The Gutter Miracle changed the landscape of Guerdon forever. Six months after it was conjured into being, the labyrinthine New City has become a haven for criminals and refugees.

Rumors have spread of a devastating new weapon buried beneath the streets – a weapon with the power to destroy a god. As Guerdon strives to remain neutral, two of the most powerful factions in the godswar send agents into the city to find it.

As tensions escalate and armies gather at the borders, how long will Guerdon be able to keep its enemies at bay? The Gutter Prayer was easily one of my favorite books of 2019. I instantly fell in love with the dark & dangerous city of Guerdon, with Gareth Hanrahan’s writing, and with the strange & memorable cast of characters. Really, that book has just about everything I’d look for in a dark fantasy novel. It had plenty of completely bonkers action scenes, a creepy network of underground tunnels, ghouls feasting on dead human flesh, a legion of terrifying enforcers made out of candle wax…like, The Gutter Prayer was a lot. And it was fucking triumphant.

It should go without saying that The Shadow Saint was one of my most anticipated reads for 2020, and I’m just…sitting here still trying to sort out my feelings about this book. If I had to describe The Shadow Saint in a word, it would be…frustrating. In the interest of trying to write an actual review, I’ll add some more words, though.

Oof. To start with, The Shadow Saint is a MUCH different book than The Gutter Prayer. And I can appreciate the creative risk involved in something like this, truly. It just didn’t completely work for me. The POVs in The Shadow Saint are all different from The Gutter Prayer, with two of the POVs going to entirely new characters.

One of these new characters is Sanhada Baradhin. Or X84. Or the spy. Or Alic. These…are all the same person. I’m not going to try to explain this beyond just…it was too much for me. I couldn’t bring myself to care about Alic in any meaningful way, and the switching names to represent different parts of his personality just endlessly grated on me.

The bright spot for me was that Eladora Duttin was one of the POVs…honestly, her chapters were what kept me going in this book. While the main characters from The Gutter Prayer all have roles to play in The Shadow Saint, it was Eladora that felt like (to me) the connecting thread between the two books. I was also happy to see the return of the ghoul, Silkpurse, in a bigger role!

I also want to point out there are reanimated skeletons in this book (NECROMANCY!!), one of whom was a character I enjoyed quite a bit. Where are my Yoras fans? 💀

Ok. I am certainly of the mindset that all art, in one way or another, is political. I both enjoy and expect politics in the fantasy novels I choose to read. But this book is just on a whole other level when it comes to politics, and I felt like it threatened to consume the whole story, characters & all.

Look…there was a moment for me where I gave serious thought to DNFing this book. I think I was at around page 275 (out of 562) when that feeling hit me. But I decided to power through The Shadow Saint for a couple reasons. First, there were aspects of this book that I really enjoyed. I know I haven’t spent much (if any) time in this review highlighting those aspects, but they were there. Second, this is a series that I want to see through to the end. It’s inevitable that you prefer one book over another in any given series/trilogy, and so I’m of course hoping that The Shadow Saint is simply the book in The Black Iron Legacy that didn’t super work for me.

Gareth Hanrahan is an incredible writer, and this is such a vivid & weird & dark & amazing world that he’s created. For one reason or another, The Shadow Saint just didn’t really click with me. But I’m honestly still invested in this series & seeing where the story goes from here!

Thanks to Orbit for sending me a copy!