In his 8 March 2024 newsletter update, Max Gladstone announced that the Craft Wars TRILOGY was becoming the Craft Wars SERIES, with the addition of a fourth book. Bolding my own:

In the run-up to Wicked Problems, I think it’s time to share the launch schedule for the rest of the Craft Wars. Here we go:

- Book 2, Wicked Problems, April 9, 2024

- Book 3, Fall 2025

- Book 4, Fall 2026

- Oh, right, speaking of which: there’s going to be a book four!

Here’s what happened: I wrote Wicked Problems in a fugue state during the Pandemic, mostly waking up at 4:30 to get a solid day’s writing in before our kiddo woke up. In that year, any attempt at planning seemed to be an exercise in futility. Anything less than pure immersion and the exhaustion and distraction of the moment would overwhelm. The only way forward was to write a story that tugged me along with demonic energy.

There’s a funny thing about writing longhand, though: you don’t know quite how much you’ve written. It’s longhand, right, so it must be shorter than if I were typing? Which works fine until you sit down to type it up.

On the one hand, I found myself a manuscript of Tad Williams-esque length, enough to strain Tor’s budget for ink and paper, not to mention the material limits of binding glue. On the other—there was a clear break point two thirds of the way through the manuscript, and the back third had a really fun core concept that I had known, even as I wrote it, did not have enough narrative room to unfold to its most perfect shape in that draft—even as the first section bulged oddly where I set up characters and setting for the second. So, really, I’d written two books, neither of which was quite done.

I’ve spent most of the last year finishing them both, so they’ll land as a one-two punch, each full-formed in its character. I’m re-reading Book 3 right now and it’s great—more full, unified, pacy, and deep than it was in first draft. And once that’s off to Tor, pretty soon… Whew! Book 4 will be a wild ride. I can’t wait to share it with you.

As yet we don’t have a title or cover, but hopefully that will come soon.

If you haven’t subscribed to Gladstone’s newsletter, you can do that here.

Don’t forget you can subscribe to be the first to hear about new articles, updates, and fun projects in the pipeline. Like what we do here? Tips welcome on ko-fi to help pay for the site