Wicked Problems
core novel 2024 The Craft Sequence
Record
| First published | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.24 (721 ratings, collected 2026-08-20) |
| Page count | 480 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780765395931 |
Synopsis
Wicked Problems continues directly from Dead Country in the Craft Wars arc. A catastrophic force has been unleashed upon the world, and Tara Abernathy allies herself with a god in a desperate attempt to turn back the coming apocalypse. Their joint effort, however, appears to have triggered the very crisis they meant to prevent, placing the foundations of the Craft itself, and the lives of billions who depend on it, at risk. Two young, strong-willed characters push forward with little regard for the collateral damage their actions cause, while events loom that include the possible resurrection of a dead deity, the destruction of a mountain, and the theft of ancient power. As gods and Craftsmen alike scramble to respond, Tara must reckon with her role in unleashing the danger and find a way to contain a threat that grows larger the harder anyone tries to stop it.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Craft Sequence
- Series: The Craft Sequence core; position 8 of 9 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Max Gladstone
Notes
- From the series record (The Craft Sequence): The first six novels are each independently standalone within one shared world rather than a single strict reading order (the author's own note); the final three, marketed as 'The Craft Wars', form a direct continuation that does run forward in time book to book. All nine are treated as one Core Canon sequence per this project's usual practice for a single author's continuous secondary-world project.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Craft Sequence: position 8 of 9: previous Dead Country (2023) · next Dead Hand Rule (2025)
Sources
- Encyclopedic overview: The Craft Sequence
- Author's own series page: The Craft Sequence
- https://www.maxgladstone.com/writing/wicked-problems/
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