Last First Snow

Gladstone adds to his outstanding Craft sequence with a tense legal thriller (the first volume chronologically, but the fourth one published) centered on the Skittersill Rising, an event that sets the scene for the events of 2013’s Two Serpents Rise. Twenty years after the defeat of the gods of the land called Dresediel Lex, Craftswoman and lawyer Elayne Kevarian attempts to broker a land management deal for the Dresediel Lex neighborhood of Skittersill. Interested parties include the King in Red, a conqueror of gods; landholder Tan Batac; and priest Temoc Almotil. An encampment of protesters, defiant in the face of impending gentrification, complicates matters. As the specter of civil unrest looms, Elayne navigates old enmities, conspiracy, and rampant greed. Meanwhile, Temoc is torn between his responsibilities to the protestors who look to him for leadership, and his love and devotion to his wife and young son. Gladstone’s gift for vivid storytelling, his deep empathy for his characters, his sly satire of current socioeconomic issues, and the rich, diverse world of his novels have become reliable pleasures, always enthralling and somehow consistently improving with every book. (July)