daNanner reviewed Two serpents rise by Max Gladstone
Review of 'Two serpents rise' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I kept trying to relate the geography to SoCal.
Two serpents rise (2013, Tor)
347 pages
English language
Published Aug. 6, 2013 by Tor.
"Shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc--casual gambler and professional risk manager--to cleanse the water for the sixteen million people of Dresediel Lex. At the scene of the crime, Caleb finds an alluring and clever cliff runner, crazy Mal, who easily outpaces him. But Caleb has more than the demon infestation, Mal, or job security to worry about when he discovers that his father--the last priest of the old gods and leader of the True Quechal terrorists--has broken into his home and is wanted in connection to the attacks on the water supply. From the beginning, Caleb and Mal are bound by lust, Craft, and chance, as both play a dangerous game where gods and people are pawns. They sleep on water, they dance in fire...and all the while the Twin Serpents slumbering beneath the earth are stirring, and they are hungry"--
I kept trying to relate the geography to SoCal.
As a lawyer and fantasy lover, I absolutely adore the Craft Sequence. Law is magic. Or vice versa. The characters are great and all have fairly memorable quirks, the world in an interesting place. Just an awesome series overall.
This book is in the same universe, but a different city than [b:Three Parts Dead|13539191|Three Parts Dead (Craft Sequence #1)|Max Gladstone|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333049511s/13539191.jpg|19101555], and explores the economy there in greater detail. (Spellings are going to be haphazard, since I listened to this as an audiobook and don't have access to the text.)
This is a good place to put down my thoughts about the reader: You guys, he was actually pretty decent, but every once in a while he would make a weird choice that annoyed me out of all proportion to its significance. Early on, he emphasized the word 'cravat' in a sentence. Why 'cravat'? WHY CRAVAT? He did really good work distinguishing the voices of the main characters, but I disagreed with his reading of one character's lines (Tio) in particular. I can't.
In many ways, this book is a conflict between two economic models. The model in place is …
This book is in the same universe, but a different city than [b:Three Parts Dead|13539191|Three Parts Dead (Craft Sequence #1)|Max Gladstone|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333049511s/13539191.jpg|19101555], and explores the economy there in greater detail. (Spellings are going to be haphazard, since I listened to this as an audiobook and don't have access to the text.)
This is a good place to put down my thoughts about the reader: You guys, he was actually pretty decent, but every once in a while he would make a weird choice that annoyed me out of all proportion to its significance. Early on, he emphasized the word 'cravat' in a sentence. Why 'cravat'? WHY CRAVAT? He did really good work distinguishing the voices of the main characters, but I disagreed with his reading of one character's lines (Tio) in particular. I can't.
In many ways, this book is a conflict between two economic models. The model in place is the thaumaturgical economy in which everything is bought using fragments of one's soul. (This is the same model in place in Three Days Dead, but in this book, it becomes extremely plot-relevant.) This is basically capitalism, but with the soul used as currency. I am undecided as to whether this is a brilliant commentary on capitalism, or sort of trite and obvious.
The competing model is human sacrifice, and it is to the book's credit that it manages to make this seem, if not a reasonable alternative, than at least a compelling one. The people in the book are "Quechal" which is pretty clearly modelled on the Aztecs. Their temples are pyramids, and many of the words used ("coatl", most notably) are from Nahuatl, the language used by Aztecs, and still spoken today.
(Which is why it drove me bugshit that the narrator can't pronounce the 'tl' cluster that is so characteristic of the language. The word 'coatl' (serpent in Nahuatl, used in the book to mean a particular flying serpent) appears approximately eight dozen times in the book, so yes, I noticed. ANYONE FROM MEXICO CITY COULD HAVE GIVEN THIS READING MORE AUTHENTICITY. Okay. I'm fine.)
The book takes place eighty years after the 'God Wars', in which the human sacrifice regime was overturned, Gods were killed and enslaved, and 'craftsmen' became the new ruling class. Craftsmen use thaumaturgy to work craft, using the souls circulating in the economy. (Much like someone on Wall Street does arcane magics using money that does not, strictly, belong to them, but that they control.) The craftsmen and women, however, tend to be outsiders; the Quechal populations of the city still battered from the brutal suppression of riots twenty years ago.
Okay, I think I've give you enough background.
The book's protagonist is Caleb Altemoc. His father, Temoc, was the last priest of the True Quechal, and has been running from the law for the last twenty years. Caleb works for an immense craft consortium, and definitely falls on the 'thaumaturgy' side of the economic argument. Temoc clearly falls on the 'human sacrifice' side.
(Temoc is an awesome character, but you know what would be great? If he had an advice column:
"Dear High Priest
My boyfriend is losing interest in me in bed. I've tried to spice things up, adding edible underwear, asking him to tell me about his fantasies, surprising him with sexy messages sent to his workplace by rat-messenger, but nothing seems to help. What should I do?
Signed, Worrying that My Boyfriend is Gay
Dear WtMBiG
Cut your boyfriend's heart out and sacrifice it on the altar to Quetzi.
Signed, High Priest Temoc"
Good light fun - highly recommended if that is what you're in the mood for.