I love genre bending. So when an author combines horror, fantasy, legal thriller, religious thriller, murder mystery... (I could go on) But to show why this is exceptional I’ll approach from another angle.
Many fantasies imitate (or respond to) Lord of the Rings, with a hero/savior from West-European mythologies. They often mirror Tolkien’s yearning for a pastoral idyll, hate of modernity and technology, and his views of ‘lesser races’. I do not want to belittle LOTR, because I love that book, but Tolkien was a man of his time, with its prejudices and worldviews.
Grimdark’s main innovation is deleting the hope that defines LOTR and mistaking cynism for realism. Urban fantasy is set in a city environment and is much more genre bending. But it too has become pretty generic.
Where is a truly original new fantasy? One with its own invented mythology? With cultures and settings that are rich and deep, not templates? With a true sense of wonder? With realistic and diverse characters? With a manageable size instead of doorstopping bloat? With precise descriptions and good dialogue? With relevance to our lives, not mealy allegory nor yearning for a past that never was?
This is all that and more. Max Gladstone writes about a world remade by rebels after a war against gods. A world in wich disruptors have become inhumanly rich and powerful, by building huge companies and creating dehumanizing webs of law, finance, and bureaucracy. Seems familiar?
Gladwell is not interested in a prophesied savior. He writes about little people who try to make do, who incrementally, collaboratively, try to engage their world’s ills – one personal choice after another. Seems familiar?
Gladwell writes about filosophy, religion and atheism, about ideologies similar, but not identical, to our own. A powerful person’s rant about reaching for other worlds and discarding this one before it is used up: seems familiar?
Places in this world are old, huge and diverse, with palpable histories. They are theaters of repression and riots; of refugees and indentured workers; of rich and poor lives; of cultures, religions and communities; of tourists and demons; of water shortages, interdependencies and environmental collapse; of tears and laughter, hope and despair, and love in many forms.
Despite their regular size, these books are dense reads, worth rereading, and I was so invested in the characters that I sometimes even had to stop reading.
The omnibus arranges 5 books in order of publication instead of chronologically – an explanation of sorts is in the foreword. It made sense to me: as a father, I was stuck in book 4 (chronologically part 1) because I could not bear what a father does to his son. It is done with the best intentions, always the road to hell. However, because I had read book 1 (chronologically part 3), I knew what became of these people. Therefore I could continue – after dealing with the heartache, that is. Yes, there is heartache and horror here and if you don’t want that in your fiction, this is not for you. But if you want intense, relevant and moving reads... Well, you are in for a treat.
Upon rereading my descriptions seemed rather dry, which these books are not at all! They are thrilling and shivery, full of sleeping gods, undead kings, horse golems, obsidian knives, eagle knights, chain-smoking saints, animated statues, hive mind policewomen, beggar children, demonic infestations, necromantic accountants, miracles, sacrifice and strife!
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![The Craft Sequence: (Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, Full Fathom Five, Last First Snow, Four Roads Cross) by [Max Gladstone]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jji-xCJKL._SY346_.jpg)
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 31, 2021
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Top reviews from other countries
Kindle Customer
I just decided to read this as it came recommended by Patrick Rothfuss and I was seriously pleasantly surprised
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 1, 2017
Benjamin Terrence Warren
Five rather than four as simply a great book because of how much of a surprise it ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 15, 2017CA Norris
Currently halfway through the second book in the collection. ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 20, 2017
Jassu79
Deserves "instant classic"-status
Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on November 30, 2017
Rinaldo
An Excellent and Authentic Urban Fantasy with Hearty Helpings of Poetry
Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on May 22, 2018
