Feet of Clay
core novel 1996 Discworld
Record
| First published | 1996 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.33 (96,045 ratings, collected 2026-09-11) |
| Page count | 288 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780575059009 |
Synopsis
In Ankh-Morpork, a secret group of golems, clay servants animated and controlled by written instructions sealed inside their heads, creates a "king" golem meant to free their kind from servitude, inscribing it with lofty commands about bringing peace to the world. At the same time, a cabal of disaffected nobles plots to depose the ruling Patrician, Lord Vetinari, and, on learning that the low-ranking Watch officer Nobby Nobbs may have a claim to a minor earldom, considers installing him as a controllable puppet king. When the new golem, improperly made and overwhelmed by contradictory instructions, becomes unstable and begins killing people rather than obeying its creators, and Vetinari himself falls gravely ill under suspicious circumstances, Commander Vimes and the City Watch, aided by their new alchemist and forensic-minded dwarf recruit Cheery Littlebottom, must untangle the golem's murders and the plot against the Patrician before either scheme.
Where it sits
- Universe: Discworld
- Series: City Watch core; position 3 of 8 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Terry Pratchett
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series City Watch: position 3 of 8: previous Men at Arms (1993) · next Jingo (1997)
Sources
← Discworld dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.