#Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

[abookishidentity]

Urban Fantasy thoughts part 2

It's very interesting how in each urban fantasy book I have read the main character is constantly hurting for money. Then again, there have been quite a few science fiction books in which the starship captain isn't exactly raking in the dough.

Urban Fantasy main characters are deeply broken people which makes sense as they have seen a lot. Something interesting about reading about a deeply broken person who is just constantly trying to survive and defeat bad creatures.

I remember looking up Sandman Slim on youtube and seeing someone comparing the book series with Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. So I checked out Storm Front by Jim Butcher and I just couldn't make it through it which was disappointing as the entire series was at the library it seemed. Didn't like how women were written, or at least the vampire women were, and I didn't like the main character.

Here are other urban fantasy books I did like:

-Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore - I want to get more into this series.

-The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey - how I could not like this? Richard Kadrey cowrote it.

-Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone - I love the Craft Sequence series.

-White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton - Pretty good book.

-Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire - I would read more of this book series. I haven't read many books about the fae.

-The Devil You Know by Mike Carey- Currently reading this book. I definitely would want to read more of this series.

Other urban fantasy books I have read /tried to read but will not continue.

-Storm Front by Jim Butcher- already gave my reasons. It's quite disappointing and I'm not slogging through several books before it gets better.

-Moon Called by Patricia Briggs- I didn't finish this book. Too much werewolf pack rules shit.

-Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews - It was a pretty good book. A lot of werewolf in this book. The constant talk of who is the alpha and pack rules just kind of annoys me.

-Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep - Once again, it was pretty good. She was a deadly assassin which was cool. Didn't like that she lusted after the cop. Sometimes I forget that urban fantasy protagonists can just be ridiculously horny.

That all being said, I possibly need more recommendations for urban fantasy. Hopefully they are the libraries I frequent.

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 56 – Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

I consider myself a pretty big fan of Gladstone’s, but until now I’d only ever touched his standalone works – I was previously a bit put off by the length of the Craft Sequence and so never actually tried it. So, thank you to the people who recommended I give it a try anyway! Despite being the first in a series, Three Parts Dead is a perfectly fine self-contained story and not relying on you reading the sequels to finish anything important. While it’s not the best thing of Gladstone’s I’ve read (Last Exit my beloved), it’s not the worst, either.

The book takes place in an industrial fantasy setting about a generation out from the apocalyptic, centuries-long war between the old gods and the ‘deathless kings’ – human sorcerers who had learned to master magic such that they could face them and tear the world apart in the crossfire. Tara, the hero, graduated from basically-Hogwarts entirely because there’s a binding preventing the school from doing bodily harm to its students – the next second they literally threw her out a window at 10,000 feet. The story follows her as she’s hired as a junior associate helping a world-famous lawyer/archmage as she’s hired by the church of Kas Everburning to investigate the sudden and mysterious death of their god. What follows are several hundred pages of convoluted scheming, legal proceedings, forensic accounting, and bloody magical duels and assassinations.

There are a few twists I genuinely didn’t see coming, the plot overall hangs together very well, and the pacing was just about perfect for the kind-of pulpy mystery/adventure story it was. Overall just a great time reading it.

That said, the setting’s probably the main thing to really sell people on this book. It’s just fun, and actually pretty damn original. The basic conceits are that a) magic is real, and b) so is capitalism. Kas Everburning is the beloved god and protector of the city, and also a highly leveraged legal entity loaning power across the globe whose death would catastrophically destabilize the global financial/metaphysical/political system. Mages can fly and raise zombies and enscroll people, but it’s all done in the idiom and with the vocabulary of contract law.

Beyond the basic conceit, Gladstone just clearly delights in layering weirdness on weirdness. Vitally, he does actually have a bit of restraint with the exposition – the book’s full of off-hand comments about different places and institutions that make you (me, anyway) incredibly curious about what the hell their deal is, but the actual explanations are restricted to what’s actually relevant to the plot and what the characters actually need to know. I still really want to know what’s up with King Clock or the Iskari or a half dozen other things, though. So, top-tier worldbuilding.

The themes are not exactly subtle, but I very appreciate that Gladstone lets them mostly remain as worldbuilding subtext and manages to make them feel like they emerge very naturally. I appreciate the slight restraint it takes to let the reader draw their own conclusions about the fact that the city’s police force is so empowered by strength and lack of need for doubt when on the clock that it’s literally addictive, or that one of the main antagonists is a brilliant older academic whose masterwork is a system where his star pupils (including a disproportionate number of attractive young women) are magically networked together to achieve incredible results he can take credit for while their lives and personalities are drained away to nothing. Being able to literalize the subtext a bit is half the fun of secondary wrld fantasy, after all.

Anyway, yes, very fun read. Four stars.

[caribeandthebooks]

Caribe's Fantasy TBR - Part 3

[hiddenschools]

Ms. Kevarian drew close to Tara, and her voice dropped to an urgent whisper. “Beware of Alexander Denovo. I’ve known the man for half a century. I haven’t trusted him so far, and I don’t know any reason to start now.”

“I will do more than beware him,” she said. “I’m going to beat him.”

“Good.” Ms. Kevarian’s words were sharp and quiet, like footsteps in a distant passage. “But remember, your first duty is to our client, not revenge.”

“If I have to raise a god from the dead to defeat Alexander Denovo,” she replied, “I will raise a hundred. I’ll bring Kos back ten times greater than he was.”

“Well said.”

Three Parts Dead, first book of the Craft Sequence

[torpublishinggroup]

Check out this ten-out-of-ten rundown two-out-of-ten (at best) wizards. Get your garbage on!

[lairn]

Book 17/24: Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone Rating: 3.75/5

I was hesitant to start this book because my previous experiences with urban fantasy have been lackluster, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Tara is a Craftswoman, a magician working independently of divine influence, who is hired to assist in resurrecting a dead God. To do so she must go to the God's home, the massive city of Alt Coulumb.

Gladstone's world building of the city, magic systems, and various governments is easily my favorite aspect of the story. The world is rich in detail and the capacity of magic is infinite in its possibilities. The flexibility of magic puts the logic of the world at risk of becoming a game of Calvinball, but Gladstone retains enough order to make the plot rewarding rather than absurd.

The characters are fun and moderately well-rounded, but the plot and the world are the driving elements. Gladstone lays out a mystery narrative that is not overly transparent (always a challenge) and keeps the reader busy assembling clues as the world becomes more complex and more clarified.

[shsenhaji]

📚 April and May Reading Round-Up 📚

I wasn’t able to post my April round-up, so have both April and May together! I am glad that I was able to read more books for both of these months than in March.

I started a few new series (Tiffany Aching, Maisie Dobbs, the Craft Sequence), and continued a few other series (the Memoirs of Lady Trent, October Daye).

In April, I read:

- The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan (very good, enjoyable and compelling, liked it even better than the second book, great relationships and character growth, liked the way motherhood and grief were tackled, touched on themes such as colonialism and research ethics)

- How Not to Marry a Prince by Megan Derr (cute, fun, somewhat heart-wrenching but with a lovely ending, liked the themes surrounding class and privilege)

- Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear (good, interesting, liked how it tackled healing and war and trauma, definitely cried at the end)

- Derring-Do for Beginners by Victoria Goddard (read it in one sitting, very relatable protagonists, loved the worldbuilding and the themes, happy to see younger versions of favourite characters, much growth and introspection, some of the emotional fulfillment will have to wait for the next book)

- I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (listened to the audiobook read by the author, compelling, kind of horrifying and depressing, very funny, great prose, banger chapter endings)

In May, I read:

- Half a King by Joe Abercrombie (read it in one sitting, bittersweet, good, interesting worldbuilding and politics, great character relationships and interesting character growth)

- Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear (good, enjoyed it more than the first book, engaging, bittersweet ending, liked the themes)

- A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire (very good, read it in one sitting, a bit less depressing than the first one, sad but with a hopeful ending, good character growth)

- Clary Sage by Victoria Goddard (amazing!!! delightful read, loved all of the characters, so very heartwarming, Hal my beloved)

- Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone (read it in one sitting, loved the MC’s motivations and character growth, interesting magic system, loved the themes at the heart of the book, commentary on justice and policing and belief, taking on the patriarchy)

- Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, Vol. 1 by Alexandre Dumas (good, very political, very grounded in the societal issues and references of the time, thoughts on morality and justice and the prison system, poor Dantes, liked the different perspectives)

- The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (amazing, read it in one sitting, loved the themes and Tiffany’s entire character and character growth, felt very much like the books I used to read as a child in the best sort of way, the frying pan!)

- Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear (highly enjoyable, compelling from the very beginning, better than the two previous books, much character growth and nuance)

[evenaturtleduck]

I had wine with fancy homemade steak lunch because Spouse and I were celebrating our anniversary late and now I'm listening to a book and cleaning the kitchen buzzed :) It's like the most quotidian kind of luxurious.

[belghast]

The Craft Sequence

The Craft Sequence - Last night I finished the third book in the Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone and talk about the series so far.

Good Morning Folks! I’ve been working through the Craft Sequence series by Max Gladstone. The problem is I have no clue why I even know this series of books exists. Generally speaking, I can usually pin down a recommendation to a specific friend or group of friends who have been actively reading a given book. For this one however I am at a bit of a loss, but at some point over the last few months…

[duckprintspress]

Let’s Go Lesbians! 32 Books for Lesbian Visibility Day

TODAY! is Lesbian Visibility Day, the first day of Lesbian Visibility Week – April 26, 2024. We are, I’m sure you’re shocked to discover, celebrating with LOTS of lesbian books! 15 people contributed to making this list, all of us sharing our absolute faves, from graphic novels to epic novels, from memoirs to horror fiction, with explicit rep and implied. With this many awesome books to share, we’re prepared to guarantee that everyone who loves wlw lit can find something new to them on this amazing list!

Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel

Belle of the Ball by Mari Costa

Kiss Number 8 by Colleen AF Venable & Ellen T. Crenshaw

She Wears the Midnight Crown Anthology

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake

The Scapegracers & The Scratch Daughters by H.A. Clarke

Spinning by Tillie Walden

The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag

The Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott & Alyson Derrick

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Those Who Wait by Haley Cass

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Into the Bloodred Woods by Martha Brockenbrough

From Here by Luma Mufleh

Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel

A Memory Called Empire & A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Female General, Eldest Princess by Please Don’t Laugh

Clear And Muddy Loss of Love by Please Don’t Laugh

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone & Amal El-Mohtar

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Deya Muniz

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

Can’t get enough books with lesbians? Yeah, us neither – this new list for 2024 is on top of THREE rec lists of titles featuring lesbians that we posted last year.

Lesbian Visibility Week Recs Part 1

Lesbian Visibility Week Recs Part 2

Duck Prints Press Short Stories with Lesbian Characters

You can also view this list (along with all our other wlw faves!) as a shelf on Goodreads!

See a book you want to buy? You can grab it through the Duck Prints Press Bookshop.org affiliate shop!

What are YOUR favorite reads with lesbian characters?

[virginiaoflykos]

What to read after Light Bringer? (Series similar to Red Rising)

August 2023 update!

Red Rising is my favorite series of all time, and since I first read it, I have sought series and books similar in both spirit and execution. Some of these recs are books I haven’t read personally, but have often come up in discussions with other users!

1. The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

Status: ongoing, expected 10 books in total, 4/10 out at the moment

Book 1: The Way of Kings. The Way of Kings takes place on the world of Roshar, where war is constantly being waged on the Shattered Plains, and the Highprinces of Alethkar fight to avenge a king that died many moons ago.

2. The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone

Status: finished, 6/6 books out.

Book 1 (in publication order): Three Parts Dead. Comprised of 6 standalone books set in the same universe, the Craft Sequence tells the tales of the city of Alt Coulumb. The city came out of the God Wars with one of its gods intact, Kos the Everburning. In return for the worship of his people, Kos provides heat and steam power to the citizens of Alt Coulumb; he is also the hub of a vast network of power relationships with other gods and god-like beings across the planet. Oh, and he has just died. If he isn’t revived in some form by the turn of the new moon, the city will descend into chaos and the finances of the globe will take a severe hit.

3. Hierarchy by James Islington

Status: ongoing, 1/3 planned books out

Book 1: The Will of the many. The Will of the Many tells the story of Vis, a young orphan who is adopted by one of the sociopolitical elites of the Hierarchy. Vis is tasked with entering a prestigious magical academy with one goal – ascend the ranks, figure out what the other major branches of the government are doing, and report back. However, that isn’t quite as easy as Vis or anyone else thought it was going to be…

4. Suneater by Christopher Ruocchio

Status: ongoing, 5/7 books out

Book 1: Empire of Silence. Hadrian is a man doomed to universal infamy after ordering the destruction of a sun to commit an unforgivable act of genocide. Told as a chronicle written by an older Hadrian, Empire of Silence details his earlier adventures and serves as an introduction to the characters and the setting.

5. Dune by Frank Herbert

Status: completed, 6/6 books out

Book 1: Dune. Set in the distant future amidst a feudal interstellar society in which various noble houses control planetary fiefs. It tells the story of young Paul Atreides, whose family accepts the stewardship of the planet Arrakis. While the planet is an inhospitable and sparsely populated desert wasteland, it is the only source of melange, or "spice", a drug that extends life and enhances mental abilities.

6. The Expanse by James S A Corey

Status: completed, 9/9 books out

Book 1: Leviathan wakes. Set hundreds of years in the future, after mankind has colonized the solar system. A hardened detective and a rogue ship's captain come together for what starts as a missing young woman and evolves into a race across the solar system to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history.

7. The First Law by Joe Abercrombie

Status: completed. 3 books in the original trilogy + 3 standalone books + 3 books in the newest trilogy

Book 1: The Blade Itself. The story follows the fortunes and misfortunes of bad people who do the right thing, good people who do the wrong thing, stupid people who do the stupid thing and, well, pretty much any combination of the above. Survival is no mean feat, and at the end of the day, dumb luck might be more of an asset than any amount of planning, skill, or noble intention.

8. Cradle by Will Wight

Status: completed, 12/12 books out

Book 1: Unsouled. Lindon is Unsouled, forbidden to learn the sacred arts of his clan. When faced with a looming fate he cannot ignore, he must rise beyond anything he's ever known...and forge his own Path

9. Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons (one PB’s favorites)

Status: completed, 4/4 books out

Book 1: Hyperion. The story weaves the interlocking tales of a diverse group of travelers sent on a pilgrimage to the Time Tombs on Hyperion. The travelers have been sent by the Church of the Final Atonement, alternately known as the Shrike Church, and the Hegemony (the government of the human star systems) to make a request of the Shrike. As they progress in their journey, each of the pilgrims tells their tale.

[notbecauseofvictories]

Can you please drop the name of the KJ Parker book involving contracts? A (brief) browse of his works didn’t make it obvious but my silly paralegal heart is intrigued…

So the KJ Parker novellas I'm talking about are primarily Prosper's Demon, Inside Man, and Pulling the Wings off Angels. However, while I did enjoy the others, Pulling the Wings off Angels is my favorite---it should shock no one that I love infernal/heavenly deals, moral arithmetic, and trying to out-lawyer god.

(The other series I'm looking into is published by Parker's alter ego, but still sounds up my alley.)

However, maybe you're asking for the other series that ties legalese to magic---in which case, I would look into the Craft Sequence from Max Gladstone. Admittedly, I haven't read all of it, but Three Parts Dead/Four Roads Cross is one of my favorite duologies, and I could have read about Tara Abernathy, her first job out of law school, and all the headaches (and power, and conniving, and history, truth, fellow feeling) she encounters there, for much more than two books.

[literary-illuminati]

Finally got around to starting Three Parts Dead. And then did basically nothing today except read the entire thing. So, uh, good book?

'Sufficiently advanced contract law is indistinguishable from necromancy' is a great hook for a setting. Also being introduced to the heroine with 'was expelled from Hogwarts law school. At 10,000 feet."

[literallymechanical]

Anyway, want to read a series of necromantic urban fantasy legal thrillers, the first of of which is about resurrecting a dead god via bankruptcy restructuring? Check out The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone (half the writing duo from This Is How You Lose The Time War). The first book is Three Parts Dead.

[hiddenschools]

Wait, when does that happen? A Craft Sequence timeline

Being published out of chronological order has confused the hell out of many Craft Sequence readers, myself included. So I went through the series and figured out an approximate timeline and all the main characters ages YOU'RE WELCOME.

...and then I found an official version in the inside cover of the German translation but shhh mine's better

[augustinajosefina]

A request

Please suggest books to me! Preferably in the glove kink/lesbian space atrocities, urban fantasy or dark academia genres but I'll happily try any SF/fantasy at least once.

So far I've read and loved:

Before 2023

The Imperial Radch (Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy) - Ann Leckie

Jean le Flambeur (The Quantum Thief/The Fractal Prince/The Causal Angel) - Hannu Rajaniemi

The Windup Girl/The Water Knife - Paolo Bagicalupi

Memory of Water/The City of Woven Streets - Emmi Itäranta

2023

The Locked Tomb (Gideon/Harrow/Nona the Ninth) - Tamsyn Muir

The Masquerade (Traitor/Monster/Tyrant Baru Cormorant) - Seth Dickinson

Teixcalaan series (A Memory Called Empire/A Desolation Called Peace) - Arkady Martine

Machineries of Empire (Ninefox Gambit/Raven Stratagem/Revenant Gun/Hexarchate Stories) - Yoon Ha Lee

The Murderbot Diaries (All Systems Red to System Collapse) - Martha Wells

The Broken Earth (The Fifth Season/The Obelisk Gate/The Stone Sky) - N. K. Jemisin

Klara And The Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

Xuya universe (The Citadel of Weeping Pearls/The Tea Master and the Detective/Seven of Infinities plus short stories) - Aliette de Bodard

This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

The Goblin Emperor/The Witness for the Dead/Grief of Stones - Katherine Addison

Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh

2024

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V. E. Schwab

The Craft Sequence (Three Parts Dead/Two Serpents Rise/Full Fathom Five/Last First Snow/Four Roads Cross/Ruin of Angels) - Max Gladstone

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution - R. F. Kuang

Dead Country - Max Gladstone

Hands of the Emperor - Victoria Goddard

Read and liked:

The Moonday Letters - Emmi Itäranta

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

Great Cities (The City We Became/The World We Make) - N. K. Jemisin

Autonomous - Annalee Newitz

Dead Djinn universe (A Master of Djinn/The Haunting of Tram Car 015/A Dead Djinn in Cairo/The Angel of Khan el-Khalili) - P. Djèlí Clark

Even Though I Knew the End - C. L. Polk

Station Eternity - Mur Lafferty

The Mythic Dream - Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe

Shades of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic/A Gathering of Shadows/A Conjuring of Light/Fragile Threads of Power) - V. E. Schwab

The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling

Last Exit - Max Gladstone

The Stars Are Legion - Kameron Hurley

Ninth House/Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo

Machine - Elizabeth Bear

Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield

She Is A Haunting - Trang Thanh Tran

Sisters of the Revolution - Jeff & Ann Vandermeer

Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel

Nettle & Bone - T. Kingfisher

Monstrilio - Gerardo Samano Córdova

Was uncertain about:

Light From Uncommon Stars - Ryka Aoki

The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi

Paladin's Grace - T. Kingfisher

The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune

In the Vanishers Palace - Aliette de Bodard

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

What Moves The Dead - T. Kingfisher

All The Birds In The Sky - Charlie Jane Anders

And read and disliked:

To Be Taught, if Fortunate - Becky Chambers

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon

The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal

The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson

How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu

Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo

The Passage - Justin Cronin

In Ascension - Martin MacInnes

(My pride insists I add that I have, in fact, read other books as well. Just to be clear.)