So far I've read Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise, and I'm planning to get to Full Fathom Five this summer as my beach read. I wanted to hit up Last First Snow because we get to go back in time to Dresediel Lex and Temoc and see Caleb as a child, and of course Elayne in her prime standing up to The King in Red.
Last First Snow (Craft Sequence)
Max Gladstone
ISBN: 9780765379405
Read April 10, 2016
Direct prequel to Two Serpents Rise, featuring Elayne, Temoc (& Caleb), and the King in Red.
This look back in time shows the traumatic events that shaped Caleb's young life and his estrangement with his father Temoc, which forms a huge part of Two Serpents Rise. As part of a deal to revitalize the inner city, Elayne attempts to broker a deal that would slowly "improve" the warrenlike slums that form the Skittersill through investments and gentrification. The locals heartily disapprove, and mysterious forces collude to skuttle the deal. Furthermore, Temoc, the last of the old priests, is attempting to revitalize the worship of the old gods (whichever ones of them hadn't gotten outright killed off in the very recent God Wars) through spiritual rituals instead of human sacrifices. The King in Red is brash and young (well, newer? fresher?) and more easily led by spite and pique. All of this is going to collide in an awful conflict that no one really wants, and no one quite knows who started, or who will gain.
Each of these books marries a weird spiritual or philosophical question with a banking issue, and this one is (no spoilers) concerned with gentrification and ownership of property and insurance fraud, twined around by questions of destiny, of legacy, of loyalty (between people, and between gods, and to ideals or philosophical goals), and of the peculiar responsibility that comes from being a public servant.
The story veers wildly between spiritual banking and physical mayhem, and the ending (even though you know what's coming, having presumably read Two Serpents Rise) is brutal and scouring. I started this book way back in the fall last year, and put it down right before the finale due to ill health, and I'm glad that I did. I'm much happier reading about terrible and horrible events in the bright light of a new spring than in the faded dead light of November. I'm also glad to have had a while to disconnect from the characters, or the torment and anguish they face (especially Temoc) would have been too much for me to enjoy the story.
I was reminded again how much I like this conceit of soul-stuff as the basis of commerce, and of gods and magic as fundamentally financial and transactional in nature. It's such a weird perfect system and the world is so like our own but skewed in so many little weird ways. In this book, a character expends their entire stock of personal soul in a wild taxi ride, then pops up to an ATM in a hotel lobby and withdraws a fresh stock from a personal bank account to refill their soul and stay alive. It's so wild and exotic, but so mundane and familiar.
Showing posts with label Craft Sequence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Craft Sequence. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Friday, April 3, 2015
Two Serpents Rise, Max Gladstone
Two Serpents Rise
Max Gladstone
ISBN: 9780765333124
Sf/fantasy/urban fantasy/alternate world fantasy
Craft Sequence: Book 2 (following Three Parts Dead, followed by Full Fathom Five, with upcoming working title Last First Snow)
Read April 2, 2015
I read Three Parts Dead already, so I have no idea if someone new to this world with this book would be totally confused, but I think not. The references to the past are not info-dumps, and they are subtly different from the ones in the previous book (which is natural, since we're across an ocean and in a very different society with a completely different perspective on the world's history) but I think they explain the background sufficiently. I can't know, since I'm coming at this with that info already known.
If you did read Three Parts Dead, now we're across the ocean and in an openly Craft-ruled city, built on the ruins of a previously very Incan/Aztec society, complete with pyramid temples, heart sacrifices and soccer played with people's heads.
Our hero is Caleb, a gambler and mid-level "risk management executive" with Red King Consolidated, the Concern (craft-magic bureaucracy) that manages the city's water and power supplies. It's a decent job, until the water in the city's major reservoir literally turns into bloodthirsty inky ooze demons. That's despite the massive wards and guards, naturally. Now Caleb has to balance his duty to the company with his fraught history with religion, with his family, and with his growing attraction to a runner (parkour!) who is most certainly more than she seems.
In addition to this, there's a huge Craft business merger going on between RKC and Heartfire, a smaller water/power Concern run by a former priest turned Craftsman. Finally, Caleb's best friend Teo has to navigate the difficult currents of having a lover who is more politically (perhaps even radically) active than she is comfortable with.
Caleb is a gambler, but he's lost his nerve. In the coming days, he'll either find it again, or die in the process.
I very much enjoyed the read, but I think that I liked the characters and characterization in Three Parts Dead a little more. Teo was awesome, as was the RK himself, but I really would have liked to know Temoc and even Caleb himself a little better.
On the other hand, I feel like the setting and worldbuilding for Dresediel Lex is much more clear and vibrant than for Alt Columb. There were times that AC felt very like a glossed-over "standard western european fantasy city" just because of how the world is set up, and with this location, that was very much not an issue.
Descriptions of magic and of magical effects are still strong and visceral, but on the flip side, the battles were still a little confused.
Some of the plotting is a little tenuous to think about after the book is finished, but the overall concept is so engaging that I didn't notice while I was reading.
Again, the power levels here are super crazy - humans who are able to kill gods, and power that can be used in ways only limited by imagination and reach. Still, there are coffee chains, taxis, and people calling in sick on Mondays because they drank too much the night before. An interesting and sometimes slightly uneasy combination, but I like it.
Max Gladstone
ISBN: 9780765333124
Sf/fantasy/urban fantasy/alternate world fantasy
Craft Sequence: Book 2 (following Three Parts Dead, followed by Full Fathom Five, with upcoming working title Last First Snow)
Read April 2, 2015
I read Three Parts Dead already, so I have no idea if someone new to this world with this book would be totally confused, but I think not. The references to the past are not info-dumps, and they are subtly different from the ones in the previous book (which is natural, since we're across an ocean and in a very different society with a completely different perspective on the world's history) but I think they explain the background sufficiently. I can't know, since I'm coming at this with that info already known.
If you did read Three Parts Dead, now we're across the ocean and in an openly Craft-ruled city, built on the ruins of a previously very Incan/Aztec society, complete with pyramid temples, heart sacrifices and soccer played with people's heads.
Our hero is Caleb, a gambler and mid-level "risk management executive" with Red King Consolidated, the Concern (craft-magic bureaucracy) that manages the city's water and power supplies. It's a decent job, until the water in the city's major reservoir literally turns into bloodthirsty inky ooze demons. That's despite the massive wards and guards, naturally. Now Caleb has to balance his duty to the company with his fraught history with religion, with his family, and with his growing attraction to a runner (parkour!) who is most certainly more than she seems.
In addition to this, there's a huge Craft business merger going on between RKC and Heartfire, a smaller water/power Concern run by a former priest turned Craftsman. Finally, Caleb's best friend Teo has to navigate the difficult currents of having a lover who is more politically (perhaps even radically) active than she is comfortable with.
Caleb is a gambler, but he's lost his nerve. In the coming days, he'll either find it again, or die in the process.
I very much enjoyed the read, but I think that I liked the characters and characterization in Three Parts Dead a little more. Teo was awesome, as was the RK himself, but I really would have liked to know Temoc and even Caleb himself a little better.
On the other hand, I feel like the setting and worldbuilding for Dresediel Lex is much more clear and vibrant than for Alt Columb. There were times that AC felt very like a glossed-over "standard western european fantasy city" just because of how the world is set up, and with this location, that was very much not an issue.
Descriptions of magic and of magical effects are still strong and visceral, but on the flip side, the battles were still a little confused.
Some of the plotting is a little tenuous to think about after the book is finished, but the overall concept is so engaging that I didn't notice while I was reading.
Again, the power levels here are super crazy - humans who are able to kill gods, and power that can be used in ways only limited by imagination and reach. Still, there are coffee chains, taxis, and people calling in sick on Mondays because they drank too much the night before. An interesting and sometimes slightly uneasy combination, but I like it.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
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!
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!
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