The Craft Sequence Buddy Read Book Five: Four Roads Cross, Review and Discussion

Tara Abernathy and Shale by Chris McGrath

Doing a Buddy Review while traveling and working on only 4 hours of sleep doesn't always go smoothly. You got my initial draft review (now in final form below) of the book itself yesterday if you're an email subscriber. Apologies! I reverted the post to draft form right around the time the emails go out, but evidently not quite fast enough. Snafu!

So here is the final actual review...

Four Roads Cross by Max Gladstone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Last year, when Max Gladstone's series was nominated for the new Best Series Award (not a Hugo in 2017, but now a Hugo for 2018 on), I raced through this book, so much so that I didn't remember much about it other than... friendship. The camaraderie in this book was simply off the charts. It makes Harry, Ron, and Hermione look wan. My reread built upon that impression.

This outing of the Craft Sequence finds us returning to Alt Coulomb and the characters of Tara, Abelard, Cat, Raz, Aev, and Shale, along with the gods of Alt Coulomb, Kos and Seril. About the latter two, we have an interesting paradigm about the limits of how much we support those we love, or can watch them suffer, without weakening ourselves. The world in this book is topsy-turvy. We have Craftswomen talking to goddesses and even partnering with them. The heart of this book lies in the bonds of real friendship and faith. There is the promise of romance with Cat and Raz, but Tara and Abelard, Tara and Shale, Cat and Tara, these people are truly friends and their faith is actually in each other. This book deepened my appreciation of how good-hearted Caleb is, how kind Abelard is, and how harsh the Craft is.

Four Roads Cross had an extremely complex narrative structure with many characters and multiple locations. It is a further and marvelous merging of the worlds that Gladstone has built in the prior four books. A tour de force effort and a thought-provoking entry on the boundaries of love and faith.

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Here is Part One of our discussion. Part Two, as usual, will be over on Alex's blog. Remember, spoilers abound!

Alex, Jenni and Marzie's Buddy Read Discussion of Four Roads Cross

Alex: Jenni, I am dying to hear your first impressions of Four Roads Cross.

Jenni: Well, I don’t have a take quite as hot and fresh as last month, when I finished reading the story literally minutes before. ;-) I actually finished this one about two weeks ago.

Alex: We’ll accept some slightly stale takes. ;)

Marzie: They have aged like fine wine, right? So what are your thoughts after mulling things over a bit? And, um, I'll stop the references to beverages now. But seriously, exactly how did you sit on this so long without ‘fessing up you'd finished? Hmm?

Jenni: :-D Well, first, unlike the last one, since I wasn’t steaming mad when I finished it, it was easier to be quiet.

 Marzie: So emotions were not running as high in this one for you?

Jenni: This book was such a pleasure to read! It was like coming back to visit an old friend after long and interesting travels!

Alex: I do love that the series kind of starts and ends with Tara as the MC. (If you read it in publication  order of course.)

Marzie: Well, there is Book 6 yet...

Jenni: I felt like books 2-4 were filling in the vital backstory, and they were great reads (great and/or infuriating?), but now I felt like we were settling down to business and we're going start delving into the future that all these characters are going to start building.

Alex: Book 6 is (not a spoiler) kind of a new act.

Marzie:  Since I haven’t read it yet (*shockwaves reverberate*) I guess I didn’t know it was part of a distinct Act 2.

Jenni: WHAAAAA? I’ve already started it…

Marzie:  I was saving it because I wanted to keep a few good books for after my kitty Pushkin passed. It released around the time he got sick. I wanted to have something to look forward to, to get me by.

  

Alex: Books 1-5 are a neat little unit and then Book 6, Ruin of Angels, picks up with other threads. I am hoping it will be another five book arc, but I haven’t heard news of additional books after Ruin of Angels.

Marzie:  Hmm. Yes, since Empress of Forever is not part of The Craft Sequence. This is a question for Max, though he may not be allowed to answer it yet.

Alex: We can ask, though.

Marzie:  So this book seemed to me to be the most complex yet since it was weaving together so many of the pieces from the other books. I missed Elayne, of course, but Tara holds down the fort so impressively.

Jenni: I think Elayne’s absence was inevitable. She belongs to, is inextricably tied to the old order, to the destruction of Gods. This book was about finding a third path that threads a needle between the God-dominated way before the Wars, and the rigid godlessness of the regime instituted by the Craftsmen and Craftswomen.

Alex: I agree that it is one of the more complex storylines, but it was nice seeing Tara stand without Elayne’s support. Especially as Jenni said, they’re navigating a new compromise between All The Gods and No Gods.

Marzie:  I definitely agree with the third path concept. And I think that the ability that Tara has to recognize that, and truly partner with Seril is a powerful resolution. Didn't you feel that she had taken a step beyond what Elayne did at the end of the Skitterskill Uprising by actually really sitting down and talking to a god-entities?

Alex: I think Elayne laid the groundwork, but Tara had more fertile ground to work with. In Dresediel Lex the Gods were the enemy and the Craft Environment was really hostile to them. In Alt Colomb, they had Kos and lived with him just fine, so it wasn’t too much of a leap for them to accept Seril back.

Marzie:  That’s probably true. Tara was already vital in stabilizing Kos and Seril’s situation and had laid good groundwork for being, if not always sympathetic to the gods, more open to their role.

Jenni: I don’t think I’d say that it was no big deal for Alt Colomb to welcome Seril back. There seemed to be some pretty hard feelings about her. She was viewed as more of an enemy/traitor to the city than the Craftspeople ever were, it seemed to me.

Marzie:  Well, I think there was a lot to be ambivalent about. Justice had not been a very good Seril fragment for Alt Coulomb. There had been a lot of injustice in the name of a rigid Justice.

Jenni: Indeed.

Alex: But the thin line between hate and love is just that: thin. Dresediel Lex didn’t even really have a boundary line because the King in Red burned it to the ground. At least there was a line in AC.

Marzie: Frankly, I was very taken aback by the King in Red’s assistance at the end of the book, with Keeper. That was unexpected and kind of weird.

You can read Part Two of our Discussion, including about the potential romantic relationships between Tara and Shale, and Cat and Raz, over on Alex's blog, here.

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