Julia's Reviews > Full Fathom Five

From the titles to the page, the first three books in the Craft Sequence marry numbers with magic. The stories themselves explore different parts of society, but always on the bedrock of a spiritual economy, with soul stuff being traded and bartered to power the world. FULL FATHOM FIVE weaves together new and old characters on an island of idols and mysteries, creating a slowly building hope that is impossible to resist.

As with THREE PARTS DEAD, this story starts in the clinical mechanics of a spiritual economy, and builds to hopes of a more balanced world, if no better or "perfect" than the good intentions that preceded it. Having familiar faces from prior books working in the background added particular weight to the job of unraveling motives and mysteries in this book. And with the addition of Kai, a priestess once born in the body of a man, and Izza, an orphaned refugee living in the cracks and shadows of society, the story presents both the center and fringes of a narrative in alternating chapters.

The Craft Sequence series works best when grounded in an accessible world, and the flowing character perspectives of FULL FATHOM FIVE give a gorgeous human weight to events as they unfold. Gladstone is a master at building contagious emotions, and FULL FATHOM FIVE will once again take readers from wonder to despair to the most delicate of hopes.

Sexual content: References to sex.