With Wicked Problems (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer Max Gladstone is presenting the middle piece of The Craft Wars Trilogy, a new subseries connected to his epic urban fantasy hexalogy, The Craft Sequence.
In the following email interview, Gladstone discusses what inspired and influenced this second book of three, how this series connects to The Craft Sequence, as well as whether or not you need to go back to the beginning of that series to comprehend this new one.
Photo Credit: Burki Gladstone
I’d like to start with some background. What was The Craft Sequence about, and what kind of a world were they set in?
The Craft Sequence is about people trying to live and grow and help each other out in a world of semi-divine boards of directors, necromantic capitalists, soul arbitration contracts; a world where a deal can change the world and a bargain can bring you back from the dead — a world not all that different from our own, in short. Only the wizards and zombies are literal, rather than metaphorical.
Next, what happened in Dead Country, the first book in The Craft Wars Trilogy, and when does this story take place in relation to The Craft Sequence?
In Dead Country, Tara Abernathy — one of the heroes of The Craft Sequence — goes back to her hometown in the country to attend her father’s funeral. She finds a home menaced by a mysterious force from the Badlands, last remnant of the magical war that ended the last age of the world. Together with her new apprentice, Dawn, she faces the danger — only to discover that it’s weirder and more terrifying than she had imagined: a true threat to the world she knows.
It’s a Western woman-comes-to-town sort of book, that goes apocalyptic fast.
Which brings us to the new book, Wicked Problems. What happens in this installment, and when does it take place in relation to Dead Country?
Wicked Problems kicks off a few months after Dead Country. Dawn is on the run, having merged with an entity of pure Craft. Tara’s chasing her, trying to stop her from changing the world forever. Their mutual pursuit will gather forces — and familiar faces — from throughout the Craftwork world.
If Dead Country was a Western, this feels a bit more like a Bond movie, or a thriller: fast-paced and globetrotting.
When in the process of writing Dead Country did you come up with the idea for Wicked Problems, and where did you get the idea for this second book?
I’ve had this entire arc roughed in for a long time, but the actual process of writing always challenges what I think I know about plot, character, setting, pace. Some of this book predates Dead Country, even — some of it only came into focus in the final drafts.
All of the Craft books so far have been epic fantasy stories. Is it safe to assume Wicked Problems is as well?
I’m not sure it’s safe to assume anything these days! I think epic fantasy readers will enjoy this one, though.
Obviously, Wicked Problems is not your first book. Are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Wicked Problems, but not on anything else you’ve written, and especially not any of the previous Craft books?
Wicked Problems is very different from the other Craft books, each of which revolves around a particular location (with some side-trips). It has that globe-trotting feel — so I’m likely pulling more from Gibson and Clancy and Dunnett than usual (though I’m always drawing from Dunnett).
What about non-literary influences; was Wicked Problems influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?
The Craft Sequence has always had a bit of a hat-tip to tabletop RPG concepts at its core — when you think about the nature of a ttrpg world [tabletop role-playing game], how something with magicians and clerics and paladins and belts of strength so forth would “actually” function, in the way of Multiplexer’s old Dungeonomics articles, you end up in a sort of weird through-a-glass-darkly Discworld-esque post-human cyberpunk dystopia, filtered through the Magic: The Gathering art team. Some of the nature of the Two Serpents Group, a sort of do-gooder organization that runs in the background of the book, came from realizing, while working for an NGO, that whatever good we were doing relied on fundraising from folks with a lot of money, some of whom weren’t particularly nice people — it wasn’t good guys vs. bad guys, it was good guys doing good things with power from the “bad guys” — so in a D&D context you’d have paladins empowered by lich kings. It was a rich vein for contemplation.
As we’ve been discussing, Wicked Problems is the second book in The Craft Wars Trilogy. So it’s obviously not the best place to start. But do people need to go all the way back to Three Parts Dead, the first book of The Craft Sequence, or can they start this saga with Dead Country?
I think you can start with Dead Country. Wicked Problems has a lot of continuity with the rest of the Sequence, and folks who’ve read the whole run will see some particular connections, but Wicked Problems teaches you almost everything you need to know.
And then, do you know yet what the third book of The Craft Wars Trilogy will be called, and when it will be out?
The third book’s out in October. No title yet that I feel comfortable sharing. I have committed the grave error of holding on to a working title until I like it too much.
There are undoubtably people waiting for that third book so they can read all three back-to-back. And while they should buy them now, so we’ll actually get that third book, do you think once it’s out that people should read all in rapid succession?
I write each book as a unit, even books in a closely tied series like this, so I put a lot of work into making each book functions on its own, as well as fulfilling a role in the series. I work on each volume until it’s done, and then I work on the next. That means I’m experiencing a delay between books as I write — I experience the wait, too. So in that sense, the gap between books is a part of the storytelling process — just like comics writers think about page turns.
But, because of the way publishing works, some people will absolutely find these books long after they’re done, and read them in a rush, and hopefully love them. That’s great too! I don’t think there’s a “best way” here.
Earlier I asked if Wicked Problems had been influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think The Craft Wars Trilogy could be adapted into some movies, a show, or a game?
I think this world could fit in a lot of different formats. I’ve written and released two interactive fiction projects in the world of the Sequence — “Choice Of The Deathless” and “Deathless: The City’s Thirst,” both of which slapped (in my not-so-humble opinion) — but interactive fiction and games have very different storytelling modes than novels do, and the storytelling modes of novels are different again from those of TV or film.
But if someone wanted to adapt Wicked Problems into a movie or TV show, who would you want them to cast as the main characters?
The world of the Craft is so big and bonkers that if someone wanted to throw an absurd budget at it, I think it would benefit from the Arcane treatment: vast, heavily worldbuilt animation. In live action, I don’t have a dream cast. I think the director or showrunner would be key. Noah Hawley’s work on Legion gave me goosebumps. I don’t know if this is a Hawley project, exactly, but I’d love to see what someone with that level of visual acuity and instinct would do with the material.
So, is there anything else you think people need to know about Wicked Problems?
Come for the hair-raising prison breaks, wizard duels, sexy parties and world-ending schemes, stay for the obscure multilingual opera jokes! Wait no, can I answer that one again?
Finally, if someone enjoys Wicked Problems, which of your non-Craft books would you recommend they check out while waiting for book 3 to come out?
I can’t think of a book with this exact energy. But for scope and pace I’d say Empress Of Forever, and for emotions and dread, Last Exit. Happy reading!
