How to read a book that is the sixth in a series and not miss the first five. That is a testament to the skill of the writer. Of course, it is clear that the story does not begin here, but the clues sown in the pages allow the threads of the past to be joined with those of the ongoing story without suffering an identity crisis. The book is long, complex, full of characters who often act in a completely schizophrenic and counterproductive way, but the real villains are very few and all of them, in one way or another, always do their best to bring a humanity devastated by a war between gods and fallen prey to strange entities back on the tracks of a more harmonious and civilised living. What holds the novel up, in short, from the first to the last page, is love.

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 is planning.

When reading this book I realized just how hard I look for real-world analogues in secondary worlds. This one was very difficult. Was it San Francisco? Rome? I realize that part of the point is that these books don't correspond one-on-one to our world and I shouldn't expect them to. But I really wanted to put this book into a real-world political and cultural situation I could understand. In the end, I settled on Jerusalem/Istanbul.

The reason for this is that Agdel Lex is several cities in one. Most people live in Agdel Lex, which has been stabilized into its reality by the squid god-worshipping Iskarites. These Iskarites are probably going to make interesting antagonists in the future. They have Lords (squids) attached to them if they are of any importance, and these Lords allow them a certain level of communion with their God and allow them to suck their foes into a sweet and placid certainty that everything is fine, everything is going to be okay, can't we just get along? And maybe a squid for you, too?

Anyway, the Iskarites' certainty that a desert city will be dry, hot, dusty and sunny has imposed Agdel Lex over the original city, Alikand. Alikand is wetter, darker, has vine motifs and was ruled by the 50 Families. Alikand survived without Gods in a world run by them because the 50 Families collected magical tomes and used these tomes for the strength to remain independent. They could summon Angels to defend their city.

Alikand was/is being destroyed by the first great Craftsman, Maester Gerhardt in a mutually destructive battle. But Gerhardt refused to die and part of this city, the dead city, is trapped in time a century ago, literally frozen in the midst of the cataclysmic battle that changed everything. Delvers can drop into this frozen city in the past and make off with valuable items, but it's extremely dangerous- usually more than a couple of minutes there will kill you. Plus the Iskarites will sense any change to their perception of Agdel Lex and come find you and give you a squid of your very own if they can catch you after you change cities. It's a bit like The City and The City by China Mieville= three cities are right next to each other but one city refuses to acknowledge the other two and is trying to draw the other two into its reality.

Anyway, Ley and her crew, which includes a grad student who is also their tech expert, a Camlaan knight on a quest for her own destruction, and a 50 Families noble descendent who delves the dead city for pieces of her own past, are planning a heist. I never took to Ley the way any of the other characters did- she was never honest, never open, and while her art gave the crew a way of perceiving the dead city that allowed them to spend much more time there than they could have otherwise survived, I never felt like the positives to her presence outweighed the negatives.

I've been thinking about cities lately and how they are the construction of many different peoples' realities turned into a kaleidoscope that makes the sum of the city to all of its inhabitants. I've also been thinking about art and different purposes for it. This book puts all that together right as I've been thinking about it. I think what Gladstone is getting at is that art can provide a new perspective on an entity like a person or a city that can create a community reaction that ushers an new reality or point of connection into being. This can be used for positive or negative purposes. A National Anthem, the blocky Brutalist art and architecture of Soviet Russia, even a meme, they all change how people see things, and isn't that really changing reality itself?

Gladstone doesn't dwell upon this, though, because there's a heist to be pulled on the massive trains bringing vital magical materiel (think oil tankers) through the southern Wastes to the city. The Wastes are populated by almost-dead gods (other ways of seeing and knowing) and the train is heavily warded. There's a heist, and double-crossing, and a big fight, and an inconclusive ending that leaves all the characters in different places that they need to find their way out of, whether that place is an orphanage, prison in the living Squid Spire that just wants all of them to find a way to get along, abandoned in the Wastes, or back in Agdel Lex with the sneaking suspicion that this isn't over yet.

So, the reason that I raised the book a star is because there is a Rocket Ship!!!! Gladstone is going to spaaaaaace! That's also why I spoiler-warninged this review, because I had to say something. The last big battle involves the Rocket Ship, one last trip to the dead city, the reappearance of Angels, and the Wastes breaking into Agdel Lex at last. It's a lot. And it was fun.

This still isn't my favorite of the books. I've always had a hard problem attaching to Kai, and Ley is even worse as a potential protagonist. It was slow and heavy going as I was trying to figure out what the hell was happening. I did love the idea of the superimposed cities, although I felt like the art connection wasn't as solid as it could have been. There's a hint of an even worse threat than anything we've seen yet, and I'm interested to see where this goes. So be prepared to sink some time into this book. I wondered whether it was worth it about halfway through. For me, it was.

The Ruin of Angels is the sixth book in Max Gladstone’s The Craft Sequence, which last year was one of the Hugo finalists for best series. It is the first book in the series not to have a number in the title showing where it belongs in chronological order (since Gladstone has been writing them out of order with the first published, Three Parts Dead, being the third chronologically). It is also the first one published by Tor.com rather than the main Tor. It also seems to be the first one not to be published in hardback. I am not sure why Tor chose to shift the series to its mostly ebook brand and practically give the ebook away at $2.99 for several months (currently $4.99), considering that the books have enough fans to make it a best series Hugo finalist last year.

The Ruin of Angels is the longest book in the Craft Sequence so far and I think the most complex. The book is somewhat slow to get started and has a long and mostly unnecessary robbery sequence in the middle that stalls the book’s momentum. But it is still a strong story of two sisters and what they will do for each other when absolutely necessary.

As with the previous books, setting is very important. The city of Agdel Lex (and the Wastes that surround it) has replaced the city of Alikand, which was mostly destroyed in the God Wars. But Alikand sort of still exists in another dimension and people in Agdel Lex can slip into the older city accidently, or on purpose to scavenge treasures of the past.

The book opens with a cute scene of Kai and Ley as young sisters playing in the sand. It then jumps to an adult Kai’s arrival at Agdel Lex. In this world where gods are constrained through legal contracts and the money system is based on pieces of one’s soul, being a priestess like Kai is a job akin to being a high powered businessperson on our world. Although she is in Agdel Lex for a business deal, Kai winds up trying to save her sister who is accused of murder after Kai refuses to provide a lot of money which Ley needs for her startup. Ley and her ex-girlfriend are forced into a dangerous train robbery in wastes surrounding the city while Kai winds up assisting the police to ensure they capture, not kill, her sister.

Although The Craft Sequence has continuing characters, each book has an independent plot so The Ruin of Angels could stand alone. However, I think a reader needs to have read at least Full Fathom Five, the previous book featuring Kai and Izzy, first. And it couldn’t hurt to read Three Parts Dead and Four Roads Cross for the backstory on Tara. Recommended.

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 much packed into it, but it did take me longer than I thought it would to get through it. Thinking on it, I'm not sure there was anything that happened that I disagreed with, or wanted more answers about. With Gladstone, I generally just start and see where he'll take me, what strange things he'll show me. And I really wasn't disappointed.

The Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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 them out if you don't believe me. :) HOWEVER. Tara's here and badass and Kai who was MC in the previous chronological novel is ALSO right square in the action, so it's pretty easy to assume that we've come into an interesting juxtaposition: book 6 is actually the latest, chronologically! :) Weird, huh?

All right! Let's put that aside, as amusing as it is to contemplate, and get down to my reaction.

The end is as big as all the rest of the books, and glorious and exciting and magical and mind-blowing, but a very long stretch of the novel reads more like a down-to-earth mystery/hardship novel, with a murder, a theft, and lots of god-debt to have to juggle. Kai's estranged sister is in deep trouble.

I admit it took me a bit to get fully into it, but I placed my faith in Gladstone and got led out of the maze with some very heady reveals that had me gibbering with excitement.

Honestly, I just want someone to go on and on about the city and how it resembles not so much a city of the dead, modernized, but how mirror-modern it is to us. I still can't get over the idea of the means they were using to launch satellites into space... a little hint: this UF is full of mind-gnawing monstrosities from demon universes pulled into iron-clad contracts so big that it requires full law firms and multinational business to make it profitable. Extrapolate from that and you see where all the economy is and what might be involved in space-flight.

Mind-blowing, I say! And then there's this little new artifact they made that superficially resembles something like an old trope of a Sword Of Power, but those tropes are just plain toddler-level simple stories compared to this little beauty that was designed to BUILD A NEW *** from scratch. Just... wow. Wanna know? Read away!

This series is freaking amazing. The level of worldbuilding continues to astound and the characters are truly badass, but not in those old-style simple ways. These women and even some of the men are complicated, flawed, full of contradictions, and yet they eat gods for breakfast. :) ... well, Tara does, anyway. :)

There are really few books quite like these. I can definitely name a good handful, of course, but I can confidently raise these very high among the very best fantasies out there, sweeping most away by the sheer strength of its ideas and its facility. :)

Bravo!