Four Roads Cross
We’re so alone, she thought. We touch one another too firmly and wound or break, or else we pull away. We tell stories in which we are lone noble heroes, until we stand face-to-face with a goddess and see something older and bigger than each of us because it is each of us, our souls touching, the subtle interaction at a distance of minds with minds, when we reach the edge of loneliness and teeter uncertain at the brink.
Fifth book in the Craft Sequence, though fourth chronologically – plus, a direct sequel to the first book.
Featuring a returning goddess trying to build her flock, dragons as jumbo jets, otherworldly demons tied to legal contracts, gargoyle poetry, some slightly horrifying necromantic magic, a sunbathing skeleton drinking a cocktail, Tara godsdamn Abernathy, several characters who have accidentally become prophets and/or priestesses, and the horror of student loans.
Published 2016, Tor.com
Summary of Four Roads Cross
(from publisher)
The great city of Alt Coulumb is in crisis. The moon goddess Seril, long thought dead, is back—and the people of Alt Coulumb aren’t happy. Protests rock the city, and Kos Everburning’s creditors attempt a hostile takeover of the fire god’s church. Tara Abernathy, the god’s in-house Craftswoman, must defend the church against the world’s fiercest necromantic firm—and against her old classmate, a rising star in the Craftwork world.
As if that weren’t enough, Cat and Raz, supporting characters from Three Parts Dead, are back too, fighting monster pirates; skeleton kings drink frozen cocktails, defying several principles of anatomy; jails, hospitals, and temples are broken into and out of; choirs of flame sing over Alt Coulumb; demons pose significant problems; a farmers’ market proves more important to world affairs than seems likely; doctors of theology strike back; Monk-Technician Abelard performs several miracles; The Rats! play Walsh’s Place; and dragons give almost-helpful counsel.
A nerdy deep dive into demographics of POV characters in the Craft Sequence.