Link to review: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/the-gods-are-awake-and-at-war-in-the-gutter-prayer/

Review can be found over on GdM: https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-the-gutter-prayer-by-gareth-hanrahan/

Thanks to Hachette Audio, Libro.fm, the author, and narrator for a listening copy of The Gutter Prayer (The Black Iron Legacy #1) in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this LC did not influence my thoughts or opinions on the novel.

First off, I love John Banks’ narration. He has been the narrator for all of the books so far in Josiah Bancroft’s The Books of Babel series, as well as the first two (2) books of Jon Hollins’ The Dragon Lords series (among tons of others including Ian Esslemont’s Novels of the Malazan Empire). He is absolutely superb and I put him as one of my top 3 narrators of all time. He perfectly fits voices to suite the characters, puts emphasis where it is needed, and his pacing is exquisite.

Now, onto the book itself.

This is Gareth Hanrahan’s fantasy debut and, as such, will more than likely garner quite a few award nominations around the book community. And for good reason: it is pretty bloody-damn original and wholly impressive.

The Gutter Prayer, for the most part, does not read like a debut should, but then again, I look at the publisher and I can see why. Orbit has been putting out some of THE best fantasy novels for the past couple of years and has yet to even tap the brakes. I began my blogging “career” at the perfect time and have been enjoying some of the best reading years I could’ve ever imagined.

Hanrahan drew me in almost immediately with the first chapter. I love how your vantage point is that of a tower and the goings on within. The POV of an inanimate object is quite entertaining and IMO needs to happen more-often as I’ve only seen it one other time (in RBJ’s Foundryside.) But what really kept me going was the world-building. There is an astonishing amount of it going on throughout the novel, from the tallowmen and crawling ones, to the city of Guerdon and its underlying civilization; but while it is amazing, it also sometimes gets in its own way, especially in regard to some of the characters. Don’t get me wrong, I love having so much detail that you feel immersed into the city itself, but it cannot get in the way of me connecting with the protagonists.

While I can pitter-patter around and be nitpicky, Hanrahan has written a fantastic novel that checks off the boxes of what I enjoy in a fantasy novel. Not only that, but he ends it with a perfect hook to keep me wanting more.

The Gutter Prayer is unlike any fantasy story you have read before and feels like the beginning of something ground-breaking. Hanrahan may have just created a new sub-genre of fantasy and I cannot wait to see what he has in store next.

This is a first novel and that shows in a few ways. Some info is dumped more than once. There are more viewpoint characters than the author can juggle without losing focus. Still, the characters were engaging. Also, there was an element of caper novel in this debut and I do like me some caper novels.

This is the kind of book that requires extreme flexibility of mind from its readers, because it throws them into the thick of things from page one, and from there it keeps a constant, swift pace for most of its length, leaving them almost no time to metabolize the events or to consider them in depth – which in a way encapsulates both the pros and cons of this story. If that breakneck speed works well for the progress of the story itself, which is built upon a series of twists and turns, discoveries and betrayals, it goes to the detriment of character development, because in the end it seems we never get to know those people well, or at least that was the impression I received.

The city of Guerdon is something of a safe port in a sea of turmoil, while the rest of the world is in the throes of the God War, a conflict in which divine entities battle for supremacy, generating hordes of refugees fleeing from mayhem and destruction. Guerdon avoided this fate some time before by taming its deities and turning them into the Kept Gods, beings whose powers are greatly diminished and only wielded through “saints”, ordinary people imbued with special faculties who act on the gods’ behalf. This does not mean, however, that the city is a quiet place: the secular powers running Guerdon keep contending with each other for dominance, and it soon becomes clear that someone has been working in secret to tap the buried energies of the old gods to achieve that goal. In this scenario, the three main characters find themselves swept away by events that seem bigger than they are and that will test their powers for endurance and growth.

Carillon Thay, or Cari, is the only survivor of a once-influential family whose members where slaughtered when she was a small child. Trusted into the care of relatives, she ran away but was forced to return to Guerdon – penniless and desperate – and try to eke out a living among the thieves of the less-savory quarters of the city. We meet her in the middle of a heist she’s working on with her friends Spar and Rat, and from that moment on she falls prey to terrifying visions that hint at something dark and dreadful at work. Spar is the son of the former head of the Thieves’ guild, or Brotherhood, and he lives in the shadow of his famous father who died in prison without revealing the Brotherhood’s secrets despite beatings and torture: Spar wants nothing more than to follow in his father’s footsteps, but his dreams are crushed when he contracts the Stone Plague, an illness that turns its victims into pieces of rock. And finally there’s Rat, a ghoul who tries desperately not to succumb too soon to his people’s inescapable drive for dead flesh and underground dwellings, staying near the surface as long as he can. The friendship between these three people, the bond they forge in spite of their differences, is indeed the brightest light in the grim scenario of The Gutter Prayer, and something that manages to withstand the worst kinds of test.

As the story progresses, we are taken through various parts of the city and learn of its structure and history, of its day-to-day workings and its horrors, especially the horrors: the Alchemists’ guild is one of the strongest powers in Guerdon, and among their creations are the Tallowmen, unfortunate people – mostly criminals and low-lives – who have been rendered into waxy shapes animated by a lit wick in the head; or the Gullheads, whose mere sight can inspire deep terror in the onlookers. But there are even worse players at large, like the Ravellers – nightmarish creatures who consume their victims and are able to take on their appearance so as to ensnare other targets; or the Crawling Ones, masses of worms that can mimic the human shape of the people whose soul they have eaten.

With such horrors as background and the revelation of the dirty political maneuverings that are the heart and blood of the city, Guerdon takes its rightful place among the flesh-and-blood characters and becomes more than a simple theater for events; more than once I was reminded of another city where darkness was stronger than light, China Mieville’s New Crobuzon from Perdido Street Station, but with an important difference: where the depiction of New Crobuzon stressed the element of decay almost to the point of basking in it – one of the reasons I did not enjoy that novel – here the negative aspects play as counterpoint to the story’s saving graces, and in particular to the themes of friendship and loyalty that are embodied in Cari, Spar and Rat. Cari in particular looks like a whimsical creature, one whose fight-or-flight instinct tends toward the latter rather than the former, a person who at first seems superficial and self-centered but who slowly reveals her deep commitment to her friends, and her willingness to sacrifice everything for them. And if Spar’s nobility is clear from the very start, something that together with his stoic acceptance of the illness’ unavoidable progression quickly endeared him to me, Rat comes across as a more complex creature, one whose nature and leanings bring him to live always on the edge.

What we can learn about these characters and the many others that people the story, however, looks more like fleeting glimpses, and the reckless speed of the narrative often denies the possibility of delving deeper into their nature, of knowing them better, which unfortunately leads to an overall effect of detachment that is one of my main contentions with this novel: I need to feel invested in characters – either for good or bad – to really connect with a book, and The Gutter Prayer never fully let me do this, keeping me at arm’s length, so to speak.

There is nothing wrong in a plot-driven story, of course, but it seems… wasteful to build such intriguing characters only to employ them as little more than extras - and here comes my other big problem with this novel: a good number of these people ends up dead, and that in itself would not be so unexpected considering how the story unfolds, but all these deaths seem devoid of any emotional connection since they happen far too quickly and are immediately washed away by the tsunami of other events. Two are the instances where this narrative choice bothered me greatly: in one case it’s an heroic act that allows other people to escape, and it happens off-screen, only a flash in the darkness marking the character’s ultimate sacrifice; in the other the person falls from a great height and is seen no more, and even if there are momentous consequences in the wake of that fall, it’s as if the individual did not matter anymore. In both cases it felt as if the characters were only little motes in the grand scheme of things, and given my sympathy for both of them that was quite hard to accept.

Still, The Gutter Prayer is a solid, very enjoyable novel and as debuts go a reasonably well-crafted one, and I can certainly recommend it to all lovers of the genre.

The Gutter Prayer is a novel that got a lot of pre-publication attention; even half a year before it was due to come out, I was already hearing readers sing its praises. This was the fantasy novel all fans should be checking out in 2019, apparently—especially if your predilections run towards grimdark.

So I read it. And now I understand where all the love is coming from.

Our story, for the most part, is centered on the lives of three thieves. Cari, Spar and Rat have not known each other for long, but by the time they were called upon to work together in a secret plot hatched up by Heinreil, the city of Guerdon’s most notorious crime boss, the three of them were already…well, as thick as thieves. Spar is the son of a late gang leader, but he is also a Stone Man—the term given to someone afflicted with a degenerative disease which slowly petrifies the body and its organs, turning them hard as rock. Rat is a Ghoul, a member of a race of underground people who live in the old tunnels and crypts of the city, subsisting on the flesh of the dead. And Cari is an orphan and a drifter who feels like she owes a lot to her other two companions, who took her into their gang even though she arrived with nothing to her name.

Their job together was supposed to be quick and simple: a smash-and-grab at the city’s House of Law, where the three of them were tasked to steal an important document. But little did they know, Heinreil had other plans, and their little group was only meant to be a distraction. The night ends in disaster, with a great fire that levels a good chunk of Guerdon and claims lives. And Cari, who was injured and knocked out in the commotion, wakes up in a thieftaker’s prison with a new power in her head.

The Gutter Prayer, in many ways, is the perfect marriage of grimdark and epic fantasy. Here you will find the grittiness and cynicism one might expect from a Joe Abercrombie or Scott Lynch novel, but also the kind of unique and imaginative world-building that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Brandon Sanderson story. Clearly Gareth Hanrahan’s experience as a game designer and RPG writer has also served him well in writing his debut, for many of the ideas in here—particularly those related to creatures and theistic myths—reminded me a lot of elements from fantasy tabletop campaigns.

The world of this novel is, in a word, incredible. While most of the story is confined to Guerdon, the narrative never lets you forget that this little corner of the universe is just one piece of a greater puzzle, so not once does the setting ever feel small. The place is rich with history, its culture influenced by the diversity of its peoples and religions. The city becomes a character in its own right; from the dank gutters to the well-kept university district, every little slice of Guerdon we get to see is another side of its personality. The best sights, however, lie in its underbelly. There you find the Ghouls, hiding in the shadows. The Stone Men, who are feared and shunned. The Tallowmen, menacing wax golems that are magically bound to serve as the city’s enforcers. The Crawling Ones, digusting monstrosities made up of a wriggling mass of sentient worms. And if you’re really unlucky, you might even run afoul of a Raveller, a shapeshifting predator aligned with the Black Iron Gods.

In the face of all this originality, the characters are almost overshadowed. The perspectives of Cari, Spar, and Rat are compelling enough, but in a way, I also felt that their development took a backseat to the world-building. As protagonists, they didn’t inspire much attachment, and individually, their voices did not really stand out. In fact, I thought Hanrahan did better with his supporting characters in this regard, exploring strong personalities like Jere, Eladora, or Professor Ongent. More than once I wished a couple of these characters had gotten more attention or a bigger role. The Gutter Prayer being a debut, it also exhibits a few signs of what I feel are common new author mistakes. One is the compulsion to throw in unnecessary flourishes like random narrative shifts when it might have been better just to keep things simple.

However, the criticisms I have are minor. Ideally, I would have preferred a bit more balance between story, characters, and world-building, where one aspect isn’t disproportionately overrepresented to eclipse the others, which was partly the issue here. But overall, The Gutter Prayer was an impressive debut, one that is certain to make a lot of dark fantasy fans ecstatic. Boldly ambitious and innovative in equal measure, Hanrahan’s daring entry into the genre is guaranteed to captivate and enthrall.

The Gutter Prayer is an imaginative fantasy with unique creatures and magic. It’s told from three perspectives, a set of thieves , each quite different and enjoyable for their own reasons. When things go wrong in their latest heist, a bigger picture about the threats the city is facing is realized. This trio of misfit thieves find themselves in a position at the center of it all. There is plenty of excitement and action.

I like the group of three this story is told from. There is Cari, who we don’t initially know a lot about, just that she came to the city with nothing, and Rat took pity on her and brought her in to the fold, and set her up with a place to stay. Rat is a young ghoul. His perspective can be entertaining with his dry observations. And then there is Spar, who is probably one of the most honorable thieves around and has a knack for inspiring people. But that only goes so far now that he is a Stone Man.

Now when i mentioned the imaginative qualities of this book, some of that comes from the different types of residents in the city as well as the types of monsters it faces. Spar is a Stone Man, which is someone suffering from a very contagious disease that slowly turns the body to stone. It’s kind of like a more rock solid version of leprosy. No one wants to touch a stone man for fear of contracting the awful disease (a very real possibility). They are quite easy to spot and so easy to shun. Interestingly a side effect of the disease is they gain inhuman strength before they are completely debilitated. This means they are desirable workers for and are used for manual labor.

Tallowmen are this sort of Frankenstein-ish wax monster police that are inhumanly fast and vicious and show no mercy. Then there are ghouls, who have their own underground system of tunnels and ravellers, who are just frightening and more. Definitely a good amount of creativity and imagination went into the world building.

While there is a lot to enjoy in the book, I do worry that the early flood of very high reviews might do the book a bit of a disservice by setting expectations a bit too high. I don’t think you should enter this one with expectations of a perfect read. It is a debut, and a good one at that, but there were some areas I felt were a little problematic, starting with the very first chapter. It is written in second person, so is full of “you” and “your”, which I find is just awkward as a reader. I am not there, I don’t know these things or see these things, stop saying “you”. Personally, I found it harder to immerse myself in the book because of it. Then to take it just a stretch further, it also appears to be the perspective of a building. As second person. So I got to add the “I am not a building, I don’t have a tower, or a staircase or whatever” to the mix. I felt so distracted by these stylistic/editorial decisions that it really made it hard for me to get into the actual story. I think if the intent was to give “life” to the building, there could have been another, less distracting and puzzling, way to achieve that. Personally, I think second person rarely, if ever, works in fiction and this was definitely not an exception to that. There was another early section of the book that was from the perspective of a Tallowman, which honestly, didn’t read as well as the other perspectives (that could have provided the same information).

When the perspective was from any of the three main characters, it typically was good, so I am not entirely sure why there was this sort of experimentation (that is what these sections felt like to me). There were also some sections that felt a little info-dumpy to me, where I wanted to get back to the characters and the current action instead of reading whatever world details were being laid out. Impatience to get back to the action is always a pro and a con to me. It means I am fully invested in the story and am anxious for progression, but it also means that I’ve lost some of the momentum I was enjoying and feel like my reading experience is not as good as it could have been.

I also have to confess, I felt like the ending could have been stronger and more impactful, but instead there were so many things that happened so quickly I think I just think there was not enough page space devoted to it to give readers time to really appreciate it. Especially in relation to what happens to each of the characters. There is an epilogue that gives the reader a bit more detail and time for things to sink in, but again, there’s not much page space devoted to it, and I found it hard to gather the emotion I felt it probably deserved, which was surprising.

So, while there were aspects and sections of this book that may not have worked as well for me as the book overall did, I do think this is a great start to a new series and look forward to the next one. I also feel like the few things that I saw as weaknesses in this book are things that can easily be (and typically are) ironed out in a book 2.

The Gutter Prayer has been showered with praise pre-publication. After reading it, I can certainly see why: it is one of the most inventive new fantasies I’ve read in a while. The novel is packed full of ideas, multiple unique and innovative twists on popular fantasy elements, and an overall interesting and action-packed story. There’s a lot to like in here, and I’m sure many readers will love this novel.

I had a lot of different, sometimes contradictory reactions to this novel.

There were times when I was genuinely surprised and delighted by the way Hanrahan has approached the genre and certain popular tropes and ideas: for example, the space that ghouls occupy in this world. Additionally, some of his innovations are genuinely awesome and/or chilling: the Tallowmen, the Black Iron Gods, the Crawling Ones, the Stone Men, and many others. The ways in which gods are presented, operate in and interact with this world is likewise fascinating and very interesting. So many others: this is, most of all, a novel that is just brimming with interesting and fascinating ideas.

While this is the novel’s strength, it is also its weakness: it seems, at times, to be far more interested in the ideas than the story. Sometimes, interesting narrative tricks are used to provide alternative perspectives on the action and key events of the story. However, when these tricks are reused multiple times, one can’t help but wish it wasn’t used. The introduction, for example, was awesome, and made me committed to the world and story. However, this commitment waned. There was a certain remove from important events that threw me out of the story a bit. Hanrahan describes brilliantly — whether the world, creepy creatures/monsters, locales, or atmospheres, he is great. It never felt like info-dumping.

At the same time, though, it felt like far more time was spent on world-building than on character development and story. These are the two most important things for me in any fiction (SFFH or otherwise). I therefore didn’t develop much attachment to the characters. Sometimes I just wanted to story to get moving (the plot only really kicks in about 25% into the novel). I wasn’t as gripped as I’d hoped, and a couple of times I became impatient. Sometimes the characters blended together, and a couple of times I had to read back because I zoned out. (I’ll admit that I was quite tired and distracted at the time, but even with the re-reads I wasn’t always wholly-invested or engrossed in the story.) It felt like not as much happened as would justify the length of the novel, if that makes sense — it seems overly critical to write this, because a fair amount does happen. But at the novel also didn’t feel as focused or streamlined as it could (maybe should?) have been.

If you’re looking for an inventive, fascinating new fantasy world, then The Gutter Prayer will suit perfectly. I would have liked more focus on the characters and plot, but I’m intrigued enough to look forward to the second instalment of the series. I know a lot of people who have, or will enjoy this novel. If you’re a fantasy fan, then I would certainly recommend you give this a try: you’re bound to find something that you like, even if (as for me) it doesn’t completely work for you. I imagine this will appeal to fans of Scott Lynch, Robin Hobb, Joe Abercrombie and many others of that ilk.

This book wasn’t initially on my radar, but the people over at Fantasy Inn really enjoyed it and talked about it a lot. Then I saw some other friends with similar taste start to rave about this book over on Goodreads so I decided to give it a go.

I was very taken aback by the use of second-person narration in the prologue, I don’t typically click with that writing style, but strangely enough, I was sad when it ended. After just a few paragraphs, I had sunk into the prose and didn’t want it to end, I was blown away right from the beginning by the imagination used in this book. This was the first of many “exceptions” this book had in store for me, this broke all of the rules I have for my own taste – or thought I had, anyway.

This starts out with a robbery gone wrong, three thieves are tasked by their leader to bring something out of a vault in the Tower of Law. They make their way through the building checking every room looking for something that they can’t find. By no fault of their own, something in the building explodes, spreading alchemical fire throughout the tower which eventually brings it down. All of the noise and commotion alerts the guards, both of the Tallowman and human variety. The three thieves are chased down through the city, one, the ghoul named Rat gets away. The other two of the thieves, Cari and Spar, get arrested and are hauled off to a flooded prison located on an island.

Cari is a young girl who’s run away from home and become a thief, she’s quick and light on her feet which is handy for her trade. After being put in prison Cari is bailed out by a professor, Ongent, an archeologist and historian at the University. It’s not said at first why he did this, but he clearly had a purpose and intent. Cari has been having dreams lately that aren’t just dreams. While asleep she mumbled her way through the origins of the ghoul race in some kind of trance. She’s had a vision of a young priest who was melted away by some unknown force, a being that disguised itself as a woman interested in him only to ambush and kill him once she got him alone. Ongent doesn’t know what to make of it yet, but Cari is clearly special. She also has bravery about her and not just the ‘fighting’ kind of bravery, she lives with the Stone Man thief which most people wouldn’t do even if it was a family member. Stone Men suffer from a plague that started about 30 years ago turning their bodies into statues and acting as a slow death sentence. People afflicted with the disease have to keep moving or their bodies will calcify more quickly, in this world a good night’s sleep could result in you waking up paralyzed and near death.

Rat is a young ghoul, and as such he lives mostly underground in the dark damp caves and tunnels that number in the thousands below the city. He thinks of his kind as the true inhabitants of the city, with the people on top being like “flies” skittering only on the surface. His race is an ancient one that has three distinct life phases. Young ghouls can pass for human in low light, despite the fact they have hooves they are relatively human shaped and can communicate, they can also tolerate sunlight for short periods of time and are able to control their more basal instincts. Middle-aged ghouls tend are mostly feral, communicating only in howls and screams, living in swarms deep below the earth. Then there are the Elders, ancient beings of unimaginable power that hijack the bodies of others to speak for them. (Independence day shit). When rat was being chased by a Tallowman through the city he made it into his caves, where he ran into a woman named Aleena. She works for the Church of the Keepers on the surface and the Church has maintained a tenuous agreement between themselves and the ghouls for thousands of years. Something has brought her down to the depths searching for the Elders, something urgent. It takes hours to get down through the dark with tunnels made of the deepest blacks, so black that even Rat is unnerved. When they reach the Elders there’s an exchange with Aleena that Rat didn’t fully understand, however, he does know that the Elders are scared, what horrors could possibly scare the Elders? Who are these Ravellers that are supposed to be kept at bay? And could it have anything to do with Cari’s visions of a man unraveling before her eyes?

The characters stood out to me right away, which was exception number two this book threw at me. I usually take a while to warm up to characters, and since I know that I don’t let it bother me if I’m not connecting right at the beginning. I’m only irked if I don’t get to know them well enough before I switch POV’s, preferring to sink my teeth into a character before it switches. Again, this book makes an exception. I loved switching from character to character even right at the beginning. They were all so unique with clear, distinct voices and personalities that it was easy to go back and forth while enjoying myself every time the character changed. I loved the side characters as well, which is a huge plus. When side characters feel bland or boring it makes the world a little less polished and real. Aleena was fucking fantastic, I don’t think anyone who knows me would be surprised by my love for this character. Sassy older woman that curses like a sailor? Just, yes. Take all of my yes.

I’m a big fan of originality, (hence why it gets its own category in my scoring system) and since I read about 200 books a year when I hit something I haven’t seen done before I can’t help but get extra excited. Typically when I call a book unique I’m referring to something like a new magic system, a trope turned on its head, a new aspect of world building I hadn’t seen before, or maybe a particularly unusual POV. In this book I’m referring to all of the above, every aspect of this book was something new and different. The ‘monsters’ are original – my two favorites in this one are the Tallowmen, men made of wax and burning from within, they make for extremely surreal foes and we even get to see inside one of their heads as a POV for a short time. I loved it. There are also things known as the Crawling Ones, a huge group of worms that’s sentient and feeds on the dead, except when they eat the dead they also steal their memories, knowledge, and souls.

The writing in this was great, it flowed very nicely for me and kept me turning pages. I would say this is much more stylized than what I typically read, however, I absolutely adored it. Kind of like Bancroft, I just love the way this was done and thought it was gorgeous. The world building is absolutely incredible and worked hand in hand with the characters for me. Sometimes when I get hit in the head with too much world building and don’t get to know the characters enough I lose interest. This had a great deal of world building that helped you understand the characters so it was an even flow of new info but also character development.

I am so stoked I’m ending my year on a string of amazing books. I can’t recommend this one highly enough to those that like darker fantasy in an entirely unique world. This was like falling for fantasy all over again.


Audience:

multi pov
non human pov
original monsters/races
darker fantasy
female pov
stylized prose
genre mashups


Ratings:


Plot: 14/15
Characters: 14/15
World Building: 15/15
Writing: 14/15
Pacing: 13/15
Originality: 15/15
Personal Enjoyment: 10/10

Final Score: 95/100 – 5 Stars, second highest rating of the year that’s not Pratchett.

This is the story of Carillon, Spar, and Rat, who are three friends who live in the pretty shadowy and dark city of Guerdon. They are each quite different from each other, but they share commonality in that they are all thieves in the city’s thieves guild, the Brotherhood. They are tasked by the guildmaster to steal something from the vault in the Tower of Law. What they don’t know is that while they are doing their job, another team is doing a much bigger and shadier job at the same time, and when one goes a bit wrong, they both go south, which leads to some epic shenanigans in the city of Guerdon.

I liked Cari as a character. She’s an orphan who was once of a very powerful and noble family that was all mysteriously murdered one day. She was raised by her aunt out in the country, and when she comes back to the city she finds herself friends with Rat and Spar.

Spar is a Stone Man, a sufferer of a plague that slowly turns the body to stone. It can be staved off with shots of a medicine known as alkahest, but there’s no cure for it, so we see Spar struggle day by day to survive.

Rat is a ghoul, a race of creatures that live under the city and eat the dead. They have a bargain with the local religion, the Keepers, that they will keep the evil things that go bump in the night under guard if they can eat the dead of the city. Some ghouls attempt living as humans do, eating surface food and trying to pass as human. Having the ability to sneak around really well gives Rat a thief’s skillset, and he uses it to his advantage.

This book was fantastically written, with great characters that I rooted for from page one. My favorite character in this book is Aleena, who is a saint (sort of like a cleric) for the Keepers, the city’s most prevalent religion. She gets her powers from the local gods, but her being the chosen of divine beings doesn’t make her less of a badass. She is snarky and foul-mouthed and everything I love in a character. <3<3<3

Guerdon is a fascinating setting to read about. Alchemy is prevalent in the city, from bombs and the mysterious alkahest to the Tallowmen – men and women that have been turned into literal walking candles, who serve as more or less the city watch… if the city watch were insane and rather stabby people made of wax. There are subways and trains and things. In a way, the atmosphere of the city brought to mind Mieville’s city of New Crobuzon. A grubby-feeling secondary world with industrial revolution era technology. I really enjoyed the vibe.

This book has a fascinating setting, awesome and unique characters, and a really original and well executed idea. There were twists and turns and all kinds of interesting stuff happened. It kept me reading until well into the wee hours every night. I can’t wait to see where this story goes in the future, but I imagine that it’s going to be pretty spectacular! 5/5 stars!

Thanks to the author and Orbit via NetGalley for the review copy!