Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone

Three Parts Dead
Max Gladstone
ISBN: 9780765333100
Sf/fantasy/urban fantasy/alternate world fantasy.
Craft Sequence titles: Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, Full Fathom Five, and (upcoming book's working title: Last First Snow)

This is a world where Gods exist, and live in (mostly) symbiotic spiritual cohabitations with humans: humans provide worship (soul energy) to the Gods, and the Gods use (some of) that energy to protect and prosper their people.  The Gods also use the energy to protect and prosper themselves, and once they are strong and savvy enough (through worship and assiduous soul energy use) they also create complex power-sharing and alliance deals with other Gods.

A few generations ago, science finally caught up to religion, and Crafters were realized - essentially scientists realized that this soul energy could be measured, realized, and harnessed, and quite a lot of scientists became essentially mages who reaped soul energy from anywhere they could find it (usually destructively) as they tested the limits (pretty much non-existent) and abilities (pretty much endless) of their new power-source.  The Gods realized they were in danger from these atheistic power-hungry humans, and Craft-less humans realized that these upstarts were either going to 1) compete with their Gods for available soul energy (weakening the Gods by cutting into their power-monopoly), and/or 2) destroy the countryside in their mad scientific pursuit of knowledge (and, let's be honest here, more power).

So the Craft and the Gods fought a huge and bitter war, leaving many Gods dead, most normal people scarred by the flagrant abuse of powers on both sides, and the Craft hiding in the skies from the potentially pitchfork-wielding mobs.

Now, the Hidden Schools and the countries ruled by the elder statesmen of the Craftspeople do their best to stay hidden, to find and nurture young Crafters, and, secondarily, to provide services and scientific advances for the enclaves of the religious, and to the people in the countrysides.

Got all that?

Into this world, a traumatic and potentially catastrophic event: One of the few remaining Gods, Kos Everburning of the city of Alt Coulumb, is dead.  Gods are really not meant to die, and this specific death is being blamed on a power imbalance (the party line is that either Kos or his Church didn't adequately monitor the soul energy contracts he was involved in, and an unexpected call for aid precipitates his fall).  Our heroines are essentially soul-lawyers and Craft-investigators, and they have their suspicions.

I love this world, and the interesting balances of power and responsibility, and the differences in knowledge and worldview provided by different characters who are either religious or not, or who are conversant in Craft or not, are really clever ways to present information about the world that may or may not be so much fact as opinion.

On the downside, the way this world deals with nearly unlimited potential power-scales and abilities made it a perfect recommendation for my husband, which is a real shame because he devoured this one in two days and started on Two Serpents Rise before I could get my hands on it!