Alexandra Pierce Reviews Wicked Problems by Max Gladstone
Wicked Problems, Max Gladstone (Tordotcom 978-0-76539-593-1 $19.99, 464pp, tp) April 2024. Cover by Goñi Montes.
Max Gladstone’s new Craft Wars novel Wicked Problems feels like the sort of book that should have a relatively clear-cut binary of heroes and villains. Maybe the heroes would be tarnished, maybe the villains have some redeeming features; but the overall story – terrible things from beyond the void are coming and maybe the only way to deal with them is to destroy the world – sounds like a heroes-and-villains story. Gladstone, however, refuses that route for something more complex and more fascinating.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Wicked Problems is the sympathetic way Gladstone presents pretty much everyone: the being-known-as-Dawn (exactly what she is now, after merging with the other being in series opener Dead Country, remains opaque – even to herself), who wants to destroy the world for its own good; Tara Abernathy, recklessly self-sacrificial; characters who have betrayed their loved ones and their principles, who are misguided and reckless and stubborn. There are two clear sides – Dawn’s and Tara’s – and each thinks the other side is wrong; but Gladstone doesn’t agree with one side or the other, and so neither does the reader. The real evil are the skazzerai: world-destroying, soul-sucking monsters from beyond the stars. They, however, are still only a distant threat – a threat that ultimately drives much of the action, but is barely present in the story itself.
Wicked Problems opens just a few weeks after the end of Dead Country. You could read this by itself, but it wouldn’t be ideal, because then you wouldn’t fully appreciate the choices that have led to Dawn merging with a being that’s not quite a god, but is also not not a god, either. Nor would you appreciate the weight of responsibility on Tara’s shoulders as she seeks desperately to rectify what she sees as her mistakes, made manifest in what her student Dawn has become. Her sense of duty fuels every good and bad decision that Tara makes, and thus drives much of the narrative. The novel is set in the same world as Gladstone’s Craft Sequence (you don’t need to read it first; there’s enough background to be getting on with). The world has some advanced technology, both scientifically based and magical; use of magic requires portions of soul, which can be traded on a commodities market, and around which there are extensive legal regulations. It’s a world still dealing with the aftermath of the epic god-wars that completely rearranged much of the way society functions, and some of those repercussions are still being felt in this story.
Where Dead Country was intensely focused on Tara, and Dawn to a lesser extent, and took place largely in Tara’s tiny little hometown, Wicked Problems sprawls: Much of the world is visited, especially the big cities, and the points of view of several different characters are followed. On the one hand is Dawn, together with the avatar of her symbiont/partner/something-or-other, the serpent Sybil. They are seeking a source of power so that she (they) can avert the approaching armageddon set to be wreaked by the skazzerai, and Dawn is willing to pay any price to do so. On her side are the warriors Mal and Temoc, neither of whom is without baggage – including with each other. The source of power they end up chasing is itself something-like-a-god, and waking it up may in turn have unknown consequences. Meanwhile, on the other hand, Dawn’s erstwhile mentor Tara is also running around the world trying to find and stop Dawn; assistance for her comes particularly from Kai Pohala, the Kavekana priestess. Tara’s friend Abelard (a priest), along with Caleb Altemoc (doesn’t want to be a priest), have their own reluctant adventures while trying to help Tara. (All of these characters will be familiar to readers of the Craft Sequence; you could certainly start with this series and then read the earlier ones for backstory.)
This is very much the second act in a three-act play. Dead Country set up the main characters, made Dawn what she is, and introduced the threat from beyond the stars. Wicked Problems sees Dawn start to understand who and what she is now, and has Tara attempt to deal with the consequences of her and Dawn’s actions. The final pages make it clear there must be a third book (at least!), which will (presumably) see a dramatic finale for all concerned, including the skazzerai. Personally, I can’t wait – and I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen.
Alexandra Pierce reads, writes, podcasts, cooks and knits; she’s Australian and a feminist. She was a host of the Hugo Award winning podcast Galactic Suburbia for a decade; her new podcast is all about indie bookshops and is called Paper Defiance. Alex has edited two award-winning non-fiction anthologies, Letters to Tiptree and Luminscent Threads: Connections to Octavia E Butler. She reviews a wide range of books at www.randomalex.net.
This review and more like it in the February 2024 issue of Locus.
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