History Literature / ThreePartsDead

* KillItWithFire: The sorcerous priests of Kos ''Everburning'' rather naturally start throwing fire around when it comes time to do violence. Especially notable in being the only way Novice Abelard can fend off a horrifying shadow creature out to feed on his soul. [[spoiler:He uses his cigarette to harm it, which turns out to be a clue as to Kos's real fate.]]

* ExtraordinarilyEmpoweredGirl: Cat is a mouthy, but otherwise pretty normal junkie who can take care of herself and use her brains when she's not currently suffering from withdrawal. She's also an agent of Justice, meaning when she dons the Blacksuit she becomes stronger, faster and and able to think completely logically. The downside is that she then loses her individual thoughts and becomes part of Justice's HiveMind, so she spends most of the book avoiding that to be better able to think for herself.

''Three Parts Dead'' is the first book of the Literature/CraftSequence by Max Gladstone. Its basic plot is: GodIsDead, and His estate is contested.

* GoLookAtTheDistraction: [[spoiler:Tara mind-controls Cat into checking in on Raz while they're in the hospital, so that she can talk to Shale by herself.]]

* BlackMagicianGirl: Despite professing to be all about courts and contracts, Tara spends most of her time working (mainly necromantic) Craft on the offensive, and quite impressively so, and has enough power and talent to still be relevant despite having been thrown out of the Hidden Schools while fighting her professors. As the youngest of the people tasked with investiganting Kos's case, she's got a forceful personality and can act foolishly but isn't above admitting that she's still got a lot to learn.

* ActionGirl: Tara. Cat, even outside of Justice, also kicks her fair share of ass.

* BadassInDistress: [[spoiler:Elayne Kevarian when Denovo robs her of her will - again. She eventually manages to break free, though, and gets back at him at the end of the book.]]

* PsychologicalProjection: [[spoiler:When Cat sees Tara communing with Seril, she assumes that she's a junkie, too, and helped the gargoyles after Judge Cabot's murder in exchange for a fix. Cat is herself a junkie, using vampire bites to cope whenever she isn't connected to Justice, which produces its own high, and had recently used Pelham to scratch that particular itch.]]

* EvilTeacher: Professor Denovo, Tara's former mentor, is a ''monster'' in ways that take most of the book for the reader to really appreciate. [[spoiler: He once [[MindRape stripped both Tara and Elayne of free will, and pulls it again on the latter towards the end of the story]]. He is a self-made HumanoidAbomination. And he has a ''completely plausible'' plan to make himself something rather greater than a god.]]

* GodWasMyCopilot: [[spoiler: Or, in this case, my/Abelard's cigarette flame.]]

* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler: Both Kos and Seril avoided death by hiding a reserve part of their power and a full portion of their personality. Kos hid his in a cigarette, while Seril divided hers among her gargoyles.]]
* OurGargoylesRock: The Guardians [[VoluntaryShapeshifter can take human form]], but in their natural form they each have a completely unique appearance. They are ''immensely'' physically powerful and quick, too. They are servants of Seril, the city's moon goddess and guardian of order, created to be a supernatural police force; at her death, they went crazy and were banished from the city. [[spoiler: Except, they didn't ''all'' go crazy, and their goddess is NotQuiteDead.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:Gustave murdered Judge Cabot when he found out that he was trying to assist Kos in trying to bring Seril back to full power, since he believed that Seril abandoned Kos during the God Wars.]]

-->''When a goddess neared death, the needs of her faithful, and of those to whom she was bound in contract, stuck like hooks in her soul. She could not desert her obligations, nor honor them and remain intact. The tension tore her mind to shreds of ectoplasm, leaving behind a body of inchoate divine power that a competent Craftswoman could reassemble into something that looked and functioned like the old goddess. But...''
-->''Well. Much like Tara’s revenants back at Edgemont, a being once resurrected was never quite the same.''

* "GodIsDead! GodIsDead!": Protestors start chanting outside the temple when they discover Kos is not, in fact, "contemplating his glory".

''Three Parts Dead'' is the first book of the Literature/CraftSequence by Literature/MaxGladstone. Its basic plot is: GodIsDead, and His estate is contested.

--> '''Ms. Kevarian:''' ...remember, your first duty is to our client, not revenge.

* HiveMind: In Alt Coulomb, justice is administered by Justice-- an (all-volunteer!) corps of part-time [[HumanoidAbomination humanoid monstrosities]]. When their GameFace is on they have extreme strength and endurance, [[TheBlank no distinguishing features]], and a single incorruptible, implacable mind. Said mind [[spoiler:turns out to be that of a dead goddess, and her original followers aren't happy about it.]]

-->''"In the unrecorded mists of prehistory, when mankind prowled the savannah and the swamps, their gods hunted with them, little more than shadows on a cave wall, the gleam in a hunter’s eye, a mammoth’s death roar, primitive as the men they ruled. As men grew in size, complexity, and might, the gods grew with them. Gods, like men, can die. They just die harder, and smite the earth with their passing."''
-->— '''Cardinal Gustave'''

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Captain Pelham isn't really a paragon of good moral character, but he manages his vampirism pretty ethically, without drinking from unwilling subjects.