Dead Country

English language

Published Dec. 20, 2023 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.

ISBN:
9780765395917

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (1 review)

BOOK ONE OF THE CRAFT WARS SERIES

Since her village chased her out with pitchforks, Tara Abernathy has resurrected gods, pulled down monsters, averted wars, and saved a city, twice. She thought she'd left her dusty little hometown forever. But that was before her father died. As she makes her way home to bury him, she finds a girl, as powerful and vulnerable and lost as she once was. Saving her from raiders, twisted by a remnant of the God Wars, who haunt the area, Tara changes the course of the world. Max Gladstone's world of the Craft is a fantasy setting like no other. When Craftspeople rose up to kill the gods, they built corporate Concerns from their corpses and ushered in a world of rapacious capital. Those who work the Craft wield laws like knives and weave chains from starlight and soul stuff. Dead Country is the first …

2 editions

reviewed Dead Country by Max Gladstone

Dead Country

4 stars

This book is the first in a new series of novels that Max Gladstone is writing to wrap up his Craft universe. My bias here is that I really enjoyed the previous Craft Sequence set of books, but most of those were one-off stories in a shared universe. This series is pitched as "a tight sequence of novels" and I think it hits that mark far more than any of his previous books. This book's plot stands on its own as a compelling action-filled story about coming home to a place that doesn't want you anymore, but it weaves in personal backstory and trauma (you thought Tara might have been done with) as well as larger existential threats (that are just such a perfect fit for the craft itself).

If you don't know this universe, I think this Max Gladstone interview with Sarah Gailey sums up what the Craft Sequence …