Mike's Reviews > Dead Country

The Craft series up until this book has been some of my favorite speculative fiction. As others have said, this book is smaller and more personal. The high concepts are still there but nowhere near as prominent. I enjoyed the book and related to the lead as someone who also grew up in the country and found themself in the city.

Having said all that, it just fell a little flat for me. The main character seems less fleshed out than in previous books and the side characters don't feel fleshed out at all. Not a lot happens until the last act and there's a weird side plot involving Tara's least favorite townsperson that doesn't quite work.

A bad Max Gladstone book is still a good book (with the exception of Last Exit) but this just didn't have the magic I was expecting. It felt more like a conventional fantasy novel. Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not what I was hoping for.