Tak! reviewed The Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone
The Ruin of Angels
4 stars
Sharp, witty, nuanced, and weird - exactly what I've come to expect from Max Gladstone
digital, 400 pages
Published Sept. 5, 2017 by Tor.com.
4 stars
(3 reviews)
The God Wars destroyed the city of Alikand. Now, a century and a half and a great many construction contracts later, Agdel Lex rises in its place. Dead deities litter the surrounding desert, streets shift when people aren’t looking, a squidlike tower dominates the skyline, and the foreign Iskari Rectification Authority keeps strict order in this once-independent city―while treasure seekers, criminals, combat librarians, nightmare artists, angels, demons, dispossessed knights, grad students, and other fools gather in its ever-changing alleys, hungry for the next big score.
Priestess/investment banker Kai Pohala (last seen in Full Fathom Five) hits town to corner Agdel Lex’s burgeoning nightmare startup scene, and to visit her estranged sister Ley. But Kai finds Ley desperate at the center of a shadowy, and rapidly unravelling, business deal. When Ley ends up on the run, wanted for a crime she most definitely committed, Kai races to track her sister down …
The God Wars destroyed the city of Alikand. Now, a century and a half and a great many construction contracts later, Agdel Lex rises in its place. Dead deities litter the surrounding desert, streets shift when people aren’t looking, a squidlike tower dominates the skyline, and the foreign Iskari Rectification Authority keeps strict order in this once-independent city―while treasure seekers, criminals, combat librarians, nightmare artists, angels, demons, dispossessed knights, grad students, and other fools gather in its ever-changing alleys, hungry for the next big score.
Priestess/investment banker Kai Pohala (last seen in Full Fathom Five) hits town to corner Agdel Lex’s burgeoning nightmare startup scene, and to visit her estranged sister Ley. But Kai finds Ley desperate at the center of a shadowy, and rapidly unravelling, business deal. When Ley ends up on the run, wanted for a crime she most definitely committed, Kai races to track her sister down before the Authority finds her first. But Ley has her own plans, involving her ex-girlfriend, a daring heist into the god-haunted desert, and, perhaps, freedom for an occupied city. Because Alikand might not be completely dead―and some people want to finish the job.
Frank Burns reviewed The Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone
Review of 'The Ruin of Angels' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Another fine entry in this series. Gladstone uses his sharp worldbuilding (magic/worship as equivalent to technological advance etc) to hold up a funhouse mirror to our current society and in doing so makes you think about a few things.
This was a 'heist' novel. Told at a deliberately breakneck pace with some sharp characterisation that just draws you into the story.
That being said, I feel all of the books in the Craft Sequence are about obligation as much as they are about anything else. Obligations you are born with, obligations you choose and the paths those obligations draw the characters down.
A fine and enjoyable novel here, the quality of the series has not dipped at all.
