"Sharp, original, passionate." --NPR The first novel in the critically acclaimed contemporary fantasy series by Max Gladstone 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: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who's having an understandable crisis of faith. When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb's courts'and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb's slim hope of survival. Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, MAX GLADSTONE's Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs. For more from Max Gladstone, check out: The Craft Sequence Three Parts Dead Two Serpents Rise Full Fathom Five Last First Snow Four Roads Cross
The Craft Sequence (of which this is both the first and the third) is absolutely stunning, and I mean that in a leaves-you-mildly-concussed sort of way. No seriously, some of them gave me literary hangovers!
But honestly, they're a genuinely unique bunch, in no way light reading but sooo worth the heavy.
I read the Craft Sequence in publication order, rather than chronological order. While each book in the series is intended as a stand-alone (there is only one book which I do not feel like quite entirely succeeded) and so has it's own characters and conclusions, there are tidbits in each one for which you will need all of the books to fully comprehend. Gladstone gives you precisely what you need for each particular story, but when you add up all the little tidbits, it is almost like you get A BONUS STORY!!
The point that I am trying to make here is: read the Craft Sequence. In any order. It isn't picky. Except for the unNumbered one... I think that one might be picky.
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