Empress of Forever, by Max Gladstone

This book started out like it might be some kind of near future commentary on a more authoritarian United States, as so many stories have been for awhile. Then our protagonist (Vivian Lao) gets yanked out of that picture and thrust into another universe that feels like the very far future, where we have something called the Cloud that is kind of like an IT Cloud, in that all the information in it is available everywhere, all at once. And we have an Empress ruling over all of the civilized part, saving it from a more wild part by destroying it, maybe.

The book repays thinking about it after you read it. The story line is a bit tired and familiar, as the Guardians of the Galaxy comparison suggests. But the plot twists lead it in very interesting directions. The ultimate point is an exploration of friendship and connection--and the point is not very subtly made.

Overall I'm glad I read it, even though a lot of the ground is familiar. There's enough good stuff going on to make it entertaining and worth the read.

My Goodreads Review

This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

I'm really starting to dislike time travel stories, because this is pretty much how you have to tell them. They aren't "stories" because stories have beginnings, middles, and ends. Time travel stories have no end. So the description of how a time war would work is pretty right on. And it's good to have an accurate framework to hang your "story" (narrative, tale, whatever) on.

The book is a love story, unapologetically so. Some are reading this as LGBTQ+, but the relationship between Red and Blue is not in any way sexual--it is agapic, if anything. The love is fueled by the highly cryptic means by which they communicate--letters as patterns in feathers, burning paper, flavors, etc. The descriptions of the form the letters take is probably my favorite part of the book.

That said, in order to truly enjoy it you have to enjoy romance of this sort. While I value it, it doesn't excite me the way a good space opera does. It was an interesting read, and well executed, but in the end just OK for me.

Goodreads Review

Three Parts Dead, by Max Gladstone

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The sixth book in the sequence, The Ruin of Angels, was up for a Locus fantasy award but I like to read books in the order written, so just picked this one up. It was one of my favorite reads this year, and has held up well. As a first novel, it's pretty amazing, in fact.

The world Gladstone builds works with familiar fantasy themes (schools of magic, magic as Law), but approaches them very differently from most of the work I've read recently. It's a world where humans wrested control of Craft (magic) from the Gods (who have limitations, like highly enhanced humans) and left it in a very complicated place. If you like world building this is really great stuff, as the explanation is a strong presence in the story without totally taking over the plot. And Max Gladstone knows how to end a book--the ending was exciting, powerful and unexpected in several ways.

Some reviewers have made much of Tara being a black heroine. Yes, the cover illustration is a black woman, and Gladstone describes her as having dark skin in the book. But there is no indication that this matters or is a factor in any way. It's a default universe, that is to say, White. Not throwing shade, just saying it as it is. Contrast this with N. K. Jemisin's work, where characters are not identified racially but the racial metaphor is very clear.

All that said, I really enjoyed the book and just might read more.



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