Last First Snow tells the story of the Skittersill Rising, the historical conflict that planted the seeds of the events of Two Serpents Rise ten years later. Businessman Tan Batac wants to develop the impoverished Skittersill district into an upscale, modern neighborhood. Local residents, fearing that Batac’s plans will drive them out of their homes and frustrated with how powerless they feel as ordinary people in a ruthless Craft-driven world, have gathered in Chakal Square to protest. Temoc, a former priest of the gods who once ruled Dresediel Lex, has emerged as a reluctant leader among the protesters… a development that deeply alarms the King in Red, the city’s current ruler. Elayne Kevarian, former comrade-in-arms of the King in Red and an unlikely friend to Temoc, struggles to negotiate a peaceful resolution among these conflicting interests.
Preceded by Full Fathom Five, followed by Four Roads Cross. See the series' page for tropes that are common to the whole Craft Sequence.
Last First Snow provides examples of the following tropes:
- Blood Knight: Kopil misses the God Wars because fighting was more viscerally satisfying and morally straightforward than politics. He’s mellowed out a little by the time Two Serpents Rise takes place.Kopil: It was easier before.Elayne: In the Wars, you mean.Kopil: Gods try to smite you, and you smite them first. Armies of light against armies of darkness. Craftsmen advancing the cause of knowledge and freedom and humanity against ignorance and oppression.
- Body Horror: The ritual scarring that makes an Eagle Knight, the effects of gryptfire, the gods' blessings to the Red Sleeves.
- Child Soldiers: As Elayne explains to Temoc’s family, she became a combatant in the God Wars when she was thirteen years old. Temoc was also initiated into an order of warrior-priests when he was ten, although he wasn’t immediately called upon to actually fight.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Tan Batac deliberately pushed the Skittersill and the King in Red towards a violent confrontation that nearly killed everyone in the district to get his Concern out of a risky insurance deal and acquire some empty land to develop.
- Downer Ending: Kopil gives in to his self-righteous anger and massacres the protestors, Temoc cuts ties with his family and becomes an outlaw, and Elayne leaves Dresediel Lex exhausted and embittered.
- Dracolich: Kopil uses one of these in his final assault on Chakal Square.
- Fatal Flaw: Pride is a common one to Temoc and Kopil.
- Foregone Conclusion: If the reader has already read Two Serpents Rise, which was published first, they will be coming to Last First Snow with a lot of information about how the story ends and what various characters do with their lives afterwards. For such a reader, the point of the book is to explore how these things happen and illuminate some of the character motivations involved.
- Karma Houdini: Tan Batac loses the financial opportunity he was pursuing, but suffers no other consequences for his role in instigating the Chakal Square massacre. Kopil also faces no immediate retribution for committing said massacre.
- Mama Bear: Caleb’s mother risks her life to get him help after Temoc gives him the Eagle Knight scars.
- No Badass to His Valet: Elayne reflects that she's probably one of the only people in Kopil's life whom he can't easily intimidate.
- Parents as People: Temoc struggles to balance his commitment to his son and his wish for a quiet life with his family against his priestly responsibility to serve the gods and the community.
- Prayer Is a Last Resort: Elayne, a Nay-Theist Craftswoman, prays for the first and last time in her life during the massacre at Chakal Square. Despite not being addressed to any specific god, her prayer is answered... leaving Elayne with a mystery to solve.
- Tragic Bigot: Kopil hates all gods and worshippers of gods because his lover was killed in a ritual sacrifice.
