In the tenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay<\/i>, Vimes tracks down more clues, all of which perplex him further, and the city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Guilds plan for the inevitable. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For mention of suicide<\/b><\/p>\n
Clues<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cool to think about how many of the\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0books are also great mysteries, and\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>is no exception. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a humorous take on crime novels, yes, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make the mystery behind the murders, the Golems, and Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s poisoning any less confusing or complicated. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that Pratchett pokes fun at the pseudo-Sherlock<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0mystery tropes while giving us a good story in the process.<\/p>\n
And as is usually the case, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just as stumped as Vimes is. I have a lot of the pieces \u00e2\u20ac\u201c perhaps more than he does! \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and yet I still cannot put this all together. The continued poisoning of Lord Vetinari perplexes me. I\u00c2\u00a0think<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0I am close to figuring out the weird existential crisis that the golems are having, but the Patrician? Nope, nothing at all. Oh, I thought it was his diary, too! It fit so perfectly!!! What else had the Patrician touched at least once per day and would allow him to ingest arsenic?<\/p>\n
Yet I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m back at square one. Is the composite man that Vetinari drew a clue in and of itself? Where is somewhere in Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room where \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no one will look at all\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Is it on his\u00c2\u00a0person<\/i>? Have they tried changing all his clothes? I then latched on to Mildred Easy, who was suspiciously absent from the staff grouping. A-ha! Someone was conveniently not around! Except it sounds like someone in Easy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family died and Detritus interrupted a wake or something like it. Yes, Vimes is going to stop by (hopefully in the next section!) her place, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to give him any clues. (Which is okay because I want to see what this part of Ankh-Morpork is like!)<\/p>\n
And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Angua and Carrot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case, which leads them to a timber merchant who\u00c2\u00a0used<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to own a golem before it dutifully sawed its own head off, leaving behind another perplexing message:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThou Shalt Not Kill,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Carrot read slowly. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Clay of My Clay. Ashamed.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Do you have any idea why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d write that?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The guilt\u00c2\u00a0cannot<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0be a coincidence, can it? So why are the golems having what appear to be existential crises? They met on a holy day; they then returned to work and began to kill themselves. Why??? How can a golem do something they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not commanded to?<\/p>\n Guilds of Ankh-Morpork<\/b><\/p>\n It was entertaining enough just to have so many Guild members in one place, interacting with each other like they do here in this part of\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay<\/i>. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a competitiveness to their conversation, almost as if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re used to insulting each other whenever they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the same room. But that rapport transforms as they all realize that the possible death of Lord Vetinari will have unknown implications for all of them. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much to be said about\u00c2\u00a0how<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0he runs the city as the Patrician, and yet, for every negative thing someone might suggest, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reliability, reminding each of the Guild heads that they could have it so much worse. (Which is kind of a sad commentary about political apathy\u00c2\u00a0anyway<\/i>, but I feel like that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an entirely separate essay.) Vetinari is not Snapcase, and these people are pleased with that.<\/p>\n However, Vetinari might die. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s undeniable at this point! Yes, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not dead\u00c2\u00a0yet<\/i>, but I think it was smart of the Guild heads to meet to talk about how they might be affected by a change of power. Now, if this were the sole mystery in the book, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say that Mr. Slant, President of the Guild of Lawyers, is high on the list of possible subjects. His suggestion \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that the Guild pushes for a return to the monarchy WITH NOBBS AS KING \u00e2\u20ac\u201c makes him a great candidate for Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s poisoner. Right??? Having Nobby as King means that the Guild leaders can position themselves as his official \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cabinet\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and manipulate him into doing exactly what they want. It usurps Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entire organization without any of the Guild members taking any power for themselves. (At least not publicly.)<\/p>\n BUT I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T GET HOW THE GOLEMS FIGURE INTO THIS. It makes no sense! Aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the two stories connected? They have to be! That makes me think that someone else has manipulated the Guild leaders, too, but I unsurprisingly have no idea who that might be. GAH. THIS BOOK.<\/p>\n Diane Duane is still offering a massive discount on the first 9 books in the\u00c2\u00a0Young Wizards<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0series just to this community, so please take advantage of this deal while you still can:<\/b><\/p>\n http:\/\/bit.ly\/markreadsYW<\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=r3OjESboBGs<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b> In the tenth part of\u00c2\u00a0Feet of Clay, Vimes tracks down more clues, all of which perplex him further, and the city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Guilds plan for the inevitable. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[517,463,248],"class_list":["post-3888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-feet-of-clay","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"