Review Round-Up: Three Parts Dead
We’ve collected every review we could find of Three Parts Dead - the good, the bad, the uncertain. If we’ve missed one, let us know! Equally, if your review is linked here and you would like us to remove it, we’ll happily do so. Contact us here.
(Not including reviews on aggregate sites like Goodreads, listed in alphabetical order.)
A Bookish Type | November 2013
The world that Gladstone created is so rich and so unusual when compared to other examples of the genre that reading it is a breath of fresh air—at least until you start holding your breath when things get tense.
The characters are interesting and well drawn. The plot zips along, but has enough time to introduce the curiosities that the world’s economy created. The setting is richly described. You can almost see and smell the city streets Tara and her allies prowl and race down. But the pace never gets bogged down by overwriting or over-philosophizing.
Adventures in Vanaheim | January 2015
This is a world where there are few true deities left, where deities enter into contracts that are handled by firms that specialize in that sort of thing, where the city’s police force is made up of faceless ordinary citizens who temporarily give up control to a goddess. The nightclubs and courts of Alt Coulumb wouldn’t be out of place in any urban fantasy story, and yet it’s not set on Earth, but in a secondary world.
BestFantasyBooks.com | November 2013
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone is the sort of book I’d be unlikely to pick up in a bookstore because the cover gives off a strong urban fantasy vibe, and I don’t usually read urban fantasy. However, I’m really glad that I *did* accept a review copy of this book, because I would’ve missed out on something I ended up enjoying quite a bit. I am not always enthusiastic about elaborate fantasy mythologies and entire books revolving around fantasy gods, but I think I’ll add this book to my (short) list of stories where this works.
Bibliotropic | January 2015
I can’t stress enough how utterly complete this whole world feels. From the details surrounding the creation of deities and the parts they play in society, to dark pastimes after night falls, to how news is spread differently depending on where you live in the world, it really feels real. It’s plain that the author did a tremendous amount of worldbuilding, and that it’s a large talent of his. It’s the little details, too, the casual comments that get dropped about how things work, that make it all fit together.
Bookelfe | March 2014
I especially like how magical lawyering, like any profession, is both numinous and tedious (EXTENSIVE DOCUMENT REVIEW), and the nuanced portrayal of religious faith. Godlike beings exist; that doesn't make belief necessary -- for Tara, who is not a religious person, viewing Kos' corpse is just yet another factor in her case prep -- but it doesn't make it wrong, either. I feel like fantasy novels tip over very easily into "religious faith == MANIC ZEALOTRY," so I very much appreciated Abelard. And I truly loved Tara, and the fact that her main motivations throughout the book are tied up in a.) revenging a female friend, and b.) impressing her new female mentor. AND ALL HER ILL-ADVISED NECROMANCY. Okay, maybe that was only the once, but it was still really hilariously ill-advised.
So Three Parts Dead: great! Refreshing! Enjoyable! Interesting characters with interesting motivations!
Books, Bones and Buffy | November 2012
Max Gladstone is the kind of writer who assumes his readers are intelligent. Three Parts Dead might scare some readers off, as it jumps into the amazing world that Gladstone has created with very little explanation, but this is one of the many skillful things he does, and it would be a shame for anyone to give up so easily.
The story seems stuffed with so many ideas and characters, except it doesn’t feel stuffed. It all feels just right.
Bookshelf Pirate Reviews | July 2014
Three Parts Dead made me think hard about complicated stuff. It shoved me into a world not totally different from our own (lawyers still wear pinstriped suits) but built on a solid foundation of fantasy logic and magical properties (those lawyers argue their truths in violent magical combat on astral planes).
I recommend Three Parts Dead to fans of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, to readers of legal thrillers who want to start a really cool fantasy series, and to fantasy enthusiasts who are looking for a diverse cast of characters in uniquely modern situations.
Bookworm Blues | October 2012
Three Parts Dead is not what I expected. The title, at first glance, made me think of some vampire/zombie novel. It’s not that. In fact, Three Parts Dead is a wonderful mix of fantasy, steampunk, and complex mystery with a nice dose of humor added in for good measure.
Gladstone really brings the world to life with his fluid prose. He leaves nothing out, from complex social nuances to descriptions of buildings and the magic that infuses them. Mixed with all of this is a rich history that adds a lot of flavor and color to the world itself.
CS Malerich | January 2015
The premise is so cool and the execution so good, you might miss a few of the other sweet things Gladstone throws in just because well, I assume he’s an awesome person and committed to social justice: 1) Gladstone’s world doesn’t adhere to our notions of race, and the cast of characters are diverse in color, including our main character Tara; 2) when speaking in generalities or about a person of unknown gender, both narrator and characters (with few exceptions) use “she” instead of the universal “he”; 3) in keeping with steampunk’s usual Victorian aesthetic, characters ride in horse-drawn carriages here, but without drivers. Instead, they just pay the horse (who was always doing most of the work). Lovely.
Death Is Bad | July 2017
This is a snappy modern piece that hits all the important notes and left me admiring the ease with which it flowed. The book has some rough edges, but it’s got some real beauty in it too. Good story, imaginative setting, great characters – definitely Recommended.
Dinara Tengri | July 2017
It's a straightforward, confident novel, with an exciting story, which rests on a foundation of a well-realised world. Gladstone borrows elements and tropes from an array of different genres, such as fantasy, steampunk, and vampires, and incorporates them into his own unique universe. And he does it, for the most part, successfully.
Elitist Book Reviews | January 2013
Gladstone’s prose is fluid and descriptive, and easy to read despite the density of the different elements of the novel. I loved how weird it all was, the jiving of different ideas and even genres, mixing up urban fantasy with mystery, legal thriller with sword & sorcery, and a little steampunk thrown in for flavor.
The English Student | February 2021
Actually I didn’t find it a hugely compelling novel, partly because of the ideological problems I’ve talked about above: it reproduces capitalist orthodoxies in its fantasy world without really saying anything about them, and I’m not sure how interesting that is, ultimately.
FanFiAddict | June 2021
Max Gladstone brings an amazing writing style to his debut novel. It is smooth and refreshing while being though provoking and intellectual at the same time. I felt like I was learning something new about the English language every time I read a chapter.
Fangs for the Fantasy | November 2012
In the end, it was solely determination to finish this book rather than a desire to see where this story was heading that got me to the end of Three Parts Dead. There was just so much that went unexplained that it was really hard to get into this story. I enjoyed the framing of religion in this story but at the same time, it was so intricate that I found myself pausing and re-reading to assure that I was understanding the information being provided.
Fantasy Book Café | January 2013
It’s difficult to sum up my thoughts on Three Parts Dead. Part of me loves it since it’s not a dumbed down book that spells everything out for the reader, it has some really interesting characters who are intelligent and competent, and it has a great ending I was not at all expecting. Another of me doesn’t because there were times that the story itself bored me, despite all its other wonderful qualities, and I had some reservations about the amount of world detail. However, I do think it is a stellar debut, and the author has an excellent handle on writing, characters, and imaginative world-building.
Fantasy Book Critic | April 2013
What really makes this book isn't the world-building, though; it's that all of the POV characters are set up as competent in some ways, but by the end they all must do the thing they believe they cannot do. Every single one of them. The moments of epic just pile up until the very final scene, which is pretty much the best ever. I think I re-read that scene three times before I finally convinced myself a scene that awesome really had just happened.
Fantasy Book Review | Ryan Lawler
This wide array of eclectic characters bring a lot of banter to the table, and it makes this book so much fun despite it being a book about finance, accounting, and paying off creditors.
Three Parts Dead offers a unique experience to traditional fantasy and urban fantasy enthusiasts alike. Gladstone has mixed elements from a variety of different genres to create expansive and complex world, and then allows the reader to explore a single part of this world in detail through a tightly bounded story. I haven't even touched on the gargoyles, the supernatural police force, the extra-dimensional libraries, or the court-room battle arenas. I want to read more Craft books. I need to know more about this world.
The Fantasy Hive | November 2017
I was a bit unsure going into this one, as many reviews I’d read about Three Parts Dead contained phrases like “acquired taste” and “you’ll either love it or hate it”. I actually neither loved nor hated it, but found it to be a fun read full of interesting twists.
Gladstone’s world is fresh, original and dark; a steampunk-inspired blend of gods and magic and technology.
Fantasy Faction | September 2014
The narrative requires a small buy-in of your time. That is, you’ll have to work a little bit to follow the influx of characters. Gladstone never goes so low as to info dump but he does dive straight into the world and expect you to figure it out and follow along. You shouldn’t worry it will ever be too much though, as the prose includes a healthy dose of fun and freedom that makes it much easier to swallow.
Gladstone struck gold when he wrote this secondary-world fantasy that explores modern society. It features all of the things we love about fantasy in a world that is familiar yet strange. In this book you’ll find echoes of your own life, just with more starlight-fueled magic.
Fantasy Literature | March 2016 | (multiple reviewers)
John: Max Gladstone blends a plethora of ideas, ranging from vampires to magic to steampunk technology and adds interesting characters and a plot that is predictable but still enjoyable. The result is memorable.
Kat: Totally unique. I enjoyed the story but felt a little lost in the world sometimes — it’s so inventive that I never felt quite grounded. I did, however, like the characters and the story.
Marion: The first novel a writer publishes should have something that needs fixing. It doesn’t even have to be big. I know that most writers’ first published novel is not the first novel they’re written, but still. So when I find a book like this; solid world-building, a cohesive magic system, interesting characters, that also has a fascinating story, great descriptions, snappy dialogue… you see where I’m going with this? What am I supposed to say, as a reviewer?
Bill: The ways in which Gladstone uses fantasy’s ability to allow the metaphoric to become literal is wonderfully fun (and sometimes funny). Seriously, what can better convey the idea of a “faceless corporation” than a literally faceless CEO? Or the soul-sucking impact of materialism better than money that literally comes from your soul? The CRAFT world as clear analog for our own adds a stimulating intellectual/social/philosophical depth to the series, one that should provoke some hard thinking (and self-examination) in any reader.
Far Beyond Reality | December 2015
Three Parts Dead is one of the most fun and original fantasy novels I’ve read all year, and you should read it too. “Fantasy novel” in this case really means something that falls smack in the middle of the (probably very tiny) Venn diagram overlap between bizarre second-world steampunk tale, urban-ish fantasy à la Miéville, and John Grisham-like legal thriller that features, among others, living gargoyles and seven foot tall animated skeletons known as Deathless Kings. It’s really something else, this book.
Giles Orr | March 2015
I enjoyed him just hurling concepts and pieces of his world at the reader, leaving you to file it and figure it out later. Gladstone figures you have the brains to keep up. And, more importantly, he writes well and makes it worth your while.
Gizmodo | November 2012
The greatest strengths of the novel lie in the characters and worldbuilding. Gladstone throws you into his world headfirst and there is a lot of history that the reader does not know. One of my main criticisms is the pacing the beginning of the book, which can make the full immersion of the world a bit more difficult to take. The first chapters are a little confusing. But once Tara and Mrs. Kevarian actually arrive in Alt-Coulumb, the story finds it's rhythm.
The Hidden Schools | August 2020
Three Parts Dead is a strong opening to the series, with excellent characterisation, mostly strong worldbuilding, tight plotting and good writing. Its flaws are improved upon in later books, which is a sign of a good writer. This remains one of my favourites of the series, in large part because the Tara-Elayne double act is unparalleled.
Intellectus Speculativus | August 2016
Three Parts Dead is legal-economic fantasy; Gladstone plays with the way that combination lets him deconstruct the way capitalism works, the way failures of corporations cause systemic collapses, the ways we prop up and sustain corporations that have gone bankrupt. That he does this through metaphors of gods and magic make his central theses no less true; that he uses brilliant characters to explore implications make them no less applicable to the modern, real world.
James Nicoll Reviews | August 2014
I am very annoyed at the people who have been selecting my reading material for the last 13 years for not having ever sent me a Max Gladstone book and with Gladstone for not having more books in print now that I have discovered them.
James Reid | October 2017
The world building here is better than almost any other contemporary fantasy setting, both intricate in its detail and coherent in its design, and the plot is a fast paced exciting mix of reveals, courtroom drama, and dangerous confrontations. In fact this undersells Gladstone’s achievement here, what he does with this, and indeed the whole craft series, is to take the social and economic advances that we have made, and translate them to a world based on magic, rather than science, creating an analogue of the modern world born from a magical revolution rather than an industrial one.
Jennifer Povey | Feb 2015
Oh, where do I start? Urban fantasy is often seen as sort of synonymous with contemporary fantasy - but it doesn't have to be.
Three Parts Dead combines urban fantasy with some elements of steampunk (it doesn't really have the costumes) with legal thriller with mystery.
John Mendez | February 2019
I last read this book in 2014, and I have to say that the story has only improved with age. Max Gladstone tells a parable of vampires, magic and eldritch deities which has more in common with modern day international law, banking and dirty-dealing than anything out of the Tolkien or G. R. R. Martin.
KA Ashcomb | March 2020
This is one of those books people seem to praise. And I get it why people love this so much. Yet, there is one downside in the book. It is messy with a messy start, searching for direction. There was also a lot of messiness going on with the magical system, how the world is constructed, and parts of the plot.
Kara Reviews | July 2013
I overwhelmingly enjoyed Three Parts Dead. I’m still on a bit of a high, tingling from it despite having finished it two days ago. This is one of the best, original fantasy novels I’ve read this year (and I’ve read some pretty good fantasy this year). I’m very much looking forward to the next story Gladstone wants to tell.
Kirkus Reviews | October 2012
Oh, you misleading cover, you! I almost did not read Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead because everything about the cover screams urban fantasy, which I haven't been in the mood for lately. That said, Three Parts Dead is a legal thriller in a fantasy setting, featuring a bunch of well-written female characters. All three main female characters here—Tara, Elayne and Cat—are written with depth and care. They all have agency, different motivations and backstories that are wholly independent as their lives do not exclusively happen in relation to that of any man.
The Little Red Reviewer | April 2014
Three Parts Dead is easily one of those most unique novels I have read in a long time. It’s one thing to give us a fully drawn world full of living Gods who make bargains and contracts with mortals (so much protection for so much devotion, and the like), but it’s a whole ‘nother story to show us the dark sides of those bargains.
Three Parts Dead is everything that’s right about how to make a fantasy world work and feel completely real. It’s everything that’s right with what you can do with writing and plot, and history, and character, and how to be fresh and unique.
Lynne M Thomas | March 2017
While the first half of this felt a little slow because the groundwork was being laid, the second half of the book takes off at full throttle because everything was built well. Very worthwhile read.
Marzie’s Reads | January 2018
If anything, this is a series of books that improves upon rereading. Each book broadens the original concepts of the Craft world, builds on characters that are woven throughout the series and gives us a rich tapestry. It's a rare thing to find truly original fantasy worldbuilding. (Just when you think it's all been done and only the characters will change, along comes Max Gladstone.) These books give us that unique world. But they also give female readers the rare satisfaction of well-written female characters created by a male author.
Matt Hilliard | April 2013
The biggest problem here is a reliance on punchline worldbuilding. You won’t know this term–I made it up while writing the previous sentence. The formula is to take something familiar from our world and give it a thin fantasy veneer that makes it humorous and interesting. Three Parts Dead isn’t so densely packed with punchlines, but they remain the core aesthetic of the worldbuilding, giving us moments like a legal document review that involves an out of body experience and drug addicts who get high on being bitten by vampires.
Novel Notions | November 2018
I was continuously fascinated by how imaginative every factor of this book was. Necromancy, Craftsmen flying on lightning bolts, city-ruling gargoyles, floating cities, and Courtroom of Craft (this part was absolutely brilliant) were just a few things on how originally brilliant and well-crafted—see what I did there?—the world-building was.
Pasternus Books | January 2016
Not once did my attention wander - and it nearly always does, no matter how good a book is. Even my very favorites have passages that put me to sleep or characters or tropes that are just plain irksome. Not with Three Parts Dead.
The Quill to Live | Aug 2016
One of my favorite things when reading is to stumble onto a book that gives me a new experience. It isn’t required for a book to be great, but it can rapidly catapult a book to the top of my reading list. If you create something that I can get nowhere else, I am willing to forgive a lot of flaws in an author’s written prose, and if there aren’t a lot flaws then you have written something that will sit in my top tier of books.
Russ Allbery | December 2014
I've read some good stories where the protagonist gets dragged into the story against their will, and some of them are quite good, but it's refreshing to read a book about someone who takes to the story like a duck to water.
This is a great first novel. It's not without its flaws, but I enjoyed it from beginning to end, and will definitely keep reading the series.
Saffron Bryant | November 2019
I did what any sane person would do: I did a Google search for ‘Cool Magic Systems’ and Max Gladstone’s Three Parts Dead came up. It sounded intriguing, so I dived in.
And aren’t I glad I did!
SciFi Fan Letter | October 2012
I really enjoyed Gladstone's writing style, with its occasional bouts of subtle humour and subversion of expectations. He threw in 'big words' occasionally, not often enough to be irksome if you don't know what they mean, but he used two words (one I knew, one I had to look up) incorrectly.
This book is well worth reading for the plot and characters. It has one of the most brilliantly tied up endings I've read in quite some time. If you're looking for a different kind of fantasy, one with excellent world building and a complex mystery, here's your book.
SF Signal | October 2012
The plot is full of twists and turns, largely fast paced but sometimes lacking in momentum. In a world where man decided to take the power of the gods’ into his own hands, the magic is beautiful and fearsome to behold (the way it should be). Three Parts Dead is just as entertaining when the protagonists are researching in the library and battling in the courtroom as when they are engaged in pitched combat
SFF Book Reviews | May 2014
The pacing is spot on, even the side-characters are multi-layered and genuine, the plot is engaging and offers a few nice surprises along the way. I did have some minor problems with the world building in that there could have been more of it. But the author avoided exposition to such an extent that I was left confused at times. At which point the characters or plot put their hooks back in me and I had to read on anyway.
Strange Horizons | November 2012
Three Parts Dead is a debut novel to make you sit up and take notice. In recent years I've read a bare handful of debuts as mature and accomplished as this one. I've read a bare handful of novels, debut or not, that succeeded not only in being this vibrant and this inventive, but in bringing the vast majority of their disparate and sometimes hectic strands together into a successful conclusion.
Three Parts Dead is a wild ride that sticks the dismount, is what I'm saying.
Tim Lepczyk | June 2016
While Three Parts Dead is a cool idea, it feels like Gladstone is struggling to find his voice. The book reads as though Terry Pratchett, J. K. Rowling, and China Miéville were forced to sit in a room and write a draft. There are moments of humor that seem straight out of a Pratchett book, but whereas Pratchett’s entire novels are satire, the humor clangs too-loud and off kilter next to the seriousness Gladstone strives for. The cool concept seems like a Miéville storyline.
Tor.com | October 2012
Max Gladstone’s Three Parts Dead is a fantasy that doesn’t read like a fantasy, partly because the protagonist, Tara Abernathy is an associate contracts lawyer: you don’t typically get one of those as your heroine. Except that it works, not only because Tara and her boss Elayne Kevarian are damn good at their jobs, but also because those contracts define the structure, accessibility, and use of magic, called Craft. The world also includes familiar fantasy elements–from magical boarding schools to vampires to almighty gods–but gives them a fresh take that immediately draws you in.
Worlds Without Ends | Nov 2013
This whole mystical/legal/economic system is unlike anything I’d ever read before, and this is really only scraping the top of all of the fun ideas in the story. Everything in the world fits together like the cogs and gears of Kos’s steam-powered city, Alt Coulomb, and the details are revealed at a pace that always left me wanting to know more.
In short, this was a very entertaining novel, and I am looking forward to seeing what else Max Gladstone has in store. The characters were memorable, the world was vibrant, the magic was fresh and unusual, and the story was engagingly complicated. This is a novel where pretty much everything seemed to fit together perfectly, and it was a joy to read!