No one can write a multi-character pile up the same way Max Gladstone does. Back in 2024, I reviewed the second book in his Craft Wars series, Wicked Problems, which marked the start of the Craft World’s Infinity War Moment. Nearly every man woman and dog (or snake) that we had crossed paths with previously all managed to cross paths with each other. And it was quite explosive.
Dead Hand Rule is the direct continuation of the events of Wicked Problems. All the great powers have gathered in Alt Coulumb on very short notice, in order to discuss the problem of the Skazzerai. An event, which Tara notes, is nothing short of a miracle. No one, of course, wants to deal with the end of the world. But everyone, it seems, wants to make sure than in the aftermath of current events, they can manoeuvre their way to the top.
Although this first half of the book unfolds rather slowly, it really shows off how much Gladstone has built up over eight installments and how carefully he has laid out his set pieces. One of these pieces is the one and only Belladonna Albrecht, a close associate of Elayne Kevarian and one of the founders of the firm Tara Abernathy used to work for: Kelethres, Albrecht, & Ao. She’s been mentioned quite a few times in the past with something apporaching reverence, so it was a shock to see her stroll onto the page. And now that she’s here, I have to say I love her characterisation. The lady knows how to perform violence with both flair and a war hammer.
A slightly more unexpected shock though was the introduction of her bratty daughter, Donnie. Or maybe she’s her mother’s clone, I was a little uncertain. If mother is an acerbic goth, her daughter is a pink-clad Buffy the Vampire Slayer fangirl. She’s obviously being set up for so much more, but for most of Dead Hand Rule, I was content to watch her and her college-girl antics. I also adored her loving, golden retriver-maybe boyfried Gav. He’s very endearing, but obviously he’s being built up for something more as well.
But aside from Tara and Dawn, the two main players in this conflict, the main character I was watching for here was Eberhard Jax, our multi-billionaire in a world where currency is made of soul-stuff. I knew he was up to something in the last book, no matter how intent he was on shying away from the direct spotlight. And I have to say here, I was right to be suspicious of him; Jax has been keeping a tight eye on both Dawn and Kai—our overtly supernaturally girl and the strongest market trader in the world—and he’s known about the Skazzerai for quite a while. While I think he is much more charismatic and intelligent than our real life tech bros, he seems to share one thing in common with them; he thinks he, and he alone, is the only one smart enough to take the reins, save the world and steer it in the ‘right’ direction.
And look, while is is smarter (and better dressed) than our modern day tech-dweebs, that doesn’t mean he, too, isn’t prone to dangerous over-confidence.
But if the first part of the book involves slowly unfolding the parchment, the second half absolutly incinerates it. Did anyone really think this supernatural G20 was going to go off without a hitch? Gladstone has probably sprayed more accelerant here across the pages than he did in Wicked Problems, and Wicked Problems was pretty damned explosive in its own right. And just like Wicked Problems, Dead Hand Rule was exhausting; good but exhausting.
But everything seems to be coming full circle; the first book in The Craft Sequence started with Tara Abernathy being expelled from The Hidden Schools. There is something called the Argent Library—linked to these schools—that seems to be the lynchpin for a number of characters here in Dead Hand Rule. It’s also evident that Jax and the Deathless Kings are not the only players accustomed to playing the long game—someone else may have been playing for much longer.
And that someone else is a massive dick.
Dead Hand Rule is not the last stage of the Craft War; we have at least one to go. And the wait is going to kill me.
For cbr18bingo this is Versus – its the whole world against an existential threat.
