The Craft Sequence

Gods and lawyers battle for the soul of the world in the action-packed second volume of Max Gladstone’s Craft Wars, an epic fantasy like no other.

A deadly force has been unleashed into the world. With apocalypse on the horizon, a girl and a god have joined in order to turn back the coming end. Young, brash, and desperate, they are willing to destroy anything and everything that stands between them and their goals. The structures of the Craft are theirs to overturn, with billions of lives in the balance. And it is all Tara Abernathy’s fault.

The battle for the world of the Craft is heating up. A dead god will rise. A mountain will fall. Ancient fire will be stolen. And while Tara races to stop Dawn’s plans, the end draws ever closer, skittering across the stars to swallow the world. The Craft Wars enter their second stage in Wicked Problems.

Since her village chased her out with pitchforks, Tara Abernathy has resurrected gods, pulled down monsters, averted wars, and saved a city, twice. She thought she’d left her dusty little hometown forever. But that was before her father died.

As she makes her way home to bury him, she finds a girl, as powerful and vulnerable and lost as she once was. Saving her from raiders twisted by the God Wars, Tara changes the course of the world.

Dead Country is the first book in the Craft Wars Series, a tight sequence of novels that will bring the sprawling saga of the Craft to its end, and the perfect entry point to this incomparable world.

Coming September 5, the next chapter in the Craft Sequence:

The God Wars destroyed the city of Alikand. Now, a century and a half and a great many construction contracts later, Agdel Lex rises in its place. Dead deities litter the surrounding desert, streets shift when people aren’t looking, a squidlike tower dominates the skyline, and the foreign Iskari Rectification Authority keeps strict order in this once-independent city—while treasure seekers, criminals, combat librarians, nightmare artists, angels, demons, dispossessed knights, grad students, and other fools gather in its ever-changing alleys, hungry for the next big score.

Priestess/investment banker Kai Pohala (last seen in Full Fathom Five) hits town to corner Agdel Lex’s burgeoning nightmare startup scene, and to visit her estranged sister Ley. But Kai finds Ley desperate at the center of a shadowy, and rapidly unravelling, business deal. When Ley ends up on the run, wanted for a crime she most definitely committed, Kai races to track her sister down before the Authority finds her first. But Ley has her own plans, involving her ex-girlfriend, a daring heist into the god-haunted desert, and, perhaps, freedom for an occupied city. Because Alikand might not be completely dead—and some people want to finish the job.

“Stunningly good. Stupefyingly good.” —Patrick Rothfuss

Set in a phenomenally-built world in which lawyers ride lightning bolts, souls are currency, and cities are powered by the remains of fallen gods, Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence introduces readers to a modern fantasy landscape and an epic struggle to build a just society.

Three Parts Dead — A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.

Two Serpents Rise — Caleb Altemoc—casual gambler and professional risk manager—is sent by Red King Consolidated to cleanse shadow demons from the Dresediel Lex city water supply, and uncovers a scheme to forever alter the balance of power in the city.

Full Fathom Five — On the island of Kavekana, Kai nearly loses her life trying to save one of her creations, a god built to order. But when Kai starts digging into the reasons her creations die, she uncovers a conspiracy of silence and fear—which will crush her, if Kai can’t stop it first.

Last First Snow — Craft lawyer Elayne Kevarian and warrior-priest Temoc must fight dark magic, secret agendas, and their own demons to save the peace between the citizens and rulers of Dresediel Lex, before hell opens to swallow the city whole.

Four Roads Cross — Protests rock the city of Alt Coulumb, Kos Everburning’s creditors attempt a hostile takeover of the fire god’s church, and Craftswoman Tara Abernathy must defend the church against the world’s fiercest necromantic firm.

In Four Roads Cross, the great city of Alt Coulumb is in crisis. The moon goddess Seril, long thought dead, is back–and the people of Alt Coulumb aren’t happy. Protests rock the city, and Kos Everburning’s creditors attempt a hostile takeover of the fire god’s church. Tara Abernathy, the god’s in-house Craftswoman, must defend the church against the world’s fiercest necromantic firm–and against her old classmate, a rising star in the Craftwork world.

As if that weren’t enough, Cat and Raz, supporting characters from Three Parts Dead, are back too, fighting monster pirates; skeleton kings drink frozen cocktails, defying several principles of anatomy; jails, hospitals, and temples are broken into and out of; choirs of flame sing over Alt Coulumb; demons pose significant problems; a farmers’ market proves more important to world affairs than seems likely; doctors of theology strike back; Monk-Technician Abelard performs several miracles; The Rats! play Walsh’s Place; and dragons give almost-helpful counsel.

You won the God Wars, killing the rain god and taking over his desert city. But now the city needs water, and it’s your job to make it rain. As a rising associate at a god-killing public service conglomerate, you can monopolize your city’s public utilities, or fight to keep water affordable for everyone. Build alliances with powerful necromancers, or help local farmers hold onto their land. Find love, or betray your friends. Overcome the trauma you suffered in the God Wars. Prevent murders, or commit them.

Just keep the water flowing.

• Play as male or female; straight, gay, or bi
• Match wits with master necromancers, real estate magnates, and journalists
• Drink with undead kings over the ruins of a destroyed civilization
• Betray trusted friends and their entire society

The gods died forty years ago, on a night of thorned lightning and war machines.  Dresediel Lex still quakes with the memory of that battle.  But life (and unlife) goes on.  The King in Red, revolutionary turned skeletal overlord, wants to reform his city—tearing out the last remnants of divine law.  Temoc has left his days as an old guard paladin behind, preferring the life of a peaceful father and community organizer.  He wants to protect his family, and save the poor district that took him in after the Wars.  Elayne Kevarian, Craftswoman at the firm of Kelethres Albrecht and Ao, wants to keep the God Wars from coming again.

But you can’t always get what you want.

–

Read an essay about the book on Tor.com.

On the island of Kavekana, Kai builds gods to order. Her creations aren’t conscious and lack their own wills and voices, but they accept sacrifices, and protect their worshippers from other gods—perfect vehicles for Craftsmen and Craftswomen operating in the divinely controlled Old World. When Kai tries to save a dying idol, she’s grievously injured—then sidelined from the business entirely, her near-suicidal rescue attempt offered up as proof of her instability. But when Kai gets tired of hearing her boss, her coworkers, and her ex-boyfriend call her crazy, and starts digging into the reasons her creations die, she uncovers a conspiracy of silence and fear—which will crush her, if Kai can’t stop it first.

I’ve written a pretty awesome screenplay-format trailer!

Shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc—casual gambler and professional risk manager—to cleanse the water for the sixteen million people of Dresediel Lex. At the scene of the crime, Caleb finds an alluring and clever cliff runner, Mal, who easily outpaces him.

But Caleb has more than the demon infestation, Mal, or job security to worry about when he discovers that his father—the last priest of the old gods and leader of the True Quechal terrorists—has broken into his home and is wanted in connection to the attacks on the water supply.

From the beginning, Caleb and Mal are bound by lust, Craft, and chance, as both play a dangerous game where gods and people are pawns. They sleep on water, they dance in fire…and all the while the Twin Serpents slumbering beneath the earth are stirring, and they are hungry.

A God has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.

Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb.  Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot.  Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in.  Her only help is Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead God, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith.

But when the duo discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and the city’s slim hope of survival.

My debut novel, coming October 2, 2012 from Tor Books!

Advance praise for Three Parts Dead:

“This has so many of my favorite things: an intriguing world, fun characters, a puzzle of a story that manages to be both funky fantasy and legal thriller. Three Parts Dead is simultaneously fast paced and thoughtful, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
— Carrie Vaughn, author of the Kitty Norville series

“With this first book, Max Gladstone gives promise of being a true star of twenty-first-century fantasy. Indeed, in all the ways that count—wit, invention, strangeness, cool—he already is.”
— John Crowley, author of Little, Big and The Deep

“Max Gladstone has created a fascinating universe and equally fascinating characters. It’s a world in which magic is craft, and religion has some very practical rules, and he shows it through the stories of some very interesting characters.”
— Jerry Pournelle, coauthor of The Mote in God’s Eye and of Lucifer’s Hammer

“Gladstone has created an amazing world. … Combining murder mystery, corporate intrigue, and thaumaturgical fireworks, Three Parts Dead gives us not just an excellent urban fantasy, but [also] a brilliant new world to explore. I can’t wait to see what he does next.”
— Margaret Ronald, author of Spiral Hunt

“Max Gladstone has evidently devised a necromantic steampunk machine that enabled him to channel the Roger Zelazny of Lord of Light, cathect the Neil Gaiman of American Gods, and subsume the oeuvre of John Grisham, all with the aim of producing loopy, metaphysically-minded legal thrillers. It you doubt my conclusion, consider Exhibit A, the author’s delirious and delightful first novel.”
— James Morrow, author of The Last Witchfinder and Shambling Towards Hiroshima

Publishers Weekly Starred Review! “The combination of legal thriller and steam-powered fantasy may seem improbable, but Gladstone makes it work with an appealing cast and a setting rich with imaginative details, like a priest who shows his devotion to a fire-god by chain-smoking, junkies getting high on vampire bites, cops who become part of a hive-mind when on duty, and the binding of divine power by legal contracts.”

Staffer’s Book Review “For fans of the legal thriller, and they are legion in the fiction marketplace, Three Parts Dead is an intriguing starting position for a fantasy enfilade. Elements of mystery, verbal fencing, and suspenseful confrontations stand tall throughout, set neatly into a fantasy world… excellent characters and interesting plot carry the day, making it a novel I can easily recommend.”

Geek Speak Magazine “Gladstone deserves credit for not only tackling two overcrowded fields – steampunk and fantasy – but mixing them with the legal genre (itself more than a little overcrowded) and coming up with a novel that is unique, fantastic, and utterly readable. … This is the best kind of first novel – one that introduces the reader to a clever, talented writer; but it’s also the worst because it means there aren’t other books by the same author for us to devour.”

Strange Horizons “Three Parts Dead is a debut novel to make you sit up and take notice. In recent years I’ve read a bare handful of debuts as mature and accomplished as this one. I’ve read a bare handful of novels, debut or not, that succeeded not only in being this vibrant and this inventive, but in bringing the vast majority of their disparate and sometimes hectic strands together into a successful conclusion.

Three Parts Dead is a wild ride that sticks the dismount, is what I’m saying.”

Kirkus Reviews “All three main female characters here—Tara, Elayne and Cat—are written with depth and care. They all have agency, different motivations and backstories that are wholly independent as their lives do not exclusively happenin relation to that of any man (although most of them do have relationships with men—there is a difference). All three of them also happen to be total badass, powerful characters in their own right, without their badassery being their sole defining characteristic. It is, seriously, a thing of beauty and for all that, Three Parts Dead is now a favourite read of 2012.”

io9 “Max Gladstone’s Three Parts Dead is the fantasy novel I was waiting for without ever knowing it. For all of us who love fantasy but feel that even some of the newest, freshest authors are falling back on old, repetitive ideas, this the book to pick up. Gladstone plays with fantasy conventions without falling into the comforting traps of genre tropes. The result is one of the best debut fantasy novels I’ve read in years.”

All Things Urban Fantasy “THE GIRL WITH A DRAGON TATTOO meets THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS, THREE PARTS DEAD is the perfect mixture of character, mystery, and world building. Gladstone deftly interweaves a dazzling, intricate world with a passionate, magical plot that had my heart afire for Kos Everburning and his long lost love.” (Five-bat, “Near-perfect” review!)