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.

I guess it all started with that cover. I mean…oof.

I don’t mention covers much in my reviews, if at all. Maybe I should? Either way, I think everything Richard Anderson touches turns to gold, and I can honestly say…this is my favorite. From the second Orbit revealed this cover, I was totally intrigued by this book. And then the buzz around The Gutter Prayer began in earnest, and it seemed like folks were ready to call this the best debut fantasy novel of 2019, before it was even 2019.

I would like to join those folks.

The Gutter Prayer is one of the most fiercely original & thrilling books I’ve ever picked up! Gareth Hanrahan‘s debut novel is just…fucking hell…it’s a rare thing when a book can continue to surprise you, 300, 400, 500 pages into it, but that’s what this book did for me.

The book takes place in the city of Guerdon. While the mysterious & epic Godswar takes place beyond its borders, inside, the city is teeming with darkness, conspiracies, secrets, and ancient evils.

Our three main characters are:

-Carillon Thay, better known as Cari. She’s newly returned to Guerdon, and not terribly happy about it.

-Spar, a Stone Man, so named for the condition that is slowly killing him, turning every part of him to stone.

-Rat, a ghoul. Sort of a dog-like face, goat-like legs. Ghouls eat the flesh of recently deceased humans. So…yeah.

The three of them are working together when the book begins. Spar & Rat have known one another for a long time, but Cari is new to the mix. Spar is a member of the Brotherhood, an organization of thieves once run by his father. The opening of The Gutter Prayer is…it’s just fucking insane. This caper that Cari, Spar, and Rat are on goes cataclysmically wrong, which results in the group being split up early on in the story.

*slowly veers away from plot details because it’s complex & I have many things I’d like to get to*

This book just checked off so many boxes for me. It is atmospheric as fuck. Guerdon is a city that lives & breathes…it’s crisscrossed with canals & train tunnels & sewers &( creepy-ass chutes for feeding corpses to the ghouls who spend most of their time underground.

We get to know these characters slowly, organically. Cari is someone who is really trying to find herself, and figure out where she fits in. Her family history is…complicated. And while she’s quick & strong & generally a good thief, she is wholly unprepared for the conflict she’s about to find herself at the center of. Fortunately for her, Spar is a very grounding influence. Unfortunately for her (and him, too), Spar is slowly dying, reliant on daily injections to help stall the process of solidification.

And then there’s Rat. Rat is just fucking fascinating as a main character. There’s this thoughtfulness and introspective side of him, but also…he’s a ghoul. And though he considers Cari to be his friend, some of his baser instincts would have him rip her throat out & feast on her flesh. It’s quite an interesting dynamic between these two.

The secondary characters are also incredibly vivid & well written. Aleena, in particular, was a big scene stealer for me. She’s a badass saint with a flaming sword, and she’s the most delightfully foul-mouthed character I’ve met next to Chrisjen Avasarala from The Expanse books. There’s plenty of humor in The Gutter Prayer, much of it provided by Aleena…she’s just fucking hilarious!

And the innovation shown with the characters of the monster/non-human variety is just astounding. The Crawling Ones, humanoid creepies made up of thousands and thousands OF WORMS!! The Tallowmen…THE FUCKING TALLOWMEN!! Think of them as the police in a way…they are huge-ass SAVAGE candles! Literally. They are made of wax (I’ll leave the discovery of how they are made for you to find out when you read it). They have wicks that burn bright, lighting up the dark corners of Guerdon. It sounds hokey, but they are fucking terrifyingly fast & scary & have slashy-slicey knives and will FUCK YOU UP!

This is probably the longest review I’ve written & I’ve honestly barely scratched the surface of this amazing novel. There’s some steampunk-ish aspects to this book, notably the horrifying Fever Knight…a massive helmeted enforcer with all kinds of weird hoses & tubes & needles injecting shit into him automatically. To that end, Guerdon reminded me slightly of New Crobuzon from China Miéville’s Bas-Lag novels, but only just a bit.

If The Gutter Prayer isn’t on your TBR, put it there. This book is fucking astonishing!

P.S. If I had one complaint, it’s that I would’ve LOVED to see a gorgeous map of Guerdon at the beginning! Maybe next time?

Endless thanks to Orbit for sending me a copy! The Gutter Prayer releases January 22nd!