Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett is the 19th novel in the Discworld series. I am a massive Discworld and Pratchett fan and have read the Discworld novels in publication order (apart from Jingo, which was the 21st published) so this was my 20th Discworld novel and it was based on The City Watch, my favourite group of characters from the series. I'd even go as far as to say it was one of my favourites so far.

The City Watch is the Police Force of the main city on Discworld, Ankh-Morpork. Commander Vimes, Captain Carrot, Nobby, Colon, Detritus and Angua round out the main characters from previous City Watch Books, with a new recruit in the dwarf Cheery Littlebottom. Each one of these characters lives and breathes on the page, and they have done since his first book and Littlebottom is no different.

The City Watch

If you have never read a Discworld book before then try to imagine Monty Python in a fantasy land with wizards, trolls, humans with a tongue firmly in a cheek. Several times I laughed out loud (I always do with Pratchett).

The story of Feet of Clay revolves around a double murder. It's implicated that a Golem has killed the duo, but how can a Golem, who has no 'life', it's simply a machine, have any murderous tendancies? At the same time the marvellous Patrician (One of Discworlds rare sensible beings) has been poisoned. It's up to Vimes and The City Watch to find the culprit and bring them to justice.

In each Discworld book several figures pop up from time to time and new ones appear. I loved the introduction of a new character called Wee Mad Arthur, a 6 inch hard-as-nails Ratkiller gnome, with the face off of him vs a bull a hoot.

The Discworld - Great A'Tuin

It really was a joy to read, more so than normal. I've given it a huge 8.5 on the comfometer.

I urge you to read a Discworld novel. Publication date is not a great way to start tobe honest but I'm half way through now so I'm not stopping! The books are all in series eg The City Watch books, The Witches books, Wizards books etc, but they are all set on the Discworld, with characters appearing in other series. Have a look at the Terry Pratchett site for more.

One of my favourite Discworld books.

Michael
@bigcomfybooks
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