This book is the beginning of the Craft Wars trilogy, which marks the end of the Craft Sequence. I’ve been a fan of the Craft books for a long time, and I am pumped for the concluding trilogy after reading this.
Insofar as the Craft Sequence has a protagonist, it’s Tara Abernathy, and she’s front and center in this book. She’s on the way to her hometown for her father’s funeral when she picks up something she never expected: an apprentice. She comes across a small town that’s been attacked by the same raiders who have been attacking her hometown and killed her father (people living in the Badlands, twisted by the leftover energies from the God Wars) and is able to rescue a girl before she is taken. The girl, Dawn, has some native abilities in using the Craft, and Tara reluctantly takes her on as a student.
There are three threads woven together in this book. The primary one is a journey of self-discovery on Tara’s part. She’s returning to the hometown that she ran away from as a girl, and that drove her out when she returned after attending, and being cast out of, the Hidden Schools. Who she was and who she is are a challenge to reconcile, made more so by Dawn, who reminds Tara of herself in ways she is distinctly uncomfortable with. Dawn makes Tara confront not only her childhood and her present, but her own training. The abuse, trauma, and eventual revolt that got Tara expelled. I love a journey of self-discovery, and this is an excellent one.
The secondary thread, though the one with most of the “plot,” as it were, is Tara working to defend her town against the raiders. There’s a lot of influence here from stories like the Seven Samurai/the Magnificent Seven.
The third thread is almost a background, but it’s got a lot of weight to it. Tara has learned, over the course of the Craft Sequence proper, that … something … is coming. Something(s) big, alien, and very hungry are making their slow way towards her world, crossing the vast distances between the stars. Tara doesn’t know what they are, or when they’re going to get there, but she knows it’ll be bad, and that the world isn’t ready. Nothing like a pending eldritch horror-induced apocalypse to focus the mind.
I do not have a single criticism about this book, with the possible exception of this: it’s been long enough since I read the Craft Sequence proper that I think I’m going to give them a re-read. I’m thinking I’ll do so in chronological order, rather than publication order, just for a change. I am extremely eager for the next book, and I want to be prepared.
Comes out on March 7.