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aceinit's review against another edition
5.0
Spoiler-free mini-review: Max Glastone is now firmly on my list of "pre-order anything with his name on it" authors.
As for the book itself?
Go read "Three Parts Dead."
Then read "Two Serpents Rising."
Then read this book. Just do it. It will be well worth your time.
(And yes, Full Fathom Five stands on its own just fine, despite being part of a series. But you will enjoy it so, so much more if you read books one and two first, because the way some elements and characters are woven between them is just phenomenal.)
Holy "way to bring the world together," Gladstone. Also, the way you snuck the whole prophecy thing in there was the *only* prophecy-as-a-plot-point plot point that I have enjoyed in at least a decade.
Read these books.
Read them.
As for the book itself?
Go read "Three Parts Dead."
Then read "Two Serpents Rising."
Then read this book. Just do it. It will be well worth your time.
(And yes, Full Fathom Five stands on its own just fine, despite being part of a series. But you will enjoy it so, so much more if you read books one and two first, because the way some elements and characters are woven between them is just phenomenal.)
Holy "way to bring the world together," Gladstone. Also, the way you snuck the whole prophecy thing in there was the *only* prophecy-as-a-plot-point plot point that I have enjoyed in at least a decade.
Read these books.
Read them.
peterkeep's review against another edition
4.0
Full Fathom Five is a lot like the first two books in the Craft Sequence in that it has the same unique world, it again shows off a new location, it puts forth new characters, and it adds some interesting and weird elements to the world based on the new setting. But it's a bit different than the two previous as well: there are some characters that overlap, there are some direct references to an overall story arc (or at least a theme tying all of the books together), and overall it feels like it makes the series a bit more cohesive.
There isn't as big of an emphasis on the Craft this story, and I'll admit that it's something I missed about Three Parts Dead. Most of the magic is based on gods and worship, which sort of feels a little too normal for these books. But, as usual, the story itself is new and inventive and ends up being far from normal.
Where the previous two books have focused on bankers, lawyers, and actuaries, this one shows off a kind of portfolio manager, specializing in personal investments. There are more characters at play than normal, but they're all interesting and I think the time devoted to each is appropriate. Overall, it's all of the same things I've enjoyed from Max Gladstone's other stories with some new ideas.
I'm interested to see how this series works out chronologically. In the series of five books, this is the third published but the fifth in terms of timeline. It's an ambitious idea to tell a series-long story non-linearly, but so far it seems to be working. I'm excited to fill in the blanks with the next two installments.
There isn't as big of an emphasis on the Craft this story, and I'll admit that it's something I missed about Three Parts Dead. Most of the magic is based on gods and worship, which sort of feels a little too normal for these books. But, as usual, the story itself is new and inventive and ends up being far from normal.
Where the previous two books have focused on bankers, lawyers, and actuaries, this one shows off a kind of portfolio manager, specializing in personal investments. There are more characters at play than normal, but they're all interesting and I think the time devoted to each is appropriate. Overall, it's all of the same things I've enjoyed from Max Gladstone's other stories with some new ideas.
I'm interested to see how this series works out chronologically. In the series of five books, this is the third published but the fifth in terms of timeline. It's an ambitious idea to tell a series-long story non-linearly, but so far it seems to be working. I'm excited to fill in the blanks with the next two installments.
captaincymru's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
songwind's review against another edition
5.0
Book 3 of the Craft Sequence continues to examine the relationship between gods, magic, and humanity through the lens of commerce. Or was it examining commerce through the lens of magic and religion?
The setting of the book is intriguing. An island archipelago is both a vacation destination and money haven. In this post-God Wars reality, where the priesthood was left with no gods to serve, they have become brokers of sorts, creating sub-divine idols as repositories for others soulstuff (aka money.) The tropical paradise tourism industry places a premium on things being just so, and no untidy ugliness to distract the guests. Between these two forces, the poor and unfortunate fall into the cracks with very little chance for help or advancement.
The story itself revolves around the idols in the priests' mutual fund cum tax haven, and whether they're really what everyone says they are. By the end, several old faces from the first two books have made an appearance as well, and just like those books, things will never be the same again.
The setting of the book is intriguing. An island archipelago is both a vacation destination and money haven. In this post-God Wars reality, where the priesthood was left with no gods to serve, they have become brokers of sorts, creating sub-divine idols as repositories for others soulstuff (aka money.) The tropical paradise tourism industry places a premium on things being just so, and no untidy ugliness to distract the guests. Between these two forces, the poor and unfortunate fall into the cracks with very little chance for help or advancement.
The story itself revolves around the idols in the priests' mutual fund cum tax haven, and whether they're really what everyone says they are. By the end, several old faces from the first two books have made an appearance as well, and just like those books, things will never be the same again.
itsfreelancer's review against another edition
4.0
Reading this series has given me immense joy and frustration. The chronology is all out of order and I've followed the publication order because I believe that is what the author intended. So far, so good. Book 1 was at Alt Columb, Book 2 was at someplace I'm sure I'll remember later and Book 3 is at a place called Kavekana which basically means Hawaii for me.
Thankfully, there is someone from Book 1 over here and therefore I'm glad to know that yes, I'm reading the same series.
Meet Kai and Izza. One lady priest of gods who are dead in the wars and the other, a child who is playing priest to kids who follow her. Here, neither Gods nor Death Kings ruled until Kai heard an idol that she made, speak poetry.
Welcome to Pandemonium.
Thankfully, there is someone from Book 1 over here and therefore I'm glad to know that yes, I'm reading the same series.
Meet Kai and Izza. One lady priest of gods who are dead in the wars and the other, a child who is playing priest to kids who follow her. Here, neither Gods nor Death Kings ruled until Kai heard an idol that she made, speak poetry.
Welcome to Pandemonium.
skycrane's review against another edition
4.0
Full Fathom Five is much slower-paced than its predecessors, more atmospheric and emotional. Don't get me wrong, it's still a quick and exciting read compared to epic fantasy or most non-genre literature, it's just a bit slower than the others in the series.
In thinking about Full Fathom Five, I finally really get what this series is about. It's about the Death of God, in the philosophical sense. Now that I say that, it's pretty obvious. Most of the conflict in the books so far has come as a consequence of the God Wars, in which man literally rose up and killed the gods. This has had some benefits as well as some downsides. The main benefit is that humanity is no longer shackled to tradition. No more blood sacrifices. People can aspire to rise above their stations. Old prejudices are dying and being replaced by a sort of global meritocracy. The downside is that in this new world without gods, humanity has struggled to create meaning. People live empty lives devoid of purpose. The rich and powerful have taken the place of the gods, but they don't have the same kind of connection their people, and so often use their power selfishly, with no moral qualms at destroying the lives of others. For all their flaws, the gods enforced a kind of unity, followed a code, and kept watch over their people. Even those chosen to be sacrificed at least knew that their lives held purpose. But this is a world ruled by Crafts(wo)men and Concerns. It is essentially a world where capitalism has replaced religion as the governing system.
Kai is an investment manager for a fund that specializes in helping foreigners avoid paying their taxes. She's a native of Kavekana (which resembles Hawaii even more clearly than Dresediel Lex resembled Los Angeles), a tropical island whose main economic activities are resorts and offshore wealth funds. Of course, what they say is that they are a religious order that builds, maintains, and worships idols, which are constructed to specification for a mostly foreign clientele who would prefer that their soulstuff goes to an idol of their choosing rather than their local religious authorities. As usual in this series, the real-world comparison is pretty funny. It takes a few pages to really understand what it is Kai does, but as soon as the whole "tax haven" aspect comes up, it all snaps into place. Kai is rather good at her job, except for one flaw: she takes the religious aspects of her work a little too seriously. An idol dies (the balance of soulstuff goes negative) after a risky investment goes awry, and instead of just letting it die, as is standard practice, Kai dives into the pool of... stuff where the idols are kept to save it. It still dies, but not before whispering a cryptic message to Kai. Her boss transfers her to customer service as punishment, the idol's owners hire a lawyer (a familiar face for readers of the series) to investigate the loss of their funds, and Kai begins to suspect there's a deeper mystery.
However, Kai is an ambivalent hero. She says she's digging into the mystery because she's afraid it's a secret that their angry client will use against the order in court. She wants to protect the order and regain the trust of her boss so she can return to her old position. But what seems to be her real drive is that she only truly feels like herself when she's in the pool with the idols. Kai is a woman adrift. Her personal relationships have all failed, she's not on speaking terms with her family, and she spends almost all of her time working. The only source of meaning in her life is working with the idols, which is essentially a simulacrum of religion. As her order constantly reassures its clients and employees, the idols are not gods. They are too simple and lack any kind of conscious awareness. They're completely unable to form thoughts or communicate. Except that's not quite true, and now Kai knows it.
The other major character is Izza, a refugee and orphan who lives on the streets. She and the other orphans recently discovered a deity, which reached out to them in a weakened state and helped them survive on the streets in exchange for their worship and offerings. The problem is that gods are forbidden on the island of Kavekana (the authorities want to protect their lucrative idols from divine interference) and their deity is really the latest in a series of gods, each of which was mysteriously killed some time after reaching out to the orphans. This latest death is the last straw for Izza and she declares that she's leaving the island and the younger children she's been looking after. She knows that she's close to the age where any infraction is punished by involuntary servitude (criminals are imprisoned inside stone golems called Peninants and forced to act as the island's police force), and she's not planning on waiting around until she gets caught. However, she has a chance encounter with a woman who managed to fight off two Peninants (another character readers of the series will recognize), whom Izza helps escape and hide, and she decides to wait until this woman recovers so she can flee the island with her.
Like Kai, Izza is ambivalent and unsure. She says that she's done helping the other kids, that she's saving up so she can run away, that's she's tired of serving the gods they find only to inevitably lose them. But at the same time, she can't truly cut herself off from her old life. Her role in the community of orphans as their leader and priestess gave her life meaning, and even though she's terrified of staying, she's also afraid to leave that behind.
I think this ambivalence is core to Full Fathom Five. The characters are unsure of what to do. Not only do they not know what is right, they don't even know what they want. This was present to some degree in Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise, but it's much more palpable in this book. It's the main source of the slower pacing; the main characters start out lost and only gradually find their way over the course of the book. Overall, I think this is very effective, with structure and narrative both serving the core themes of the book. Of the three Craft Sequence books I've read so far, I think Full Fathom Five best expresses what the author is trying to say with this world. It's still an exciting fantasy novel with very strong characterization, but it also has a much clearer message.
In thinking about Full Fathom Five, I finally really get what this series is about. It's about the Death of God, in the philosophical sense. Now that I say that, it's pretty obvious. Most of the conflict in the books so far has come as a consequence of the God Wars, in which man literally rose up and killed the gods. This has had some benefits as well as some downsides. The main benefit is that humanity is no longer shackled to tradition. No more blood sacrifices. People can aspire to rise above their stations. Old prejudices are dying and being replaced by a sort of global meritocracy. The downside is that in this new world without gods, humanity has struggled to create meaning. People live empty lives devoid of purpose. The rich and powerful have taken the place of the gods, but they don't have the same kind of connection their people, and so often use their power selfishly, with no moral qualms at destroying the lives of others. For all their flaws, the gods enforced a kind of unity, followed a code, and kept watch over their people. Even those chosen to be sacrificed at least knew that their lives held purpose. But this is a world ruled by Crafts(wo)men and Concerns. It is essentially a world where capitalism has replaced religion as the governing system.
Kai is an investment manager for a fund that specializes in helping foreigners avoid paying their taxes. She's a native of Kavekana (which resembles Hawaii even more clearly than Dresediel Lex resembled Los Angeles), a tropical island whose main economic activities are resorts and offshore wealth funds. Of course, what they say is that they are a religious order that builds, maintains, and worships idols, which are constructed to specification for a mostly foreign clientele who would prefer that their soulstuff goes to an idol of their choosing rather than their local religious authorities. As usual in this series, the real-world comparison is pretty funny. It takes a few pages to really understand what it is Kai does, but as soon as the whole "tax haven" aspect comes up, it all snaps into place. Kai is rather good at her job, except for one flaw: she takes the religious aspects of her work a little too seriously. An idol dies (the balance of soulstuff goes negative) after a risky investment goes awry, and instead of just letting it die, as is standard practice, Kai dives into the pool of... stuff where the idols are kept to save it. It still dies, but not before whispering a cryptic message to Kai. Her boss transfers her to customer service as punishment, the idol's owners hire a lawyer (a familiar face for readers of the series) to investigate the loss of their funds, and Kai begins to suspect there's a deeper mystery.
However, Kai is an ambivalent hero. She says she's digging into the mystery because she's afraid it's a secret that their angry client will use against the order in court. She wants to protect the order and regain the trust of her boss so she can return to her old position. But what seems to be her real drive is that she only truly feels like herself when she's in the pool with the idols. Kai is a woman adrift. Her personal relationships have all failed, she's not on speaking terms with her family, and she spends almost all of her time working. The only source of meaning in her life is working with the idols, which is essentially a simulacrum of religion. As her order constantly reassures its clients and employees, the idols are not gods. They are too simple and lack any kind of conscious awareness. They're completely unable to form thoughts or communicate. Except that's not quite true, and now Kai knows it.
The other major character is Izza, a refugee and orphan who lives on the streets. She and the other orphans recently discovered a deity, which reached out to them in a weakened state and helped them survive on the streets in exchange for their worship and offerings. The problem is that gods are forbidden on the island of Kavekana (the authorities want to protect their lucrative idols from divine interference) and their deity is really the latest in a series of gods, each of which was mysteriously killed some time after reaching out to the orphans. This latest death is the last straw for Izza and she declares that she's leaving the island and the younger children she's been looking after. She knows that she's close to the age where any infraction is punished by involuntary servitude (criminals are imprisoned inside stone golems called Peninants and forced to act as the island's police force), and she's not planning on waiting around until she gets caught. However, she has a chance encounter with a woman who managed to fight off two Peninants (another character readers of the series will recognize), whom Izza helps escape and hide, and she decides to wait until this woman recovers so she can flee the island with her.
Like Kai, Izza is ambivalent and unsure. She says that she's done helping the other kids, that she's saving up so she can run away, that's she's tired of serving the gods they find only to inevitably lose them. But at the same time, she can't truly cut herself off from her old life. Her role in the community of orphans as their leader and priestess gave her life meaning, and even though she's terrified of staying, she's also afraid to leave that behind.
I think this ambivalence is core to Full Fathom Five. The characters are unsure of what to do. Not only do they not know what is right, they don't even know what they want. This was present to some degree in Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise, but it's much more palpable in this book. It's the main source of the slower pacing; the main characters start out lost and only gradually find their way over the course of the book. Overall, I think this is very effective, with structure and narrative both serving the core themes of the book. Of the three Craft Sequence books I've read so far, I think Full Fathom Five best expresses what the author is trying to say with this world. It's still an exciting fantasy novel with very strong characterization, but it also has a much clearer message.
shalini_gunnasan's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed the worldbuilding in this one! Especially references to the Swiss bank, insurance schemes, mutual funds and the like. I really adored Pratchett's Discworld universe, and Gladstone's world-building mimics that aspect of Discworld and satisfies my craving for a "connected" world. Recommended!
iceman76's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sandygx260's review against another edition
4.0
At first I wasn't sure if Gladstone would pull this one off, but he did, drawing the characters together for one helluva ending which made perfect sense.
squirrelsohno's review against another edition
4.0
3.75/5
Not my favorite of the series so far (I've read 3, 4, and 5 in the chronological order so far) because the ending just seemed really convoluted in order to neatly put the pieces in order, but so imaginative and fun.
Not my favorite of the series so far (I've read 3, 4, and 5 in the chronological order so far) because the ending just seemed really convoluted in order to neatly put the pieces in order, but so imaginative and fun.