I should state up front that I'm not the target audience for this book. I enjoyed the first couple of books in the Craft Sequence, but the more I read of it, the more tedious I found it. Reusing the characters seemed like a cool idea in theory, but not in practice; it felt like the characterization got lazier with each book, and I couldn't find myself vested in any of the characters in the stories.Six books into the series, The Ruin of Angels is no different. Gladstone gets rid of the told-out-o...

New Craft book!!!I got lucky with an ARC thanks to Netgalley and I immediately got sucked right into the story since I had just gotten caught up with the previous publication-order book, Four Roads Cross. Unfortunately for me, as well as everyone else who reads these books, I still have to do timeline juggling in my head because the later Full Fathom Five takes place AFTER Four Roads Cross and it's now even worse because the new book doesn't even have a handy number-sequence in the title. Check

Gladstone continues doing his own thing and rocking it. This time it’s venture capital, mind controlling squid-gods, investment banking, Lovecraftian alternate realities overlaid upon our own, and flannel clad and bearded hipsters.I still for the life of me can’t figure out how the man makes this stuff work so well, but by the Blue Lady he does. Even with Oathbringer waiting for me, this was engrossing. If I have a complaint, it’s that the last 20% or so was entirely supertense climax, and not b...

Max Gladstone returns to the world of his Craft Sequence and especially the character of Kai, a protagonist in the prior novel Full Fathom Five. While there are references to the events of that novel, the plot stands on its own. I don’t know if it’s the first book I’d suggest as an introduction to the series, but it could work, especially if you’re looking for a fantasy book with queer female characters.Also, I think I can keep this review free from spoilers of prior books. So read without fear!...

For some reason the second half of this Craft book didn't grab the way the others did. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I waited too long after reading Kai's first outing. Also, the dual city was done so well in The City & the City that there is a very high bar for that idea. Gladstone is still good, but not my favorite in the series. But that might change.

Moonlit rooftops spread for miles, cascading downslope toward the Wrecker Tower and the bay. Stillness, cabs, waves - and there, to the south, movement. Dark figures leapt from roof to roof. Their robes fluttered like wings at the apex of every leap; one lashed out with a tentacle to catch a water tower spar. By night the city could be an overgrown ruin, a human jungle, a labyrinth replete with minotaurs, a haven and a hell at once, but the Wreckers left a trail of certainty where they passed; t...

The Ruin of Angels is the most recent entry in The Craft Sequence and it feels different in tone from the previous five books. Longer and more complex, I feel like the Sequence has entered Act 2. The topic Gladstone is tackling here deals with history and competing culture. While I was reading it, I was reminded of a great historic city like Jerusalem, where you have Temple Mount with the ruins of the First and Second Temples and Al-Aqsa. With issues of religion, language and basic culture, the

“YES.” That is the only word I found when I went to look at my first draft of this review and I thought I should keep it. It really translates my state of excitement and joyfulness upon finishing this book, how this book did justice to a remarquable cast of characters, while juggling with an epic number of plotlines.It is important to note that 90% of the characters in this books are women and I loved all these ladies SO MUCH. When I say that this book has almost only women protagonists I’m not

As always, Gladstone has written an immersive story, this time about start ups, art, and ventures that are all a bit strange. As to be expected. I love that we got Kai back. Full Fathom Five was one of the highlights of the craft sequence for me, and following her and Izza made for fun times. They're strong, and witty, and very much full of doubt whether or not they're doing the right thing. This was a fair bit longer than the previous novels, and it felt it. Not in a bad way, as there was so mu...

Gladstone has written: "This is a book about troubles in close relationships, about good intentions gone wrong, about self-deception and self-liberation, and family. Also, venture capital, surveillance culture, startups, the Future (which is Murder), geopolitics, soul trade, mapping, & criminal evangelism."All the three stars are for that. I give no additional stars for the way all that is delivered in this one. It all seems forced, and it seems that whenever the plot had to change something, Gl...

I adored this. More Tara. More godpunk fractured worlds. Magic corporations and nightmare powered telecoms. Artists and angels and squid-borg-parasites.Max Gladstone's writing is the perfect balance of poetry and story; both dreamy painterliness and fast-paced action.And I'm pretty sure that this is the most beautiful and true paragraph about being trans ever published in a fantasy novel: "“I understand that during initiation Kavekanese priests and priestesses rebuild themselves around their sou...

I have...mixed feelings about this one. So mixed, in fact, that I finished this one weeks ago and tried to come up with a review, or at least a rating, and then put it off and read something else altogether. Ruin of Angels is in some ways classic Max Gladstone, with its strong female cast (hardly any male characters in this one at all), snappy writing, and overall weirdness (living giant squid tower, anyone?). Yet this one feels like an odd mash-up between Firefly-ish train heist and Gladstone's...

I'm kind of sad to write this review, since Max Gladstone is one of my favorites, and The Craft Sequence has been stellar. This one just didn't connect with me. It's from a different publisher with a different art style, but I figured it would feel the same as the first five books, which I really loved, but it didn't really feel that similar.The beauty of this series of the great mix of realism and surrealism, pushing the weirdness of dragons, sorcerers, demons, and skeleton kings with actuaries...

A bit too slow to start -- too many plot threads trying to move simultaneously -- but once it hits its stride it is *amazing.* Call it a 4.5, rounded up because squid.

Discworld meets Final Fantasy in Max Gladstone's Craft novels. I say Discworld because Pratchett's opus was a project about understanding the world through the fantastic, everything from the post to death itself made droll and bitter-funny — and so too the Craft books are a long Mobius journey into a world totally unlike ours and yet full of the same problems. But where Discworld traded in comedy, the Craft deals cards from a deck of modern thrillers and roleplaying games. Nowhere outside Final

Beautiful covers, interesting blurbs, and an interview with the author, brought me to this series in the first half of this year. I have since then read four of the six standalone novels in Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence series, that are connected by the world they are set in, themes, and some characters that reappear here and then. My ratings range from 4 to 5 stars and I spent many hours experiencing and discovering the setting.The Craft Sequence needs a focused reader who learns by observatio...

Can someone please have a conversation with me about mentions of women shaving their legs in fantasy novels? I have a pretty extreme negative reaction to it (read: it fills me with rage), but maybe it's just me.Aaaaaanyway, it took me a really long time to get into this one. I just couldn't seem to get attached to any of the new characters until very late in the game, and though I was very excited to see Tara Abernathy again so soon, she's honestly hardly in this book at all (but yay, Kai and Iz...

3.5 starsThis story has all of Gladstone's strengths and weaknesses on full display.It has brilliant ideas, world building, and compelling characters that feel so human, even when they're not. From the smallest little inclusions like postal demons' annoyance with improper mail to three cities meshed into each other and their liberation, Gladstone's work is a feast of stories, big and small. And here begins the biggest faults. There is just too much. Frankly, my usual pet peeve with Gladstone's l...

A city where reality is broken, broken characters with their broken relationships mingle. All the characters, all the time, running around, pushing their agenda. I enjoy the world Gladstone has created, and am happy we got my favorite duo - Kai and Izza - back. Stakes are high, the second part of the novel was tight. The first, not so much, and there was too much characters, in my humble opinion. I feel that new characters didn't get their moments to really develop and shine - Raymet blew my min...

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book for review.This book was not an easy read and it felt like it took a long time. I wavered between three and four stars and then decided the end pushed it to four.The book's main character is Kai, the Kavakanese priestess from Full Fathom Five who in the past made a living designing small gods for big players to hide their soul assets in. She's come to Agdel Lex as a venture capitalist but ends up getting drawn into a heist that her sister Ley...