⇒ [PDF] The Gutter Prayer Gareth Hanrahan author 9780356511528 Books

The Gutter Prayer Gareth Hanrahan author 9780356511528 Books

Download As PDF : The Gutter Prayer Gareth Hanrahan author 9780356511528 Books

The Gutter Prayer Gareth Hanrahan author 9780356511528 Books

I have long been a fan of the author's work in tabletop roleplaying-games, and was eagerly awaiting the release of his first novel. The tl;dr is - this book well exceeded my expectations. The characters are well-realized and sympathetic, the pacing brisk, the plot intricate but never loses the reader, and the world building, as one might expect from someone with so much experience in RPGs, was incredible. This is modern, urban fantasy, not your grandfather's Tolkienesque Elves and Dwarves, set in a city so well presented that you'd swear you could travel there right now. The author conveys the history and culture of the city masterfully through snippets of dialogue and description, rather than long, dry info-dumps, and the result is a setting that feels real and lived in.

Fans of China Mieville and Jeff VanderMeer will find a lot to like here. I'm hopeful that this is just the first offering in a long line form this incredible new voice in fantasy fiction.


Tags : The Gutter Prayer [Gareth Hanrahan (author)] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 'A ground-breaking and extraordinary novel . . . Hanrahan has an astonishing imagination' Peter McLean,Gareth Hanrahan (author),The Gutter Prayer,Orbit,0356511529

The Gutter Prayer Gareth Hanrahan author 9780356511528 Books Reviews

This is quite easily the best book I’ve read in the last several years. This was a PHENOMENAL story. I’ve never experienced a written tale that becomes its own being quite like this did. It is deliciously complex, with rampant twists and turns that just when you think you have everything figured out, something new emerges and turns everything on its head. The setting really drives the story, you can practically feel Guerdon living and breathing from the first page. This was masterfully done, I can’t wait to see what magic this author weaves in future works! Thank you so very much for the opportunity to review this spectacular jewel!
The Gutter Prayer is a remarkably inventive, unpredictable book that was as incredible as I anticipated. This is a book that has such depth and intricacies to its world-building that you truly never know just what to expect from it. On a basic level, there are familiar elements int his book that can be found in many fantasy books, such as a gritty city, intrigue everywhere, nonhuman characters, etc., but that's where the similarities seem to stop. There is so much more than I ever expected in regards to the types of nonhuman characters, the gods and magic systems, and the underground politics of this world. Despite these many positive elements, there were still a few things that bothered me and prevented me from giving it a full five stars and which I will mention later in the review.

Guerdon, the main city setting, is a very grimdark-inspired city that I can easily say I do not want to find myself lost in, ever. It's dark, dirty, and full of random, horrifying dangers and I was so impressed by Hanrahan's ability to create such a unique and wholly unparalleled world in a genre that already has so many different worlds out there. The Tallowmen in particular were fascinating and I would love to see some sort of illustration of what they would actually look like. There is also something called the Stone Plague that is rampant within the city that was such a unique sort of disease that I really enjoyed learning about. It's hard to talk about the magic system for me because there didn't really seem to be an overly defined one, but the magical components were extremely interesting and I loved learning about the types of gods in the book, although I would have enjoyed learning even more about them.

The main band of thieves in The Gutter Prayer consist of a young woman named Cari, a ghoul named Rat, and a Stone Man known as Spar. I loved how different each character was from one another and that they all had very different backgrounds and outlooks on life. It keeps the story interesting when the three main characters--and POVs in this case--have enough things that are different about their story to keep my attention. There are quite a few supporting characters as well to explore and I think Hanrahan did a good job of building up characters to make this world feel full of life.

The Gutter Prayer is a busy book. There is a lot going on all the time and a lot of different history, magical components, characters, plots, and other events going on simultaneously, which does make it a little difficult to keep up with things. I felt a little overwhelmed at times, and I found that the ending was a bit overstuffed with content. That being said and despite the abundance of constant information, Hanrahan did manage to rather eloquently and tightly bring together all of the different threads occurring in the story into a final conclusion that seemed to wrap everything up in a satisfying way.

The few other areas that I had issues were mainly with the characters and a some of the plot. The characters themselves seemed like interesting people and for the most part I enjoyed following them, however, there was something off about all of them. I felt like I was being held at a distance from all three of the main protagonists, and although we get a bit more in depth into the nature of those such as Spar and Cari, there was always some sort of wall between myself and the characters. Rat in particular was a character that had so many interesting elements (you know, being a ghoul and all) and I was enamored with, and yet we didn't gt to spend nearly as much in-depth time with him as I expected. Additionally, the book is pitched as being about a crew of three young thieves and yet we rarely ever saw them all in one place working together. In fact, Rat seemed rather emotionless and uncaring towards a lot, so if the group's bond hadn't been emphasized so much in the beginning I'm not sure how much I would believe it was there.

And lastly, in regards to plot, I thought it seemed slightly meandering in some places and that the ending, although I enjoyed it, was a bit confusing. I kept forgetting what the main plot goal was supposed to be while reading a lot of this book, which isn't necessarily something that should happen. As mentioned, this is a busy book with a lot going on and sometimes I felt that there was just a bit too much going on.

Overall, I've still given The Gutter Prayer four stars! The imaginative elements and entertaining aspects kept me fully engaged and I look forward to see what Hanrahan does next.
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!

Thanks to the author and Orbit via NetGalley for the review copy!
The first chapter or two are bad; or at least not indicative of the later quality of the book. It reminds me a bit of mistborn, a less super heroic Craft series or a less over wrought China Mieville.
I have long been a fan of the author's work in tabletop roleplaying-games, and was eagerly awaiting the release of his first novel. The tl;dr is - this book well exceeded my expectations. The characters are well-realized and sympathetic, the pacing brisk, the plot intricate but never loses the reader, and the world building, as one might expect from someone with so much experience in RPGs, was incredible. This is modern, urban fantasy, not your grandfather's Tolkienesque Elves and Dwarves, set in a city so well presented that you'd swear you could travel there right now. The author conveys the history and culture of the city masterfully through snippets of dialogue and description, rather than long, dry info-dumps, and the result is a setting that feels real and lived in.

Fans of China Mieville and Jeff VanderMeer will find a lot to like here. I'm hopeful that this is just the first offering in a long line form this incredible new voice in fantasy fiction.