Fiction Friday #4

three parts deadFrom Amazon: A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.

Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot.

Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith.

When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival.

Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs.

Why I recommend it: There are a lot of reasons I love this book and can’t wait to get my grubby little paws on the next two installments of the Craft Sequence, but the top one is the world-building. Alt Coulumb is so lush and vivid, and it feels like a very real place despite the fantastical elements to it. The system of magic is another phenomenal aspect of this book, as it feels both unique and very intuitive, once the reader has a working knowledge of it. It’s also worth noting that the main character is a Woman of Color, which is very refreshing when the urban-fantasy genre tends to not have a lot of diversity.