The Gutter Prayer
The Black Iron Legacy Series, Book #1
Available Now
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A group of three young thieves are pulled into a centuries old magical war between ancient beings, mages, and humanity in this wildly original debut epic fantasy.The city has always been. The city must finally end. When three thieves - an orphan, a ghoul, and a cursed man - are betrayed by the master of the thieves guild, their quest for revenge uncovers dark truths about their city and exposes a dangerous conspiracy, the seeds of which were sown long before they were born.
Cari is a drifter whose past and future are darker than she can know. Rat is a Ghoul, whose people haunt the city's underworld. Spar is a Stone Man, subject to a terrible disease that is slowly petrifying his flesh. Chance has brought them together, but their friendship could be all that stands in the way of total armageddon.
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| The Walking Wounded: Black Iron Legacy RPG |
I had only one hiccup in my complete and total immersion-gluttonous-binging of this book in one brain-busting session, the sheer multitudinous array of POV's. From the jump, I already had my favorite characters. Those just sing off the page, but having to keep leaving them in dire peril so often, to slog through someone completely different, was often infuriating. But I see my reaction as a testament to Hanrahan's character craftsmanship, and soon I found myself mightily invested in all the storylines.
The story is dense, the plot rich, the danger tangible, and the worldbuilding is simultaneously out-of-control-amazing AND horrifying. There is more wonder and ichor in one tiny corner of this city, than in a dozen other series by other authors you could be reading, combined. Can I tell you that I COULD and still can HEAR, not just imagine, but HEAR in my HEAD, the character of Rat eat? Our ghoul Rat eats corpses, and it is...... descriptive. And I didn't hate it!
The stars of the show, at least for my preferances, are both Cari and Spar. Spar is everything stubborn and noble that you'd wish a Stone Man/hero to be; intelligent, empathetic, philosophical, intelligent, enduring, and suffering. How can you not love a good man who is suffering whilst he is looking out for the downtrodden???
And Cari, she is a bit like a stray cat that Spar and Rat have made a little family with. She's liable to; bite, scratch, stab you, run, disappear at any moment, but unique as a character because while she is unwillingly pulled into circumstances, no one has to force her to do the right thing. She does the right thing- even if she is getting petty revenge- because she is good hearted, and because she's learned it from Spar. His influence and steadfastness inspires her, she doesn't want to let him down. She knows it'd be letting
I'll not spoil any other characters or plot, it twists and turns, and you THINK you know where solid ground is, but you don't. Just know that mythology, theology, politics, and magic all come together to make one thoroughly unique and incomparable read. ALL the stars.
What I'm Reading Now: The Shadow Saint by Gareth Hanrahan (Black Iron Legacy book #2).
