• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to footer

Andy Graham Author

Author of dark fiction and fantasy, dystopia, horror.

  • News & Free Book
  • My Books
  • About
  • Views
  • A.R.T.
    • Advance Readers Team
    • I Died Yesterday Book Offer
    • The Morgen Towers Book Offer
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Affiliate Links
  • Supernatural Thrillers
  • Dystopian Thrillers
  • Dark Fiction Tales
  • Box Sets
  • Anthologies

The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan

March 17, 2021 by andygraham Leave a Comment

Well, this is a special book.

I downloaded it a while back after recommendations from both The Grimdark Fiction Readers & Writers group on FB and William King. It took me longer to get round to it than I wanted. Two reasons why.

1 – my TBR list is out of control.

2 – I got lost (nicely so) in a few series. (I’m looking at you Bernard Cornwell, Giles Kristian and Nnedi Okorafor.)

It was worth the wait.

  • The imagination is stunning.
  • The prose is sublime.
  • The world is grimly realistic.
  • There is a history and depth (Literally. Tunnels. Lots of tunnels. Full of horrible things.) to the city which is unpeeled slowly.
  • The characters are well-rounded.
  • There is a foul-mouthed saint who SPEAKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS A LOT and has a flaming sword. (Aleena deserves her own book).
  • There is humour, politics, justice and injustice and, of course, death.
  • As for the ending? See my earlier point about imagination.

Other points:

I don’t normally like guns & swords mixing in fantasy. This novel does it well. As did The Raven’s Mark. There is another similarity between the two books: Jere and Ryhalt. Those two thief-takers/ monster hunters would make a great double act. (If you could keep them out of the bar.)

I also don’t like too many non-human races. This maybe odd in a fantasy reader but I find it off-putting, especially when they are new races. There is only so much ‘world-building’ I can take before I get lost. This novel has the right balance of humans, ‘established’ non-human races and new creatures: the Crawling Ones, which are utterly foul.

And the names? They are pronounceable and there isn’t an apostrophe in sight. Thank you.

I haven’t got many criticisms. I got lost in a few places and had to reread a few sections to check who was doing what to who(m) for what nefarious reason. The book also meandered a little in the mid-section, though, to be fair, that could have been my insomnia playing tricks on me. Otherwise, that’s it.

Again, this isn’t a long or critical review, but I’m not going to pick faults for the sake of it.

Like I said, it’s a special book. One to reread.

 

Share this:

Filed Under: Reviews, Uncategorized

Last past the post.

  • One Book Interview #58 – Martin Owton
  • One Book Interview #57 – Gareth Hanrahan
  • Along the Razor’s Edge by Rob J. Hayes
  • Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
  • A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie
  • The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow
  • The Bone Ships by RJ Barker
  • The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan
  • The Raven’s Mark by Ed McDonald
  • The Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence
  • The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell
  • The Rise of Sigurd series by Giles Kristian
  • The Raven Series by Giles Kristian
  • I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
  • Camelot by Giles Kristian
  • Lancelot by Giles Kristian
  • The Whisper Man by Alex North
  • A Ring to Rule Them All by Luke Scull
  • Stranger Things (Seasons 1 – 3)
  • The Witcher (Netflix Season One)

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Footer

Contact me

Copyright © 2023 · Author Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkNoRead more
You can revoke your consent any time using the Revoke consent button.Revoke Cookies