"A god has died, and it's up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart. Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis's steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. Tara's job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who's having an understandable crisis of faith. When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb's courts--and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb's slim hope of survival. Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning …
"A god has died, and it's up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart. Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis's steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. Tara's job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who's having an understandable crisis of faith. When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb's courts--and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb's slim hope of survival. Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs. "--
What a great writer. Learned after the fact that he’s one of the co-authors of “This Is How You Lose the Time War”. Makes sense.
The ideas here felt new and exciting. Exposition and world-building doesn’t happen in clunky blocks like it does in so many books. It takes real skill not to frustrate readers when you throw together dead gods, magic from starlight, gargoyles, vampires, contract law, and a whole lot more.
I picked this up for two reasons: 1) I'm always looking for books that engage the drama of economic and political life, and 2) with the next Locked Tomb book still months away, I needed a messy necromancer fix.
This book delivered on both, with a solid murder mystery and some fun action sequences to boot.
Mankind has figured out magic and power similar to but lesser in scale than the gods. One of the things that the magicians (called Craftsmen and Craftswomen) do is similar to lawyers, involved in arbitrating disputes that involve magical contracts.
Tara is a recently expelled graduate of the Hidden Colleges, recruited by a Craftswoman from one of the major firms, and her first case involves arbitrating the unexpected God of a city.
While clearly fantasy, this was much more a legal or "jaded private eye" novel.
Very, very nice. I can see why so many of the genre sites I peruse speak so highly of this series. Took me a while to get through, but only because I've been constantly distracted these last few weeks.
