Two Serpents Rise
- 350
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Two Serpents Rise” stands out for its world-building: a desert city of sixteen million, coloured by Mesoamerican myth. Caleb Altemoc, risk manager and casual gambler, is sent to deal with demons in the reservoir of Dresediel Lex, and the trail soon points towards his own father, a priest of the old gods. Parts of the plot, the ending included, are easy to see coming for some readers, who also feel the middle slackens a little.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
From the co-author of the viral New York Times bestseller This is How You Lose the Time War. Shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc—casual gambler and professional risk manager—to cleanse the water for the sixteen million people of Dresediel Lex. At the scene of the crime, Caleb finds an alluring and clever cliff runner, Crazy Mal, who easily outpaces him. But Caleb has more than the demon infestation, Mal, or job security to worry about when he discovers that his father—the last priest of the old gods and leader of the True Quechal terrorists—has broken into his home and is wanted in connection to the attacks on the water supply. From the beginning, Caleb and Mal are bound by lust, Craft, and chance, as both play a dangerous game where gods and people are pawns. They sleep on water, they dance in fire...and all the while the Twin Serpents slumbering beneath the earth are stirring, and they are hungry. Set in a phenomenally built world in which lawyers ride lightning bolts, souls are currency, and cities are powered by the remains of fallen gods, Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence introduces readers to a modern fantasy landscape and an epic struggle to build a just society. Also Available by Max Gladstone: The Craft Sequence 1. Three Parts Dead 2. Two Serpents Rise 3. Full Fathom Five 4. Last First Snow 5. Four Roads Cross 6. Ruin of Angels The Craft Wars 1. Dead Country 2.
Reading order · Craft Sequence
Full order & progress →- Three Parts DeadStart here
8.08.0 / 10 - Two Serpents RiseThis book
7.87.8 / 10 - Full Fathom Five
8.08.0 / 10 - Last First Snow
7.87.8 / 10 - Four Roads Cross
8.18.1 / 10 - The Ruin of Angels
–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 116 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 44% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Fantasy average of 8.0. That is how 7.8 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.5 | 12 | 10% |
| Hardcover | 7.7 | 104 | 90% |
Frequently asked
How long is Two Serpents Rise?
It has 350 pages — shorter than 89% of the ranked books in Fantasy.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Fantasy — and a score of 7.8, the closest to this book.
