Hey all. I’m back with the sequel to Last First Snow! It’s Two Serpents Rise, a Craft Sequence Novel, by Max Gladstone!
Plot Synopsis: Shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc―casual gambler and professional risk manager―to cleanse the water for the sixteen million people of Dresediel Lex. At the scene of the crime, Caleb finds an alluring and clever cliff runner, Crazy Mal, who easily outpaces him. But Caleb has more than the demon infestation, Mal, or job security to worry about when he discovers that his father, Temoc―the last priest of the old gods and leader of the True Quechal terrorists―has broken into his home and is wanted in connection to the attacks on the water supply.
Plot: This entry takes place two decades after the events of Last First Snow, and Caleb the son of Temoc is our new protagonist. It was really interesting to see how the events of the Last First Snow shaped him into the character we meet again in this entry. Temoc on the other hand is also changed from the past book and we get to see another side of him as well. This entry was less Law and Order than Last First Snow, but it’s still very much feels like an Urban Fantasy version of Law and Order. I read this entry in a single sitting, which should tell you how engaging the book is.
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Characters: Caleb is our new protagonist and he’s very different from Temoc or Elayne from the past book. Speaking of Elayne I’m really disappointed we didn’t see any more of her, but given the strange order of publication of this series I’m not too upset. Teo is my favorite side character in this entry, and while we get to see Temoc again he is much different compared to the last entry. Kopil, The King in Red also shows up in this entry and I found myself much more sympathetic to him in this entry than the last one. As for the reasons for all of these changes to the characters I’ll leave it to you to read and find out.