I’ve been quite liking Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence since reading the first-published one, Three Parts Dead, two years ago. I like the world of this series (which features gods and demons and magic that looks like lawyering), and the way the different stories in the different books intertwine, and the way each book basically centers around a problem to be solved, but contains lots else besides. In this book, which is the fifth to be published but the fourth in terms of internal chronology, the problem is Seril, the moon-goddess who everyone thought had died but who is, in fact, alive, though much weaker than she used to be. In her absence, the city of Alt Coulumb and its inhabitants have been used to having one god, the fire-god Kos, and Seril’s reappearance threatens to seriously destabilize the city, and possibly even the whole world. So the book is about the city (and also certain key characters from Three Parts Dead) figuring out how to handle Seril’s presence. But also, it’s about finance and magic and faith and friendship and love and how to carry on in the face of existential threats.
There’s a whole lot of plot in this book, lots of action and excitement and danger, and also a little romance and a bunch of humor, and I totally enjoyed it. I mean, how could I not like a book that includes a chapter that starts with this?
“I never thought I could have so little fun after dark with ropes, knots, and a partner,” Cat said as they sailed into the bay. (298)
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