Everything we know about 'Dead Country' (and Craft Wars)
On 2 June 2022, Max Gladstone nearly gave me a coronary as I checked my phone when leaving the cinema and found a surprise announcement for the next Craft Sequence book. In fact, the next Craft Sequence trilogy. It took me about three hours, a long walk and a 45 minute phone call to calm down enough to do anything productive - thank Seril it was a Jubilee bank holiday and I didn’t need to work.
Dead Country, the first book in the Craft Wars trilogy is due to be published in the US on 7 March 2023. As of the date of writing, that is about 37 weeks away. There’s lots of info still to come, so we will continually update this article and the Dead Country page elsewhere on the site.
Read on for every detail we currently know about Dead Country and the Craft Wars trilogy.
What’s the elevator pitch for Dead Country?
Coming Soon: DEAD COUNTRY, the first novel of the Craft Wars trilogy! Tara Abernathy faces her greatest challenge yet: teaching. And the end of the world. I guess that's two challenges.
DEAD COUNTRY vibes:
-weird west
-small town property work
-trauma, bonding, family
-giant law-magic battles
-wasteland of leaky Craft ordnance
-'oh no i'm in danger'
-big city necromantic wizard lawyer in small country town
How does this fit into the rest of the Craft Sequence?
Following Tara Abernathy, it takes place after the books so far in the series and is something of a capstone to the current main arc of the series as it stands. Also on Twitter, Gladstone says:
DEAD COUNTRY is the end of something and the beginning. The Craft Wars trilogy will bring the big arc of the series to an epic conclusion--but DEAD COUNTRY is also a great jumping-on point IMO, with a tight focus that grows with the story and characters.
Does that mean the Craft Sequence is coming to an end?
Not exactly. This will be the end of the main ‘big arc’, which I anticipate will bring all our main characters back together and somehow involve space spiders. I’m working on a whole series about what the future may hold so keep an eye out for that.
Gladstone has previously said that he would like to return to this world and its characters, maybe in different formats (graphic novel? novella? more games?), maybe different time periods, maybe characters we know or maybe some we don’t. Ending this arc doesn’t mean ending the Craft Sequence. In fact, it opens up so many more possibilities.
You’ve got my attention. Tell me more.
First of all, look at this STUNNING cover.
I may be a little bit in love.
But, more about the book! According to publishers Tor.com:
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 Trilogy, 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.
We also have a 1-minute ish video from Gladstone himself introducing us to the book, the trilogy, and his impressive board game collection being stored out of the reach of his toddler. I tried to embed it but it’s unlisted so no joy.
What else do we know about the Craft Wars trilogy?
Precious little. We know book two is called Wicked Problems, that Gladstone has just finished his handwritten draft, and that hopefully there won’t be much of a gap between Dead Country, Wicked Problems, and the as-yet-unnamed-publicly book three.
When is Dead Country coming out and how can I get my hands on it?
At the moment we expect Dead Country to be released on 7 March 2023 in the US. International release dates TBC. Previous Craft Sequence novels have only been released in e-book form in the UK so I’m praying to the Blue Lady for a hard copy release this time.
Pre-order links for a number of US outlets can be found here, but please also consider supporting any local indie bookstores near you or Bookshop.org when it becomes available.
There have been significant issues in the supply chain for books over the past year or so, which have impacted release dates for all sorts of books including Last Exit, so do note this may be subject to change.
Who designed the stunning cover?
The cover was designed by Goñi Montes, who also designed the Ruin of Angels cover. No offence to the original designs but I am OBSESSED with the new style and would kill for redesigns of the first five books. I also highly appreciate the addition of new colours, which I immediately added to the colour palette of this site.
(In case you hadn’t noticed, our colour scheme is taken from the Ruin and Dead Country covers #branding)
Do we know anything else?
Not much, other than this from Gladstone in his announcement newsletter (which you should follow, btw).
If you’ve been with me since Three Parts Dead, thank you, and get ready for one hell of a ride. If you (or someone you know) hasn’t read the Craft Sequence, I think this is a good place to start. The Craft Wars are a self-contained driving narrative, with a widening scope, and what you need to know, you’ll learn on the way. We start here with Tara, and as the trilogy progresses we’ll meet old friends and enemies, put faces to familiar names, and press beyond.
I’ve been working on these books for a while now. My goal has been to get as much of the trilogy done as possible before release—for a number of reasons, including the joy of revising earlier volumes to reflect later developments—and as I close in on the end of book two, it’s a relief to be able to talk about all this work in public!
We’ll keep you updated with everything we hear about Dead Country and the Craft Wars.
What do you most want to see??
