Monday, September 11, 2017

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Ruin of Angels (Craft Sequence) by Max Gladstone





The Ruin of Angels is the sixth published (and sixth chronolically) book in Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence series, which is probably my favorite ongoing series at this point of time.  The Craft Sequence series tells stories in a world where magic (or "Craft") follows rules of Law and Economics and where Gods are essentially corporations and uses this setting to tell stories with themes centered around real world issues (The First Five books deal essentially with fantasy versions of Gentrification, Water Rights, Bankruptcy and Fiduciary Duties, and Offshore Banking).

The first four published books (Chronologically books 3, 2, 1, and 5) were easily stand alone novels that could be read in any order.  The fifth published book, Four Roads Cross (4th Chronologically) could sort of be read stand-alone, but was very clearly a sequel to the First Published Book, Three Parts Dead (3rd Chronologically).

This book, The Ruin of Angels, is similar to Four Roads Cross, in that it's a stand alone story, but at the same time is very much a sequel to the book that proceeds it chronologically, Full Fathom Five (published 3rd).  You could start the series with this book using a quick summary like the one on the Tor website here - but Full Fathom Five might be the best in the series so I'd strongly recommend you start there first (and then you can go right to this book without reading the others if you want).

More after the Jump:



------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------
The City of Agdel Lex is a city under the control of the Iskari Empire (an Empire ruled by/with Squid Gods).  But it didn't use to be - years in the past, before the God Wars, it was the City of Alikand, self-governed by independent families who kept the knowledge of the past alive.  The memories of Alikand, and of the dead city it became, still exist, and allow parts of the Dead City to overlay over Agdel Lex - meaning that those who aren't careful can fall into the dead city to their deaths.  The Iskari occupiers aim to stabilize the city of Agdel Lex and eliminate Alikand - meanwhile, brave "delvers" make quick journeys into the Dead City in order to save pieces of the past and keep Alikand alive.

Kai Pohala arrives in the City intending to look into investments for the Kavekanan priesthood, but instead receives a mysterious letter from her sister Ley.  She stumbles upon Ley seemingly kiling someone with a knife - a special knife that the Iskari overlords, and one Tara Abernathy (the protagonist of Three Parts Dead and Four Roads Cross) seek desperately.  But Kai's only concern is saving her sister from whatever is going on.

Meanwhile, Ley's ex-girlfriend Zeddig is a delver who seeks desperately to save Alikand's existence.  When Ley comes to her with a promise of a job that could lead Zeddig and her crew into the most valuable library that once used to exist, Zeddig - still love-smitten - can't help but say yes.

But what Zeddig, Kai, Tara, and other characters will soon realize is that they've stumbled into a plot bigger than themselves, one which will decide who and what becomes reality in Alikand/Agdel Lex, once and for all, and one which can spell doom for those who belong to the reality not chosen.
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I have mixed feelings about The Ruin of Angels, though a lot of that is due to the high expectations I have for this series.  In a vacuum, I enjoyed this book a lot!  Like the rest of the Craft Sequence, this book contains a solid fantasy story that takes itself seriously but also has a bit of humor - it's not a comedy series by any means, but there are parts that will make you smile or laugh.  Gladstone is also excellent at creating a few heartwarming moments in the books of the series, and this one is no exception.  And for the most part (one exception talked about below), the characters are excellent and the plot doesn't drag.

That said, it is by far and away the largest Craft Sequence book (by over 150 pages), and it's a jam-packed 576 pages.  And I mean, Jam Packed - I will admit that when I read books for fun (as in, not for work), I often read the books the first time at a speed that has be glazing over details to some extent so that I can get through the book as fast as possible (not because I am not enjoying the book, but because I AM and want to consume it faster).

When I've done that with prior Craft Sequence Books, I've mostly been fine - I'd later reread them anyhow, but I was able to get pretty much all of the books at my normal reading pace (and I loved them).  I couldn't do that in this book - to some extent this may have been caused by a lack of sleep - I had to reread this book at a slower pace to get all of the details before I could truly be satisfied by this book.  This isn't a bad thing obviously - it's a different feature of the book, not a bad one!  That said, I would say that the climax of this book is perhaps a bit TOO busy, with a LOT of stuff happening all at once.

Like every Craft Sequence Book, this book has a background theme that is basically a real world issue made more fantasy-esque - in this book, it's that of a force currently controlling an area or a people attempting to destroy and paper over the history and historical culture of that area/people with what they feel is a more appropriate culture and "history."  In this book, that theme is basically literal - the Iskari are literally imposing the reality of their ideal version of the City over an alternate reality of the City of the past, which various individuals try to keep alive by remembering/archiving the details of the past city.

This also feels like - for better of for worse - the least "Craft Sequence"-y theme yet in the series.  I'm not sure how to explain this feeling, except to say that it feels like to me that this theme could have been - if not has been - done in many other fantasy stories, whereas prior Craft books' handling of themes has been a bit more unique.  Some of this may be the limited role of craftspeople in this story - the only one in the book is Tara, and she has a very limited role.  Now this isn't the first book without a craftsperson main character - Full Fathom Five doesn't have one either (and to a lesser extent, Two Serpents Rise) - but the complications of craftspeople (Elaine) in the lives of the characters were still a big deal there, whereas that's not the case here.

Again, this is not clearly a negative, and the plot is pretty damn good anyhow - it just for me didn't feel quite as special or unique (as much as something can be in this genre) as the other Craft books.

Part of that issue may be that I truly didn't love one of the two main protagonists and major point of view characters, Zeddig.  Zeddig gets the most time devoted to her of any of the new characters, and I don't know, I just didn't love her.  I'm not really sure her relationship with Ley really totally worked for me, and that's a core part of her story.  I wonder if some of this is the result of her story being kind of secondary to Kai's early on, which draws too much attention from her (they split time pretty evenly later).

The good news is that the rest of the major cast is great. Kai is still great, and Izza is even better - as I mentioned before, this book is very much a sequel to Full Fathom Five and explores where those two and the Blue Lady are going after that book's events.  The other new character who gets POV time, Raymet, is absolutely a gem and her storyline, though secondary to the other characters, provides some of the best parts of the book.  (I'd also point out that pretty much every major character in the book is a Woman, with the only Male characters being minor characters at most, one of whom is Trans)

It's kind of a disappointment how this book uses Tara - she's there and she makes sense as a character in this story, but her role is almost more of a cameo at times than that of an important character, and well it's hard not to be disappointed by that given how awesome Tara is in the other books.  Again, this is a flaw of expectation setting, not an actual flaw with the book (and if read this book first or right after Full Fathom Five, it won't be a problem!), but it nags at me.

This is probably my fourth favorite Craft Sequence Book (My rankings if curious: #1 Full Fathom Five, #2 Three Parts Dead, #3 Four Roads Cross, #4 The Ruin of Angels, #5 Two Serpents Rise, #6 Last First Snow), which you know, only puts it behind the two books in the series I gave perfect 10s and the one I came really close to giving a perfect 10.  It's got some excellent characters, some classic and witty dialogue/scenes, and plays with some themes in a very interesting way.

Read Full Fathom Five first.  Then dive into The Ruin of Angels.  It's excellent, even if I was hoping for perfection.  That's just the level of quality I expect from this series.  So yeah, recommended.
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