Ruin of Angels
“No city is one city, as no one mind is altogether and only itself. A woman is many women, a man is many men, a city is many cities—not in sequence, but all at once.”
Sixth book in the Craft Sequence, and sixth chronologically.
Featuring three worlds/cities stacked on top of each other, squid gods, performance art as cutting edge science, amusing descriptions of gentrification, the clash of old and new, a heist, a reckoning with colonialism, a genuflection to librarians…what more could you want?
Ruin of Angels is also described as the linking book between the first arc (numbered titles) and the Craft Wars series. I would argue it fits more neatly with the first arc.
Hidden Schools articles about Ruin of Angels
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.
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.
A nerdy deep dive into demographics of POV characters in the Craft Sequence.
With 44 POV characters across 8 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?
Need a reminder of the plot of the Craft Sequence before reading Wicked Problems? You’re in luck - the first seven books all summarised neatly here.
Everything you need to remember from RUIN OF ANGELS before reading WICKED PROBLEMS. Characters, plots, and the importance of the book for the rest of the series.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
In Quechal mythology, the skazzerai are demonic spiders at the end of the universe spinning webs between the stars. We have evidence they’ve visited the world of Craft before ‘to eat’ - and it looks like they’re going to play a part in the CRAFT WARS endgame. So, what’s the deal with the space spiders?
The OFFICIAL Craft Sequence timeline, translated from the German timeline in the cover of Drei Viertel Tod.
Summary of Ruin of Angelsd
The God Wars destroyed the city of Alikand. Now, a century and a half and a great many construction contracts later, Agdel Lex rises in its place. Dead deities litter the surrounding desert, streets shift when people aren’t looking, a squidlike tower dominates the skyline, and the foreign Iskari Rectification Authority keeps strict order in this once-independent city–while treasure seekers, criminals, combat librarians, nightmare artists, angels, demons, dispossessed knights, grad students, and other fools gather in its ever-changing alleys, hungry for the next big score.
Priestess/investment banker Kai Pohala (last seen in Full Fathom Five) hits town to corner Agdel Lex’s burgeoning nightmare startup scene, and to visit her estranged sister Ley. But Kai finds Ley desperate at the center of a shadowy, and rapidly unravelling, business deal. When Ley ends up on the run, wanted for a crime she most definitely committed, Kai races to track her sister down before the Authority finds her first. But Ley has her own plans, involving her ex-girlfriend, a daring heist into the god-haunted desert, and, perhaps, freedom for an occupied city. Because Alikand might not be completely dead–and some people want to finish the job.
We know that the Craft Sequence has a weird chronology, but what is the actual timeline across the series? How old are characters during different novels.
We’ve worked it out from references in the books – and updated it with new information.