Writing

Last First Snow

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.

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Read an essay about the book on Tor.com.

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Full Fathom Five

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!

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Two Serpents Rise

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.

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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.

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!)

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Choice of the Deathless

Battle demons and undead attorneys, and win souls to pay back your student loans! At the elite demonic-law firm of Varkath Nebuchadnezzar Stone, you’ll depose a fallen god, find romance, and maybe even make partner, if you don’t lose your own soul first.

“Choice of the Deathless” is a necromantic legal thriller, entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and powered by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

• Explore a fantasy realm with a rich and evolving backstory, based on the novels published by Tor Books.
• Play as male or female, gay or straight, dead or alive (or both).
• Build your career on carefully reasoned contracts, or party all night with the skeletal partners at your firm.
• Navigate intrigue and mystery in a world of scheming magicians and devious monsters.
• Look for love in at least some of the right places.
• Balance student loans, sleep, daily commute, rent payments, and demonic litigation—hey, nobody said being a wizard was always fun.

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