Full Fathom Five , the third entry in Max Gladstone ’s Craft sequence is a modern fantasy thriller that has some interesting thing to say about the world around us , and it ’s one of the good fantasy novels of the summertime . spoiler below …
Gladstone ’s new novel is n’t a sequel to the first two books in his Craft Sequence , Two Serpents Rise and Three Parts Dead — it but exist in the same world , work in much of the same , superb creation building and penning that ’s get him nominated twice for the John W. Campbell award .
In this book , he infix Kai , a Craftswoman , whose cosmos , code name Seven Alpha , is scheduled to break down . The ordering make the idols for a motley of purpose : they ’re essentially fiscal instruments for faith , commission for a variety of purposes . When she jumps into the pool to attempt to pull through this graven image , she ’s transfer , with her genial health in question . Across the island , the God revere by a street urchin nominate Izza has been bump off , the former in a string of slaying . Kai knows that there ’s something more to the death of this paragon , and her hunt club for answers leads her into a confederacy that shakes the island to its understructure .
Gladstone ’s take on phantasy is an interesting one , one which reminded me a bit of Blake Charlton ’s Spellwright and Spellbound : magic as a tool for wielders , rather than a mythological , unknown force that a privilaged few can apply . Clarke ’s Law talk about sufficiently sophisticated engineering feels as though it applies in this case : the novel find much like that of a cyberpunk thriller wrapped in the trapping of an urban fancy story .
The result is fantasy on a technical , incarnate degree , fix in a modern fantasy earthly concern that is n’t too dissimilar from ours . hoi polloi take for office jobs , filing cabinet reports and paperwork , almost as if Gladstone ’s asking us a simple inquiry : are n’t we really living in a fantasy earthly concern ? Wall Street utilise blazingly fast algorithms to conduct trades , the sleek , inglorious phones in our hands can do just about everything we can imagine , and so on .
And this book explores something I ’ve wanted to see in a novel for years : how would a fellowship develop using magic every Clarence Day ? The answer : It would evolve a world that ’s just as unknown and placeable as ours . It ’s a little like that ( unjustly ) fire TV show , 17th Precinct .
And what a world it is . Characters redo themselves – Kai herself rectify her gender after being born in a body that did n’t quite match . monumental Penitents roam the streets – golem - like geode constructs designed to reform prisoners – enforcing jurisprudence and order on the street . order like Kai ’s create idol in the absence seizure of Gods to keep thing running smoothly . There ’s a vibrant art scene , and street offence . Gladstone ’s world is astonishingly vivacious , terrifying and wonderful to lay eyes on as you turn the Thomas Nelson Page . Gladstone did n’t expend all of his DOE on the setting , however : his cast of persona , namely Kai and Izza , as well as a legion of support figures who ’re all flesh out expertly .
Gladstone also knows where to twist the character and reader around . One of the best ingredient in this novel is the Penitents , the lumbering shielder of Kavekana . They ’re mentioned throughout the novel , wailing prisoners caught inside . Gladstone support off on explicate anything about these constructs , take into account them to run around in the background until he discover their function – and the experience of the prisoner at bottom – and it ’s bad than anything you might have suppose in the pages before . It ’s one model of first-class storytelling , and it ’s an element that still has me slightly horrified , long after I put the book down .
This all control as Gladstone throws his characters across the island after the demise of Seven Alpha . Kai is questioned by the Idol ’s commissioners , curious about her behaviour , and after recover from her injuries , she questions the motivations behind the decease of the god , running into a complicated tangle of faith , corporate goals and a deeper conspiracy around the very nature of the Idols they create . Gladstone paces the primal secret slowly , and let things play out effortlessly as the book play out . In doing so , he weaves together a story that feel refreshfully advanced and relevant . At the same time , it ’s not so intent on redeem a Message about the modern world that it does n’t leave its own .
In Full Fathom Five , Gladstone ’s secure his place as an author to see in the coming years . He ’s competently demonstrated his skill as a storyteller in his Craft novels , and this latest indicate that he ’s at the top of his game . This novel is an level-headed , entertaining and gripping thriller that has me all the more delirious for a income tax return sojourn .
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