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Sep. 27th, 2015 12:27 pmI read Full Fathom Five -- the third book in Max Gladstone's Craft sequence, set in a world where the economy runs on divine soul-power and therefore involves EXTENSIVE MAGICAL LAWYERING -- pretty soon after it came out last year, and then I forgot to write it up, and as a result I forgot most of what happened in it (my memory of things I've read is at this point distressingly externalized.)
So when the fourth book, Last First Snow, came out, I decided to reread Full Fathom Five first despite the fact that it is ... probably least directly tied in to Last First Snow of any of the other previous books.
Full Fathom Five is set on the island of Kavekana, which lost its gods in the God War several generations back and has now set up a nice little business for itself manufacturing idols to serve as a kind of divine tax haven for wealthy corporations. Our heroine is Kai, one of the priestess-accountants who administers the idols, who gets herself into trouble when she attempts drastic measures to save an idol that's about to die due to bad investments. The drastic measures go wrong, but in the process Kai gets caught up in an overarching divine corporate conspiracy that may destabilize the entire nature of the idol business.
( Intellectually I appreciated the book a lot, but did not love it )
Last First Snow, on the other hand. Last First Snow has jumped straight up to become my second-favorite book in the series, right up against Three Parts Dead, which I did not expect at ALL -- I didn't much like the other book set in Dresediel Lex, Two Serpents Rise, and when I found out this was a prequel I was like 'oh, uh ... really? Well .... okay .....'
Last First Snow focuses on a younger (but not young) Elayne Kevarian, the chief lawyer mentor of the protagonist of Three Parts Dead, who is currently engaged in attempting to broker a magical-wards agreement that looks likely to result in the rapid gentrification of the Skittersill, a run-down area of Dresediel Lex. The inhabitants of the Skittersill are protesting vociferously -- including Temoc, priest of some now extremely dead or defeated Aztec-esque gods, who's spent the last ten years rebuilding a life and religious identity for himself as a dedicated family man who doesn't perform human sacrifice.
Elayne and Temoc, old kind-of-friends or at least respectable enemies after being on opposite sides of the God Wars forty years ago, are attempting to negotiate a compromise that will satisfy all the parties involved without violence breaking out. Unfortunately, between the still-open wounds of the war and the demands of corporate greed, their odds are not that great.
( And, I mean, OF COURSE I loved Last First Snow, for reasons which contain vague spoilers )
Okay, Max Gladstone, bring on whatever the next thing is. I'M READY. (I'll be especially ready if it includes Tara, who despite my fondness for Elayne and Temoc and Kai is still my all-time favorite.)
So when the fourth book, Last First Snow, came out, I decided to reread Full Fathom Five first despite the fact that it is ... probably least directly tied in to Last First Snow of any of the other previous books.
Full Fathom Five is set on the island of Kavekana, which lost its gods in the God War several generations back and has now set up a nice little business for itself manufacturing idols to serve as a kind of divine tax haven for wealthy corporations. Our heroine is Kai, one of the priestess-accountants who administers the idols, who gets herself into trouble when she attempts drastic measures to save an idol that's about to die due to bad investments. The drastic measures go wrong, but in the process Kai gets caught up in an overarching divine corporate conspiracy that may destabilize the entire nature of the idol business.
( Intellectually I appreciated the book a lot, but did not love it )
Last First Snow, on the other hand. Last First Snow has jumped straight up to become my second-favorite book in the series, right up against Three Parts Dead, which I did not expect at ALL -- I didn't much like the other book set in Dresediel Lex, Two Serpents Rise, and when I found out this was a prequel I was like 'oh, uh ... really? Well .... okay .....'
Last First Snow focuses on a younger (but not young) Elayne Kevarian, the chief lawyer mentor of the protagonist of Three Parts Dead, who is currently engaged in attempting to broker a magical-wards agreement that looks likely to result in the rapid gentrification of the Skittersill, a run-down area of Dresediel Lex. The inhabitants of the Skittersill are protesting vociferously -- including Temoc, priest of some now extremely dead or defeated Aztec-esque gods, who's spent the last ten years rebuilding a life and religious identity for himself as a dedicated family man who doesn't perform human sacrifice.
Elayne and Temoc, old kind-of-friends or at least respectable enemies after being on opposite sides of the God Wars forty years ago, are attempting to negotiate a compromise that will satisfy all the parties involved without violence breaking out. Unfortunately, between the still-open wounds of the war and the demands of corporate greed, their odds are not that great.
( And, I mean, OF COURSE I loved Last First Snow, for reasons which contain vague spoilers )
Okay, Max Gladstone, bring on whatever the next thing is. I'M READY. (I'll be especially ready if it includes Tara, who despite my fondness for Elayne and Temoc and Kai is still my all-time favorite.)
