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A review by crufts
Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Feet of Clay is the 19th novel in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, and the 3rd novel about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. I would recommend reading the earlier Watch books first to get the background - at least Guards! Guards! (#8) to have the Watch introduced, and Men at Arms (#9) to meet Angua and Detritus.
A murder has occurred in the city of Ankh-Morpork. No, wait - two murders. Actually, make that two murders plus a poisoning of the city's ruler, Lord Vetinari.
It's the responsibility of Captain Vimes and the City Watch to figure out who did all this, and why - but strangely, there's no trace of anything alive at the crime scenes, and someone is still managing to poison Lord Vetinari night after night. With the help of their newly-hired forensic alchemist, Corporal Cheery Littlebottom, can the Watch solve the mystery?
I came to this novel after reading the later book Thud! (review linked here), which also involves Cpl. Littlebottom, and wanting to see how she was introduced. And I really liked it! For the first time, the Watch has a forensic investigator on their side. This was quite interesting as the book had different kinds of clues which hadn't appeared before (e.g. traces of poisons, clay, or chalk dust), and one of the major reveals of the book (i.e. how Vetinari is being poisoned) is based on Cheery's ability to analyze these substances.
Another theme of the book is freedom of gender expression. Discworld dwarves have a very gender-egalitarian society, with both male and female dwarves having beards, bulging muscles, and a preponderance of axes. But "equal" does not mean "free": they are only free to have the same masculine gender expression as every other dwarf. This idea is challenged and discussed in an interesting way. However, there was one part about this that bothered me, which ishow Carrot was initially so against Cheery expressing herself femininely ("I would have thought she'd have the decency to keep it to herself").
This is immediately called out by Angua ("I think you may have got [your head] stuck up your bum"), but it was a shock to hear the extremely polite and friendly Carrot speaking this way. In retrospect it actually makes sense that he would have the dwarven prejudice against feminine dwarves, because he was raised as a dwarf himself. But I think it would have been clearer if Carrot explained himself as such, referenced what he'd learned growing up, etc . I was also hoping to see a male dwarf expressing interest in feminine behaviour/attire, instead of only female dwarves, but this didn't end up happening. Even so, it was neat to see this theme explored.
Apart from the forensic angle and the self-expression theme, I also enjoyed seeing all those wonderful Discworld returning characters. Angua in particular gets to shine in this book.
However, the actual plot of the story didn't grab me that much. The resulting changes togolem society, self-ownership, etc weren't all that interesting to me. Even so, I enjoyed reading to the end and was curious to see what would happen next.
Overall, a good read.
A murder has occurred in the city of Ankh-Morpork. No, wait - two murders. Actually, make that two murders plus a poisoning of the city's ruler, Lord Vetinari.
It's the responsibility of Captain Vimes and the City Watch to figure out who did all this, and why - but strangely, there's no trace of anything alive at the crime scenes, and someone is still managing to poison Lord Vetinari night after night. With the help of their newly-hired forensic alchemist, Corporal Cheery Littlebottom, can the Watch solve the mystery?
I came to this novel after reading the later book Thud! (review linked here), which also involves Cpl. Littlebottom, and wanting to see how she was introduced. And I really liked it! For the first time, the Watch has a forensic investigator on their side. This was quite interesting as the book had different kinds of clues which hadn't appeared before (e.g. traces of poisons, clay, or chalk dust), and one of the major reveals of the book (i.e. how Vetinari is being poisoned) is based on Cheery's ability to analyze these substances.
Another theme of the book is freedom of gender expression. Discworld dwarves have a very gender-egalitarian society, with both male and female dwarves having beards, bulging muscles, and a preponderance of axes. But "equal" does not mean "free": they are only free to have the same masculine gender expression as every other dwarf. This idea is challenged and discussed in an interesting way. However, there was one part about this that bothered me, which is
This is immediately called out by Angua ("I think you may have got [your head] stuck up your bum"), but it was a shock to hear the extremely polite and friendly Carrot speaking this way. In retrospect it actually makes sense that he would have the dwarven prejudice against feminine dwarves, because he was raised as a dwarf himself. But I think it would have been clearer if Carrot explained himself as such, referenced what he'd learned growing up, etc
Apart from the forensic angle and the self-expression theme, I also enjoyed seeing all those wonderful Discworld returning characters. Angua in particular gets to shine in this book.
However, the actual plot of the story didn't grab me that much. The resulting changes to
Overall, a good read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Murder
Minor: Slavery and Sexism