This dedication is portrayed sympathetically and as a perfectly reasonable response to the stresses and pressures she is under meanwhile her relationship with Claude is shown as taut and strained, and all too human on both sides. Kai’s centre is her dedication to her work and to the truth once prevented from working, she seeks with all that is at her disposal to prove herself worthy of returning to work.

Queerness doesn’t form the centre of any character in Full Fathom Five, however. We’re also treated to the return of Teo, who is (approximately four years after the events of Two Serpents Rise still, we briefly learn, in her relationship with the artist Sam and the expression of feeling around that is tender and beautiful. She talks a little about her experiences of being in the wrong body, but more about the fact that being able to change to the right body was central to her personality now we also see through her thought processes how other cultures (for instance the Quechal of Two Serpents Rise) are perceived as treating what she calls the “wrong-bodied” among their societies. This review will contain SPOILERS for Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise.įull Fathom Five also continues the queer themes of the Craft Sequence Kai is a trans woman, we learn early in the novel, and this is the subject of barely any discussion (she’s simply accepted as a woman). In this instance, Gladstone takes on offshore tax havens, Swiss-style secret banking, and social invisibility.

But when Kai gets tired of hearing her boss, her coworkers, and her ex-boyfriend call her crazy, she starts looking into the reasons her creations die, and she uncovers a conspiracy of silence and fear – which will crush her, if Kai can’t stop it first.įull Fathom Five, the third/fifth installment in Gladstone’s Craft Sequence, continues both the readers’ exploration of the world of the Craft and builds on events in the prior novels, including bringing back a number of characters. When Kai sees one of her creations dying and tries to save it, she’s grievously injured – then sidelined from the business entirely, her near-suicidal rescue attempt offered up as proof of her instability.

Her creations aren’t concious and lack their own wills and voices, but they accept sacrifices and protect their worshippers from other gods – perfect vehicles for Craftsmen and Craftswomen operating in the divinely controlled Old World. On the island of Kavekana, Kai builds gods to order: idols that she then hands off to others to maintain.

Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone