Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

So far, I think "Feet of Clay" is the funniest and most meaningful book that I have read from the Discworld series. Apparently, there were guilds for all the professions in the City of Ankh-Morpork, including the guilds for assassins, thieves, etc. Anyone operated outside the guild would be taken care of by the guild member. So, for example, a thief that steal without being a member of the Thieves Guild would be "punished" by the member of the Thieves' Guild and that kind of situation actually make the city more manageable. Mmmmm.

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

Anyway, the story started with a Golem (a man made creature) sold another Golem to a merchant. It's actually started the other event after that in this story. By the way, Golem is made of clay. This story focused on the murder of few elderly people and how the Watch (police in Discworld) solved it. 

After the Watch Commander Sir Sam Vimes survived yet another assassination attempt, he interviewed a dwarf and I found it very funny. The dwarf name was Cheery Littlebottom. And Vimes could hold his laugh even after Cheery told him the name of the father and grandfather. He only let it out after Cheery left his office. I think it's quite a skill. In the story, it mentioned that Vimes was good at making rich enemies who could afford to employ assassins. Luckily, Vimes won all the time. There's one sentence there "The assassins had to be lucky only once, but Vimes had to be lucky all the time". I think the sentence applies to our job environments too, no matter how good one's work was, once he or she made a mistake, it seems like all the previous efforts were erased, gone. We live in a brutal job market, I think that's why some people just hold on to one mantra, do the basic only because if one do less, one will do less mistake. 

Then, Vimes even couldn't get a coat of arms because his ancestor killed a monster who was the last king of Ankh-Morpork. I felt another sentence here was so true too, there is seldom a reward for those who do what must be done. It's kind of true and sad. Then, the Dragon King of Arms told Vimes that one of the watch member, Nobbs was the Earl of Ankh, it really shocked Vimes but he informed Nobbs anyway. From the description of Nobbs in this book, I couldn't imagine him as a royal too.

Back to the murders, the only abnormality in the scenes was traces of white matters left behind. So, the new chemist in the Watch, Littlebottom tested it and it was clay. So, the Watch investigated every clay clues. Another interesting line here, if you were going to be successful in the world of crime, you needed a reputation for honesty. What an irony! So, the Watchmen believed a crime boss when he said that he paid for all the clays in his place. They found out that some clay was stolen, someone baked something in a baker's oven.

In the course of the investigation, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork survived an attempted murder. So, the Watchmen had to investigate few cases at one time, not realising that it's all interrelated. The Guilds worked together to keep Patrician out of the way and restored the monarchy, with Nobby the king, they hoped to rule Ankh-Morpork by controlling him.

Then, a Golem named Dorfl turned himself in to the Watch and claimed that he was the murderer. But the Watchmen didn't believe he was the culprit. Dorfl felt responsible for the murders because the Golem who did the murders was made from parts of all the Golems. They had good intentions when they created the King Golem. However, the King Golem was used by the bad people to make the poisonous wick that almost killed the Patrician and after that, the King Golem gone mad and killed the persons (the two elderly people) who helped create him. Dorfl couldn't face the facts. However, Captain Carrot helped Dorfl to his freedom by buying him from his owner and then tried to catch the murderer.

Then, Vimes finally made sense of the whole things and went to confront the main culprit, the Dragon King of Arms. Vimes was so angry with all the so called noble heredity nonsense (the Dragon King of Arms was concerned with the future blood line of the Captain Carrot and Angua, the warewolf) and the death of the innocent. So, Vimes got the Dragon King of Arms by evaporated holy water, oh, the Dragon King of Arms was a vampire. Vimes also burnt down all the documents of all the hereditary stuffs. Vimes made one more enemy.

Well, the Patrician solved his own murder case much earlier than Vimes, but he let Vimes running around to scare off the plotters. The Patrician wanted the leaders of the Guilds to know that it's better for them under him, not what they were plotting. Well, The Patrician was a very cunning politician.

At the end, Vimes got a pay rise. Nobby was not a noble after all. Dorfl was made a Watchman by Vimes and Angue didn't manage to leave. I am looking forward to read more about Captain Carrot and Sergeant Angua!

Finally, last extract from the book. I found it thought provoking, nobody has complete freedom, all of us are bound by something, even the freeest of all.

"Is if frightening to be free?"
"You say to people 'throw off your chains' and they make new chains for themselves?"

The END!