The city we spend most of our time in, Alt Coulumb, has a single god for the entire municipality. This setup allows for a huge variety of godly situations. Gods are conscious and have distinct personalities, but they’re always a bit unusual, as a god’s personality is evershifting based on the communal mood of their faithful. In a move reminiscent of Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, the gods of this setting are created by the combined faith of their worshippers. That’s partly down to good plotting, but it also helps that the gods are built in from the ground up. Three Parts Dead portrays a world where gods walk among us performing miracles for all to see, and it’s one of the few stories where that premise doesn’t go horribly wrong. My last worldbuilding critique wasn’t exactly glowing, so it’s a nice change returning to the towering spires and thundering trains of Alt Coulumb, a city protected by none other than its patron fire god, Kos Everburning. But how is the worldbuilding? Does Gladstone create a fully realized world full of living characters and fascinating mystery, or is the setting little more than window dressing for the plot? Spoiler alert: it’s the first one, and I’m happy to tell you why. A while back, I wrote an article about how good its big plot twist is. I'll absolutely cop to bardolatry-I think he more than deserves the hype.Three Parts Dead is a fantasy novel by Max Gladstone. Then there's Gaiman and Pratchett, who each ate my life in high school at one time or another The Sandman and the Discworld are required reading for modern fantasy, I think.Īnd, well. I haven't returned to it in years, where I have returned to these others-but Dune is just so damn cool. Can't read it enough.įrank Herbert's Dune. Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown is an entire epic fantasy with a kickass, well-drawn heroine packed into maybe two hundred fifty pages.

His writing's sharp and innovative he builds worlds to keep human hearts there.ĭorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles are bangup awesome historical fiction, with-once you get used to her diction, which is velvet-lush and honey-thick-some of the best pacing and most topsy-turvy plots I've ever seen. The Amber books are fun but were never as much a keystone for me as they are for others. Roger Zelazny, especially his mythological work-Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Darkness, Jack of Shadows. The Amber books …more Here's the easy list: Max Gladstone Here's the easy list: Roger Zelazny, especially his mythological work-Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Darkness, Jack of Shadows.

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone