In my review of Dead Country, I commented that having Tara Abernathy as the protagonist made sense, because if there was a main protagonist of the Craft Sequence, it was Tara. This book made me realize there’s a much better way to handle the concluding trilogy of the Craft universe: have the whole gang come together. I would say this book has four protagonists: Tara, again, but also Caleb Altemoc from Two Serpents Rise and Last First Snow, Kai Pohala from Full Fathom Five and The Ruin of Angels, and (very interestingly) Dawn from Dead Country. We also get appearances by Abelard and Shale (much more substantial than their cameos in Dead Country), and Elayne Kavarian, and Teo Batan, and the King in Red, and more I will not be mentioning because of spoilers. As the great sage Kronk said, it’s all coming together.
The feeling of everything coming together was one of my favorite parts of this book (and all the “So … you two know each other then?” moments as the cast crossed paths were just plain fun). The various events in Alt Coulomb and Dresediel Lex and Kavekana all have consequences that are playing out here, and (I suspect) the events of those books shed light on the mysteries of this book as well. I had intended to re-read the Craft Sequence before Dead Country, and had really really intended to re-read it after finishing Dead Country, but I never made the time and am kicking myself for it. I have a general sense of what happened in those books, enough to not be lost in this one, but I know I missed a great deal.
This book follows up on the two threats revealed in Dead Country, both the eldritch horrors approaching from the stars and REDACTED. The book is essentially divided into two competing camps: Team Tara and Team Dawn. Each camp is worried about the other, but each is also worried about the whole approaching eldritch horror thing as well. And there are other players on the board, with goals we don’t really understand.
Unsurprisingly, given how Dead Country ended, Tara’s overdeveloped sense of responsibility plays a big part in events. Normally I don’t have much patience for the trope where the protagonist is all, “I must do everything myself and protect everyone” and the protagonist’s friends are all, “Knock it off, you unseasoned chicken wing, we’re helping.” But here it works and works well.
It’s also worth mentioning that Tara has been more or less free of any romantic entanglements in the Craft Sequence, which I’ve generally appreciated. That’s no longer the case, and it’s adorable and I love it.