Reading order
| # | Title | Year | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Three Parts Dead | 2012 | Buy |
| 2 | Two Serpents Rise | 2013 | Buy |
| 3 | Full Fathom Five | 2014 | Buy |
| 4 | Last First Snow | 2015 | Buy |
| 5 | Four Roads Cross | 2016 | Buy |
| 6 | The Ruin of Angels | 2017 | Buy |
Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence follows a world where the God Wars ended forty years ago, when Craftsmen defeated gods through legal arguments and financial structures rather than swords. Now gods function as corporations, presiding over cities like companies preside over subsidiaries. Priests are lawyers. Miracles are contracts. Magic is binding oath backed by the threat of consequence.
Each book introduces a new protagonist in a different city. Three Parts Dead follows Tara Abernathy, an exiled Craftswoman hired to investigate the suspicious death of a fire god in Alt Coulumb. Two Serpents Rise takes place in Dresediel Lex, a desert city where human sacrifice sustained gods until revolution changed everything. Full Fathom Five explores underwater cities and the economics of art and worship.
The magic system is unique—Craft relies on contractual agreements, legal precedent, and the binding of power through words and intentions. Characters can’t just cast fireballs; they establish relationships with forces that demand payment. Gods are real but vulnerable, functionally immortal but subject to mortal laws and economic pressures. The gods of the East survived the God Wars by staying neutral; the gods of the West died because they tried to govern directly.
Publication order matters. Last First Snow is a prequel set in Dresediel Lex immediately after the revolution, explaining how that city’s new government formed, but you should read it fourth. Ruin of Angels is a finale that ties together threads from all previous books. The series examines colonialism, revolution, bureaucracy, and the costs of power through the lens of theological disputes and financial structures.