Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone was just straight up enjoyable Fantasy. We get magic, and gods, and … magic lawyers? Dabbling in magic means dabbling in contracts, so our protagonist has clients (or, well, her employer does), and there is a lot of quibbling going on – of the kind that can cost you your mind, or your life. And the God of Fire (and therefore steam) has an engine room and priests that are more techies than anything else – except that their maintenance and debugging cycles include prayers and worship as well as fixing pipes and monitoring heat output. Yessss. Take the phrase "theological engineering" and go read.

Redeeming Max Gladstone after whatever Empress of Forever was: yess, this is the stuff. The Craft Sequence formula is a very readable mix of great, emergent worldbuilding, with some harsh economic truths, a sense of wonder, and some extremely forgettable characters. This time we don't only get the usual corporate lawyers, we also get an angry girl living in the streets and a spy (plus the usual forgotten gods).

Three Parts Dead was lots of fun, and I had high expectations of this book. I was not disappointed. Max Gladstone has now a firm place among my favourite authors!

After reading Three Parts Dead in preparation, it was time to read this book – part five in the series that Three Parts Dead starts, but also the direct follow-up. I hadn't remembered the characters at all: Abelard, the mechanic monk, and Tara, the craftswoman who, in the end, decided to leave the industry and work for the Church of Kos, for little money, because she's needed.

I keep enjoying the Craft Sequence stuff, even when the lessons are so on the nose it's kinda meh. This is the gentrification one, which is good because we get backstory for Temoc, the priest, and a bit more insight into the King in Red. It's not as strong as the other books, even though I enjoyed the characters more, but hey, what can you do.

Max Gladstone short story: Sweet in its way (which is not a thing Gladstone does, usually), but nothing special.

Hm. Crispin's Model is modern Lovecraftian horror – well done, but I'm not into Lovecraftian horror all that much, and not into painting either, so it didn't grip me.

Max Gladstone is an author I like a lot. He's half of the brilliance of Time War, and his Craft Sequence is amazing second-world urban fantasy. I went into this book curious how Gladstone would approach Space Opera, but confident I would like it – boy, was I disappointed. It took me the better part of a month to dig through this book, and it ust dragged on.