(no subject)

[skygiants]

It's sequel season! I am drowning in books I've been looking forward to reading and am now desperately trying to keep up with as they come in for me at the library. Let's start with Four Roads Cross, the Max Gladstone Craft book which I have been waiting for ever since I first read Three Parts Dead, aka THE ONE WITH MORE TARA IN IT.

Three Parts Dead is the first book in the Craft sequence, set in a world in which the economy runs on soul-magic, which results in a great deal of magical lawyering and divine financial negotiation. In that book, neophyte magical lawyer Tara Reynolds assists a city whose God has just died with fulfilling their divine financial obligations and ends up setting a whole number of other balls in motion as a result.

Without too many spoilers, Four Roads Cross picks up several of the spinning balls left at the end of Three Parts Dead and pitches them onwards in a way that was about 90% satisfying to me. I especially liked the thread about the community of people that run the local farmer's market, how all the high-level divine changes in the city look from the ground, and how those people impact the book's eventual conclusion. But also, Tara! And her complicated relationship with theology, and her joy in her own cleverness, and her student loans! I wish there had been a little more Abelard -- I am probably more invested in Tara and Abelard's weird friendship than any other emotional relationship in the books -- but I loved what we got of it, as well as Tara's newer and weirder friendship with Shale, who is finally getting over the whole 'stole my face' thing. Also, I have maybe never been endeared to a character in these books as much as when Shale confesses to optimistically sending Seril-cult poetry off to lit magazines while off in gargoyle exile!

The one thing I was ambivalent on was the use of Tara's former roommate Daphne; she's such a key part of Tara's backstory that I was pretty disappointed that she re-entered the story only to essentially be refrigerated all over again. I didn't want 'she was so broken that there was no way to rebuild her,' I wanted a recovery story for her, or at least a moment of agency. So that's the 10% I did not find satisfying at all.

Anyway, then I reread Three Parts Dead to remind myself of all the things I missed in Four Roads Cross, and it is still probably my favorite of them all, with Last First Snow coming a very close second. But Four Roads Cross is a worthy third and I remain extremely excited for whatever further Craft Sequence adventures there may be!

Comments

[musesfool]

Yeah, I wanted more of Tara & Abelard, and the bit about Shale's poetry pleased me a lot.

[skygiants]

I read the book and I was like 'aww, this was great, but I want more Abelard,' and then I reread Three Parts Dead and I was like 'IT'S A GOOD THING I DIDN'T REREAD THIS FIRST BECAUSE NOW I REALLY WANT MORE ABELARD'

[kathmandu]

But Daphne did get a moment of agency.

I just finished reading this myself, so rot-13ing to hide spoilers:

Gur dhrfgvba bs jurgure gurer jnf rabhtu yrsg bs Qncuar gb erfgber qvq abg nevfr, orpnhfr jura Enm fgnegrq nofbeovat gur punbf qrzba, gur qrzba cyrnqrq jvgu Qncuar, fnlvat fur jnf vgf bayl napube gb rkvfgrapr, naq nyfb vgf bayl jnl gb qvr: vs fur jbhyq ubyq bhg ntnvafg qlvat, gur gjb bs gurz gbtrgure jbhyq jva, "Naq gur cnva jvyy fgbc".

Qncuar unq urneq gung xvaq bs cebzvfr orsber, naq xarj orggre guna gb oryvrir ntnva.
"Guvf gvzr, fur ghearq njnl.
--Qvrq."
Fur ibyhagnevyl yrg tb bs rkvfgrapr, gnxvat gur qrzba jvgu ure vagb qrngu.

Fb vg'f fnq, naq fur arire tbg ure yvsr onpx, ohg fur qvq rkrepvfr ntrapl.

[skygiants]

Lrnu, ohg gung'f cneg bs jung ohtf zr -- Qncuar'f jubyr aneengvir xvaq bs erwrpgf gur cbffvovyvgl bs cbfg-genhzn erpbirel. Gur bayl pubvpr fur znxrf vf gb fnl 'abcr, V'z gbb oebxra!' Naq ure qrpvqvat fur'f gbb oebxra gb jbegu gelvat ntnva vf cneg bs jung fnirf gur qnl, juvpu tvirf gung aneengvir n inyvqvgl V qba'g guvax vf vagraqrq.

[happydork]

*avoids spoilers* I read and LOVED Three Parts Dead but haven't read any of the others -- can I read Four Roads Cross without doing so?

[skygiants]

Oh, definitely -- no knowledge of other books needed. There are some minor spoilers in there for the end of Two Serpents Rise, but, I mean, Two Serpents Rise itself spoils the end of a later book in the series so I don't think that's a huge problem.