Last First Snow
I've been really enjoying Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence so far. In fact, it has a good chance of being one of my favorite series. The themes, the characters, and the writing have all made me fall in love with this world and these stories. That said, I wonder if Gladstone might not have made a mistake in the way he ordered the books.
The first five books were not written in internal chronological order. The publication order is 3, 2, 5, 1, 4. For the first three this didn't make much of a difference, since they all focused on different characters. But Last First Snow is a direct prequel to Two Serpents Rise, and I think it drained some of the tension from the book.
I actually liked Last First Snow better than Two Serpents Rise. The characters were more interesting, and I liked having multiple points of view. The plot was structured much better. And I loved learning more about Elayne Kevarian who has been such an enigmatic figure thus far. Gladstone does an excellent job of highlighting a wealth of differing opinions and showing the complexity of the situation.
The only problem is that I knew how it would all end, which drained out some of the tension. The last battle scene especially seemed to drag on because I already knew who would win and how would lose and where everyone would stand a decade in the future. I wish I had read this book first because I think, plot-wise, it would have had a bigger impact.
That said, character-wise, this book fits right where it is. Both of the main characters are introduced in earlier (later?) books, but are expanded on in interesting ways here. And I might have been even less sympathetic to Caleb if I'd actually met his father first.
It's a conundrum and probably the only thing about this series that doesn't quite work. But that doesn't mean I'm not excited for Four Roads Cross, which finally brings up back to the characters and city of the first book. I can't wait to see what happens to Tara and Abelard (and Raz!) in that installment.
The first five books were not written in internal chronological order. The publication order is 3, 2, 5, 1, 4. For the first three this didn't make much of a difference, since they all focused on different characters. But Last First Snow is a direct prequel to Two Serpents Rise, and I think it drained some of the tension from the book.
I actually liked Last First Snow better than Two Serpents Rise. The characters were more interesting, and I liked having multiple points of view. The plot was structured much better. And I loved learning more about Elayne Kevarian who has been such an enigmatic figure thus far. Gladstone does an excellent job of highlighting a wealth of differing opinions and showing the complexity of the situation.
The only problem is that I knew how it would all end, which drained out some of the tension. The last battle scene especially seemed to drag on because I already knew who would win and how would lose and where everyone would stand a decade in the future. I wish I had read this book first because I think, plot-wise, it would have had a bigger impact.
That said, character-wise, this book fits right where it is. Both of the main characters are introduced in earlier (later?) books, but are expanded on in interesting ways here. And I might have been even less sympathetic to Caleb if I'd actually met his father first.
It's a conundrum and probably the only thing about this series that doesn't quite work. But that doesn't mean I'm not excited for Four Roads Cross, which finally brings up back to the characters and city of the first book. I can't wait to see what happens to Tara and Abelard (and Raz!) in that installment.
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