Craft Sequence Books In Order

Publication Order of Craft Sequence Books

Craft Sequence is a series of urban fantasy novels written by Max Gladstone. The books delve into the minutiae of magic and the supernatural, pulling back the curtain to reveal the financial and legal aspects that control Max Gladstone’s fantastical world.

+The Story

In the world of the Craft Sequence series, there was a time when human beings looked to the gods for blessings. They offered up sacrifices and, in turn, the gods looked favorably upon them.

But then the God Wars came. Certain human beings mastered a new kind of power called the Craft and used it to wage war against the gods, bringing their rule to an end and initiating a new World order.

It all began when the so-called craftspeople realized that they could tap into the same source of power as the gods. When the gods tried to interfere in their affairs, certain that these craftspeople were making ineffective use of the power, they were slaughtered, primarily because they had to take physical form to interact with the world of mortal men.

By the time the Craft Sequence series kicks off, the only gods still living are found in the East. The Cities of the West destroyed all their gods, except for Kos, a god that initially escaped death by staying neutral in the conflict between his people and the craftspeople.

Though, Kos is eventually murdered, letting loose a whole slew of complications.

The Gods of the Craft Sequence series operate as they always have. They have the capacity to bring happiness to mortal men by meeting their physical needs. This includes healing diseases and bringing rain.

However, their influence spreads to the economic and military aspects of the nations that serve them. Max Gladstone plays with the idea that worship is a source of energy that not only benefits the divine but also the mortal world.

The author of the Craft Sequence series sets his books apart from other urban fantasy series by treating the gods like companies and corporations that require legal representation to achieve their goals.

Because gods require worship and belief to survive, they must enter into a contract with entities like craftspeople that have the capacity to feed them worship for a fee.

For all intents and purpose, the legal system stands at the center of the Craft Sequence series. The lawyers in Gladstone’s books have been compared to necromancers. They have the power to play with the divine, creating contracts that confine and limit the actions and capabilities of the gods they are working with.

Lawyers in the Craft Sequence books not only control the deals between gods and men, but they are also responsible for contending with dead gods. Because gods have such wide-ranging influence on the world, they are expected to meet their obligations even after they die.

As such, the lawyers in this universe are responsible for basically transforming dead gods into divine machines that can still perform the duties their followers expect of them.

The Craft Sequence books can be read as standalones. The author would encourage you to read them in order. But the stories told within each book are technically self-contained and can be enjoyed independently, though references are made to characters, locations, and events from the different books.

+The Author

Max Gladstone was born in 1984. A student of St. Andrew’s Sewanee School and Yale University, Max spent a couple of years in China as a teacher.

Max published the first of his craft sequence books in 2012. It was received positively, with reviewers praising the author for taking boring elements and injecting an exciting fantastical edge to them.

Max followed the first book up with five others. The author prides himself on the level of diversity he has injected into the urban fantasy series.

+Three Parts Dead

Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao is an international necromantic firm that has the difficult task of bringing a god back to life.

To be more specific, Tara will be the one to bring Kos back to life. And the first-year associate doesn’t have much time to waste. The city of Alt Coulumb won’t last long now that its fire god has died.

The city needs Kos to survive. From the steam generators to the trains, everything in Alt Coulumb risks shutting down if Tara doesn’t act fast. No one wants to deal with four million people rioting.

Tara will need Abelard if she is to succeed. Abelard is a priest of Kos. The chain smoker isn’t in the best mental state but Tara will take what she can get. Her job is further complicated when she learns that Kos didn’t just die.

He was murdered. That gives Tara the task of figuring out who killed the god, an assignment that could end her life.

This book, the first one in the craft sequence series, surprises most readers. The synopsis definitely reveals that ‘Three Parts Dead’ is urban fantasy. However, it isn’t until one cracks the pages of this book that they realize that they have a mystery thriller on their hands.

Max Gladstone has been commended for writing a fantasy novel that spends a notable portion of its pages as a courtroom drama without ever getting boring. The author introduces a world where gods can die and lawyers with necromancy can bring them back to life when the need arises.

+Two Serpents Rise

Caleb Altemoc has a problem on his hands. The risk manager has been tasked by Red King consolidated to help the people of Dresediel Lex whose water supply is plagued by shadow demons.

Cleansing the city reservoir is the least of Caleb’s problems. It turns out that his father might have had something to do with the attacks on the city reservoir, or at least that is what the authorities think. And they are determined to bring him in for questioning.

If being a priest to the old gods wasn’t bad enough, Caleb’s father is a prominent figure in a terrorist group, and now he has seen fit to break into Caleb’s home.

This book might be a sequel to ‘Three Parts Dead’ but it takes place in a completely different part of the world, introducing a new protagonist dealing with a different sort of complexity.