Three Parts Dead [Hardcover]

Worldbuilding is an art form. It's quite a feat to pick a reader up and place them in a story set in Seattle or New York City and have them feel comfortable even if they've never been there. It's quite another for an author to tell their story in a world that only exists inside their head.

Max Gladstone makes it look easy. It's a world where Gods (plural) interact with their followers and have a more hands-on approach to the cities they're sworn to protect. On the mortal side, there are Craftsmen and Craftswomen who draw power from the stars to work their magic. These two powers come together in the steam-powered port city of Alt Coulumb, whose God Kos the Everburning has just died. Craftswomen, the devoted clergy facing a future without their God, a chain-smoking cleric, black-suited officers of Justice with a hive mind, incidental vampires, gargoyles! All of these disparate pieces come together in a story that goes where very few (if any) steampunk novels have gone before: the courtroom.

Why has there never been a steampunk legal thriller? This novel proves it can be done, and done very well. Is it because publishers think it would be boring? The court sequences in this novel, and hit all the old tropes (I half expected the opposing council to declare he was just a "simple country lawyer" at one point) with tongue firmly in cheek. And thanks to the setting, instead of boring legalese we get to see cases argued with magic in a display that wouldn't be out of place on the Vegas Strip. We've all seen steampunk pirates, policemen, cowboys, et al. It's time the steampunk lawyer got a shot at the big time.

I don't want to say this book is easy, because that would be an insult to the care and work that went into crafting such an amazing world. The writing doesn't show off, doesn't play around, doesn't waste your time with making you realize how fancy it's being. The story is first and foremost. The characters are human enough to bring in some mood-lightening humor when necessary. I don't do bleak upon bleak. Where there are humans, there will be jokes even if it's gallows humor.

Gladstone deserves credit for not only tackling two overcrowded fields - steampunk and fantasy - but mixing them with the legal genre (itself more than a little overcrowded) and coming up with a novel that is unique, fantastic, and utterly readable. It also can't be ignored that the main character of the novel is a black woman who actually appears on the cover. There was a bit of controversy over the US covers for Ben Aaronovitch's novels, but Tor obviously decided to give their strong, funny, smart lead character the place of honor she deserved.

This is the best kind of first novel - one that introduces the reader to a clever, talented writer - but it's also the worst because it means there aren't other books by the same author for us to devour. In one scene, Tara narrates, "In three states is the mind most vulnerable, Professor Denovo had once told her: in love, in sleep, and in rapt attention to a story." My mind was incredibly vulnerable while reading this, and I can't wait to surrender it to whatever Max Goldstone comes up with next.

(Edited review originally written for Geek Speak Magazine)

With strong, unique characters, superior and highly imaginative world building, and an expertly structured plot that gradually builds in intensity until reaching a genuinely stunning climax, THREE PARTS DEAD is an absolutely brilliant debut that works on every level. In short, it's a secondary world urban fantasy murder mystery/legal thriller set in a steampunkish city, Alt Coulumb, that runs on the fire, heat, and steam of a literal, great and powerful god, Kos Everlasting, whose sudden death threatens Alt Coulumb's long-term survival and balance of power and sets the plot in motion. Enter Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, an infamous firm of necromancers, a partner of whom, Elayne Kevarian, charges their newest probationary hire, our strong, female, refreshingly non-Caucasian protagonist, Tara Abernathy, with solving the case of why Kos died, before they use their sorcerous skills to resurrect him.

What is so ingenious about THREE PARTS DEAD is how beautifully and economically it succeeds in all of its various sub-genres. It's far better than the majority of supernatural female detective novels out there. Tara isn't a sassy, sexy, confident gal in heels. Instead, she is a fiercely intelligent but green young woman still coming into her own. Having only recently been expelled from a sorcerous academy in the clouds known as the Hidden Schools, she has had a lot of training in the magical arts and is very good at them (in fact, her expulsion ironically had to do with just how good at it she is), but she has also never been out in the real world as a professional, so much of this is still very new to her, and this first case-unlike any I've seen in an urban fantasy mystery before-has a profound impact on her that could forever shape the course of her life. She also has no potential romantic suitor. Three Parts Dead does feature a breathtaking romance, but it doesn't directly involve Tara and it is unlike any that one would ever expect.

Meanwhile, it also features a more throughly developed mythology-including a complex and original, legally structured magical system, fully fleshed-out world that you can practically smell, touch, and taste (Alt Coulumb is every bit as distinctive and realized as the cities found in Scott Lynch's novels), and intriguing history-than most epic fantasy tomes accomplish in 500+ pages, while simultaneously displaying more flights of genuine imagination and full-bodied characters than you often find in them, as well. Some of the novel's most wonderful creations include Abelard, a young priest of Kos, who constantly chain-smokes in order to perpetually fill his body with the fire of his lord, a vampire pirate named Raz Pelham, cops who are literally possessed by the spirit of Justice, and anthropomorphic gargoyles who used to be the Guardians of the city but are now viewed as dangerous renegades.

Additionally, the mystery is elegantly structured, each seemingly inconsequential puzzle piece coming together by the end in a manner that narratively dazzles, even as it strengthens the novel's underlying thesis. And it accomplishes all of this in under 350 pages, while also laying the groundwork for future novels in what promises to be an absolutely smashing series. THREE PARTS DEAD might be Max Gladstone's first published novel, but it certainly doesn't seem like it.

The first thing I have to say about this book is wow.

From the 1st page to the last I was absolutely riveted. Even now having finished the book, the first thing I did after reading the last page was look up the authors website and see when the next book he's writing is coming out. If that's not a sign of a good book, I don't know what is.

Three Parts Dead has a fantastic combination of characters. All the characters are compromised, all them are filled with histories filled with shadows, and yet you find yourself rooting for these broken characters. I know you're supposed to love the protagonist, but in this case I really did. Tara is strong, smart, and full of piss and vinegar. Her history is almost as interesting as the back-story to the world here (which I personally could have read an entire series on and loved (not just a book but an entire series.))

That brings me to the second thing I absolutely loved about Three Parts Dead, the rich history of the God Wars and the system of magic that encompassed the book. As I mentioned before I could read an entire series about the God Wars, what was mentioned about this worlds history sound fascinating and thrilling. Gods battling against craftsmen and women (basically human magicians), and the transformation that occurs to these craftsmen over time, changing them from their human bodies, to something of the stars, all in all this whole history and back-story was fascinating. As for the system of magic, as a law student I loved the fact that Gladstone created an entire system of magic based on and for lawyers. Magic is based on contracts and agreements, with the craftiest and sliest being those with the most power. Those who are not in law school may be tripped up by terms such as law of perpetuities, but it is not a huge part of the story, but something that will bring a smile to those who do understand.

All in all I loved Three Parts Dead and can't wait for the next book by Max Gladstone. It had great characters, plenty of action, and is filled with fascinating back-story and system of magic. Definitely recommended for fans of a darker sort of magic.

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