Dead Country

“She had left an eager angry witch-girl, drunk on sweet hope and intimations of power that would have soured if she stayed. She had returned a sorceress and a shell, betrayed by her teachers and by the world of Craft she’d hoped to master. They used her and cast her out, but she refused to die.”

Seventh book both chronologically and in publication order, and the first of the capstone quartet ‘Craft Wars’.

Featuring homecoming, necromancy, monstrosities both undead and other, deep emotions and grief about family, a reality storm in a warped God Wars landscape, goats, curses, and the prospective end of the world. And it’s basically a character study of Tara Abernathy, so you know it’s GOT to be good.

Both a continuation of the existing arc and the start of a new one, Dead Country is a perfect introduction or re-introduction to the series. It tightly follows one character and POV so while newbies may get a bit confused by some of the references, it is designed to be an entry point for new readers.

Hidden Schools articles about Dead Country

Essays
Demographics of POV characters (UPDATED 2026)
Demographics of POV characters (UPDATED 2026)

A nerdy deep dive into demographics of POV characters in the Craft Sequence (updated for Dead Hand Rule).

POV Distribution in the Craft Sequence (UPDATED 2026)
POV Distribution in the Craft Sequence (UPDATED 2026)

With 50 POV characters across 9 books, who has the most narrative page-time in the Craft Sequence so far? Who are the ‘main’ characters, and what does that mean for the story?

Crafting your argument (and reality) | How Magic Works in the Craft Sequence
Crafting your argument (and reality) | How Magic Works in the Craft Sequence

Craftsfolk are necromancer-lawyers, and as such a significant part of how they perform magic is via a strong argument, and asserting their truth onto reality. This essay looks at the magical components of a Craft argument.

How Craft Sequence characters know each other (part 2)
How Craft Sequence characters know each other (part 2)

Wicked Problems has so many characters meeting up, hooking up, fighting (...up?) that we need an update to the character connections post - so here's even more ways characters know each other.

The perfect Craft Sequence reading order (+8 more options)
The perfect Craft Sequence reading order (+8 more options)

It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that the order of books in the Craft Sequence is confusing. The author himself has said as much.

But have no fear, intrepid reader – we have pulled together NINE different reading orders for you to choose from.

The story so far... Dead Country
The story so far... Dead Country

Everything you need to remember from DEAD COUNTRY before reading WICKED PROBLEMS. Characters, plots, and the importance of the book for the rest of the series.

Who - or WHAT - is Dawn?
Who - or WHAT - is Dawn?

Dawn is possibly the most important new character we meet in Dead Country - yet we learn perishingly little about her. Who exactly is Dawn? And is ‘who’ even the right question?

Character Connections
Character Connections

The Craft Sequence is a sprawling series with characters showing up in different narratives and meeting all sorts of characters. This somewhat crazy article tracks the connections between the main characters in a conspiracy theory style wall.

Tara Abernathy's Childhood and Upbringing | Craft Sequence Character Deep Dive
Tara Abernathy's Childhood and Upbringing | Craft Sequence Character Deep Dive

Our upbringings shape us, for better or for worse. What was Tara Abernathy’s childhood and upbringing like? How did it shape the woman she became? Part of the Tara Deep Dive series.

The Body, the Others, and what Denovo did in the desert | Space Spiders
The Body, the Others, and what Denovo did in the desert | Space Spiders

Third in the skazzerai series. Tara has learnt a lot about the demonic space spiders en route to the Craft world, but it isn’t until the end of Dead Country that she finds out their connection to her old nemesis Alexander Denovo - and what he did in the desert.

Who is Alexander Denovo and what does he want?
Who is Alexander Denovo and what does he want?

Alexander Denovo looms large over the Craft Sequence despite his early death. As his influence comes back in the Craft Wars trilogy, we ask: who is he, and what does he want?

Visions in the Edge Storm | Space Spiders
Visions in the Edge Storm | Space Spiders

A magical storm showing every possible future now only shows one: the end of the world. What did Tara and Dawn see in the edge storm? What does that mean for the rest of the Craft Wars trilogy?

What has Tara learnt about the skazzerai since Alikand? | Space Spiders
What has Tara learnt about the skazzerai since Alikand? | Space Spiders

The end of the world is coming. Tara and her allies are gearing up to fight the skazzerai, spider-like creatures from deepest space - but how much do they (and we) know about this great enemy? Here’s everything we find out in the first half of Dead Country.

Craft Sequence DRAGONS as planes and weapons (part 2)
Craft Sequence DRAGONS as planes and weapons (part 2)

We’ve looked at almost every reference to dragons in the Craft Sequence, so now we’re bringing out the big guns - figuratively and literally. Read on to see how dragons act as magical jumbo jets and also corpse WMDs - yes, literally.

Every reference to DRAGONS in the Craft Sequence (part 1)
Every reference to DRAGONS in the Craft Sequence (part 1)

In honour of Tor Books’s 5th annual Dragon Week, here’s an unplanned article about EVERY SINGLE dragon reference in the series. Part 1, because it turns out there’s way more than I thought. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Who is Tara Abernathy? | Craft Sequence Character Deep Dive
Who is Tara Abernathy? | Craft Sequence Character Deep Dive

Tara Abernathy is the main character of the CRAFT WARS trilogy, and a major protagonist of the CRAFT SEQUENCE series. But who is she? How does she develop over the series so far? This introduction to Tara Abernathy starts our new character deep dive series - check it out.

Summary of Dead Country

Since her village chased her out with pitchforks, Tara Abernathy has resurrected gods, pulled down monsters, averted wars, and saved a city, twice. She thought she’d left her dusty little hometown forever. But that was before her father died.

As she makes her way home to bury him, she finds a girl, as powerful and vulnerable and lost as she once was. Saving her from the raiders that haunt the area, twisted by a remnant of the God Wars, Tara changes the course of the world.

Max Gladstone’s world of the Craft is a fantasy setting like no other. When Craftspeople rose up to kill the gods, they built corporate Concerns from their corpses and ushered in a world of rapacious capital. Those who work the Craft wield laws like knives and weave chains from starlight and soulstuff. Dead Country is the first book in the Craft Wars series, a tight sequence of novels that will bring the sprawling saga of the Craft to its end, and the perfect entry point for this incomparable world.

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