artist
Josh Kirby
Language
English
Series
Discworld
19th novel – 3rd City Watch novel (4th story)
Subject
Cop novels, slavery, robots and artificial intelligence

Characters:
Ankh-Morpork City Watch, Havelock Vetinari
Locations:
Ankh-Morpork
Genre
Fantasy
Publisher
Victor Gollancz
Publication date
1996
ISBN
0-575-05900-1
Preceded by
Maskerade
Followed by
Hogfather
The title is a figure of speech from Hebrew scripture (see feet of clay) and the
script used in the book to represent Morporkian being written by a golem resembles
the Hebrew alphabet,[1] a reference to golems' origins in Jewish folklore.
PlotEdit
Twelve of the city golems, clay creatures forced to obey the written instructions
placed inside their heads, decide to create a "king" golem. They fashion a golem
from their own clay and place in his head instructions that would fulfill their
hopes: "Bring peace to the world", "Treat everyone fairly" and so on. They enroll
the help of a priest and dwarf bread baker to write the sacred instructions and
bake the clay, respectively; Meshugah, the "king" golem, is initially sent to work
in a candle factory.
Around the same time, a cabal of Ankh-Morpork's nobles and guild leaders seeks to
gradually depose the Patrician, replace him with Nobby Nobbs, revealed as the heir
to the Earldom of Ankh, as the new king and rule the city through him.
To implement this, the cabal orders the golems' newly made king, Meshugah, to make
poisoned candles and have them delivered to the palace. Vetinari is successfully
poisoned, making him severely ill. Meshugah, however, is "overloaded" by all the
different instructions his creators gave him, and goes "mad": he starts overworking
and, when he exhausts raw materials, he rampages through the city, and goes on to
murder the priest and baker who took part in his creation. The golems that made him
are horrified as murder violates their most base instructions and Meshugah was
baked from some of their parts and is therefore “clay of their clay.”
At this point the City Watch steps in trying to solve the murders and the poisoning
of Lord Vetinari. With the assistance of their new forensics expert dwarf Cheery
Littlebottom, Commander Vimes and Captain Carrot slowly unravel the mystery. The
golems send one of their number, Dorfl, to falsely confess to the murders and the
remaining eleven commit suicide.
Carrot and Dorfl, having been given a receipt for himself and thus owning himself
and having no master, fight and defeat the golem king at the candle factory.
Despite having his instructions removed, Dorfl is able to reveal that “words in the
heart can not be taken” before dying, and is rebaked with a voice. Afterwards,
Vimes confronts the city's chief heraldry expert, a vampire, who instigated the
whole affair to ensure that the rightful heir to the Ankh-Morpork throne, Carrot,
would not produce a part-werewolf line with Angua. Dorfl arrests him despite
tenuous evidence and Vimes burns down all the heraldic record as retribution
against the "elite" and "noble" plotters, who had happily and self-righteously
sacrificed the lives of several "commoners" in the pursuit of their scheme (namely
an elderly woman and a baby who lived in Cockbill Street, Vimes's childhood
neighbourhood).
In the end, Vetinari has recovered completely, Dorfl is sworn in as a Watchman

(much to the chagrin of Ankh-Morpork's theological establishment), Vimes gets a pay
raise, and the Watch House gets a new dartboard. Vetinari reveals to his assistant,
Drumknott, that he had known of the plot for some time already. Vimes' rash actions
in the pursuit of truth had considerably scared the city elite, which is precisely
why Vetinari had let him continue: so that the plotters would know just how much
worse off they'd be if Vetinari died.
CharactersEdit
Carrot Ironfoundersson
Cheery Littlebottom
Angua von Überwald
Samuel Vimes
Dorfl
Dragon King of Arms
Meshugah
Reception
References
External links
Last edited 4 months ago by JBchrch
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Cop novels, slavery, robots and artificial intelligence

In the end, Vetinari has recovered completely, Dorfl is sworn in as a Watchman

1997 Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett

1999 Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett

2005 Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett

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