I’m becoming a big fan of Hanrahan’s work. Great world-building, characters, and solid prose. While it moves at a good clip, sometimes the momentum dips a bit. Nevertheless, this is a great continuation of the series. Recommended.

Gareth Hanrahan found a way to go beyond readers’ expectations and gifted us with "The Shadow Saint," a strong sequel to "The Gutter Prayer"—his debut novel. The sequel takes place several months after the events in the first book, but a new conflict is the focus in this story.

The various cultures and religions as well as the events of the Godswar is presented through the world-building by the author. The politics struggling for power demonstrates the reality within the fantasy by using numerous events throughout human history as a source. The mood in the story is chaos. The city of Guerdon was saved, but that has led to more conflicts and even more conspiracies involving gods, saints, war, and elections.

"The Shadow Saint" is a sequel which demonstrates the triumph accomplished by the author who delivers on the expectations of the fans, the readers and the critics. The shift from thieves to forgotten relatives proves that the characters are just as well-written as the story and its world. If you haven’t already done so, then start reading this series! You won’t regret it!

Where do I even begin with this? I thought my 4 or 5 star book streak would be over soon but here we are, rolling out without another stunning sequel to a beloved series.

First off, and I cannot stress this enough, The Gutter Prayer has some of the most original, compelling, and captivating worldbuilding elements that I have seen in a long time. There is a fresh take on ghouls, which have never been a fantasy race I've been overly interested in. Hanrahan wrote a brilliant grimdark fantasy that keeps the reader/listener immerse from the beginning to the ending. The characters are realistic in their feelings and their tragic histories, the setting sounds like a place anyone could visit, and the plot and the subplots are full of twists and uncovered secrets. In all, this was an AMAZING novel.

You can just never be sure if a sequel will live up to that stunning introduction until the last hundred pages, where all the weirdness and bizarreness coalesces into outright madness, with the author being the greatest and smartest madmen of them all. This is an outrageously good book and is a shining example of what modern fantasy should be. It's originality is a blast of fresh air in a crowded genre and I cannot recommend it enough.

I have spent the last 12 months eagerly anticipating The Shadow Saint by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan after I read (and absolutely loved) his fantasy novel of The Gutter Prayer. Few books that I read last year came close to The Gutter Prayer in terms of sheer insanity, unforgettable characters and never-seen-before creatures, many-layered world building, and a plot that didn’t let go until the last page. To be honest, as much as I was looking for the second installment in The Black Iron Legacy series, I was nervous that The Shadow Saint wouldn’t quite rise up to me sky-high expectations. The bar was set very high.

This book takes place a few months since The Crisis, the cataclysmic events that culminated at the end of the former book. Everything and everyone in Guerdon has been changed as a result of The Crisis, most notably the New City that has transformed the geography and political structure of the city. The book starts with a clear sense of unrest and the unknown, and there is a jockeying for power.

We are introduced to several new characters, and some of the ones we met in the previous book, although some have gone through substantial changes. Returning, and playing a major role, is Eladora, the meek and subservient cousin to Cari (the main character from Book 1). Eladora’s unique familial and political connections thrust her out of her comfort zone constantly. Rat also returns although he now rules over the world of the ghouls. Several other supporting characters return, offering a bit of a connection to the cast from The Gutter Prayer.

New to this book is a mysterious Spy who assumes several different personas depending on the situation. He is clearly a person of great influence, shifting from affable to sinister from one page to the next. We also meet Terevant who is a nobody in a powerful family from Old Haith, only to discover that he is in much deeper than anyone expects. Finally, several of the Dark Gods are featured, mostly vengeful, powerful, and awesome in scope.

Let me get it out of the way. I missed Spar. He was by far the reason I loved The Gutter Prayer as much as I did. His desperate quest for survival and companionship was arguably my favorite from any book I read last year. His role in The Shadow Saint is much less direct and that is probably my biggest regret for The Shadow Saint, an otherwise outstanding book.

Another regret I have about this book is that some of the terrible “monsters” that I loved (hated?) from The Gutter Prayer were either minimally involved or otherwise absent here. I would have loved more of the Tallowmen and the Crawling Ones. They were equal parts creepy and terrifying. They were also sorely missed.

Setting aside that, the characters here are nearly as unforgettable as in The Gutter Prayer, and it could be argued that more characters are given deeper attention. Also, I am a sucker for the overlooked and the underdog being given a featured role, and that was certainly true for Eladora and Terevant (among others). I will give the slightest nod to The Gutter Prayer, but The Shadow Saint easily keeps pace.

Furthermore, for someone like me who holds quality characters as a highest criterion, everything else about this book was probably even better. Where The Gutter Prayer’s plot at times had the slightest sense of “let’s just come up with something even weirder and cooler because we can”, this plot felt much more sturdy and foundational. There was a more clear and concise path that the story was traveling (or so I thought until the inevitable twists were dropped) and boy did it build in intensity.

The world-building is something that can often trip me up in books, especially when dumped in page-long narratives. The Shadow Saint wove in a massive amount of geography, history, politics, and religion, but I found myself wanting more (which is rare for me). It all felt strangely plausible in a world that left me thinking WTF on several occasions.

Lastly, the writing was “just right”. It effortlessly moved it all along with the right tone, the right timing, and the right voice.

Just like The Gutter Prayer, this book is unlike anything I have read. If you are looking for something new and fresh (not to mention really weird – in a good way), and if you haven’t already picked up The Gutter Prayer, please, please, please pick it up along with The Shadow Saint. And then shuffle them both to the top of your TBR pile.

I highly recommend this book! 4.7 / 5 stars.

Rating: 9.5/10

Thanks to Hachette Audio, Libro.fm, the author, and the narrator for an advance listening copy of The Shadow Saint (The Black Iron Legacy #2) in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this ALC did not influence my thoughts or opinions.

The Gutter Prayer (The Black Legacy #1) was one of my favorite debuts of 2019. It was unlike any fantasy story I’d ever read before and felt like the beginning of something ground-breaking. It checked off all of the boxes of what I enjoy in a fantasy novel and left its hook deep inside me once the final page was turned. To say I utterly enjoyed it is an understatement.

But now we have The Shadow Saint, and if I utterly enjoyed the predecessor, I was absolutely enamored with the sequel. This is one of those sophomore novels you dream about reading; one that takes all of the components of the freshman hit and doubles down, shattering any preconceived notions about where the author was going to steer the adventure. I don’t know that I can say I have ever read a better second book in a series.

While Book 1 had a steady focus on three young thieves (Cari, Rat, and Spar), Book 2 shifts the perspectives to two (2) brand new characters (Terevant Erevesic and The Spy) and one (1) that we were introduced to the first time around (Eladora Duttin). While this may be a disappointment to some, and was to me prior to cracking open the book, that thought process changes rather quickly. The author did a fantastic job of instantaneously bringing said characters to the forefront, giving the reader ample opportunities to become emotionally involved with each, and maybe even one to find a new favorite character. On top of that, Hanrahan wastes zero time catching the reader up to speed with the state of things after “The Gutter Miracle” sprouted the New City and changed everything we knew about Guerdon, and the characters we became so familiar with the first time around.

The world-building that I found to be spectacular in The Gutter Prayer was nothing compared to the ever-expanding, miraculous landscapes Hanrahan poses in The Shadow Saint. If you can’t see his background in RPGs whilst reading this novel, you need to reassess what you know about the genre. From the buildings and sewers to the cobblestones that make up the streets, nothing is left boring or barren. Nothing is left to the imagination except for picturing yourself running alongside the protagonists.

I could go on and on all day about this novel, but you really just need to experience it for yourself. If you enjoyed The Gutter Prayer, I feel that you will fall in love with The Shadow Saint as I did. If you haven’t given this series a go, what are you waiting for?

I also want to give a much deserved shoutout to the narrator, John Banks. He became one of my favorite narrators while working my way through Josiah Bancroft’s The Books of Babel series, and even onto listening to Jon Hollins’ Fool’s Gold (The Dragon Lords #1). If you enjoy audiobooks at any level at all, definitely check out his library. He will always be a Top 5 for me, alongside the likes of Jim Dale, Joe Jameson, Tim Gerard Reynolds, and Roy Dotrice (RIP).

Guerdon shambles on from age to age, incorporating its scars and eating its scabs, surviving as best it can.

Prepare yourself for a multitude of shifts… in perspective, setting, character goals. Guerdon is a city that has changed and evolved through The Gutter Miracle and the emergence of the New City. Now Effro Kelkin has the power in his hands in the form of the Emergency Committee and some in the city are ready to open up elections, yet others think that the ground hasn’t settled since the turbulent actions of The Gutter Prayer.

To add to the conflicts are the representatives from neighboring Haith who see benefit in opening up greater lines of trade between the nations… especially when it comes to the weapons the alchemists have nearly perfected. And there’s a new device that is rumored to be in the city, one that could change the course of the outside war. But these trade agreements would certainly threaten Guerdon’s stake as a neutral entity in the ongoing war. The Godwar jeopardizes the relative peace or at least the thin veneer that many are trying to hold together as there are factions and individuals who are active in making their cases known.

Hanrahan shifts the perspective to several new characters and a couple old ones. First and foremost is Eladora who is now Kelkin’s assistant and in charge of, among other things, gaining allegiance to the cause from the occupants of the New City. And then there’s The Spy. A character that keeps you on your toes for every word of every page. A chameleon of personalities and allegiances in order to attain his goal, his chess-like moves keep him several steps ahead. (And those fav characters from The Gutter Prayer: you will meet again.)

A couple tips in getting into this sequel:

1. I would definitely recommend reading Hanrahan’s Gutter Prayer Refresher from his website. Even though I read it just a couple months back, I needed to review some of the characters and back story.

2. Be prepared for a pretty dense read. This is not a criticism. I felt like it took a little extra effort to keep up with the various threads in the Shadow Saint.

3. Hanrahan’s writing is as immersive and particular as in the first book. Each page is a trip of metaphor and detail that takes the reader into his city.

4. A widening of the world. A spreading of the political scene. Hold on and open your mind. You will not regret it.

Highly Recommended!

5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Orbit Books, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

The Shadow Saint is a devastatingly brilliant new installment in the Black Iron Legacy series by Gareth Hanrahan. Although the initial book, The Gutter Prayer, had a few weaknesses in the character development department, these were beautifully resolved and a complete nonissue in this sequel. Eladora is the primary focus of this novel, with Cari as a side character. Several new characters are also introduced: Alic, the spy, and Terevant, a man of Haith. As the Godswar closes in on Guerdon, the goals and aims of these three will align in unexpected ways. Fans of the worldbuilding from the previous novel won’t be disappointed; the expanded scope brings in a great deal of new information and helps fill in the cracks from the previous book.

If it’s been a while since you last read The Gutter Prayer, the author has courteously uploaded a quick refresher summarizing the most important plot points on his blog . I highly recommend it. My review of The Gutter Prayer can be found on my blog, Black Forest Basilisks, if you’re entirely new to the series.

Eladora was a fan favorite from the first book, and I suspect many readers will be excited to know that she’s the main protagonist of the sequel. Although I had trouble connecting with her initially, I found myself engaged and drawn in to her new narrative. She struggles with her desire to help her city and the lingering fears and trauma from The Crisis. Thoughts of Miren haunt her dreams, and she feels the shadows watching her at every turn. She’s landed in Effro Kelkin’s political sphere, a man who formerly controlled Guerdon’s parliament. She is a political canvasser, specifically focused on The New City created by Spar’s sacrifice and The Gutter Miracle.

"Everyone else in Guerdon’s ruling elite sees the New City as a threat to public safety, a monstrous aberration that must be excised. Kelkin’s seen it for what it is – enough new votes to topple the balance of power in parliament. He hasn’t crashed his ship on the rocks. He’s beached it on a virgin shore."

The New City, however, has a vigilante saint lurking in its depths. The Saint of Knives is well-known amongst the populace, protecting the locals from criminal syndicates and foreign saints. To some, she’s a figure of shadows and fear. To Eladora…. She’s her cousin, Carillon. Cari has much less screen time in this sequel, but I was much more interested in her nevertheless. I felt cheated by Spar’s death in The Gutter Prayer, but as it turns out, he’s not entirely gone. Spar has been transfigured, stretched, and contorted into becoming a part of the New City, nearly godlike, with Carillon as his erstwhile saint. Together, they change the very landscape to suit their needs. Unlike the true gods, however, Spar is unable to regenerate himself with souls or though any other magical means. Each expenditure of power lessens his ability to interact with the New City, and Carillon struggles with doing what is needed when the price is her friend.

Alic, or X84, or Sanhada Baradhin, or simply “the spy,” is perhaps the best embodiment of The Black Iron Legacy’s primary theme: change and transfiguration. Alic sheds identities like we should shed a coat. He lives in limbo, never fully committing to any one personality. Although he is, ostensibly, a spy for Ishmere, it quickly becomes apparent that his motivations are muddy and unclear at best. His loyalties are uncertain, but as he lives his Alic identity, he becomes more and more enmeshed into it until it’s difficult for him to know where Alic ends and the spy begins. His ward, a saint of Fate Spider, becomes important to Alic… and ultimately Alic begins to overcome and change the spy, in his own turn.

"Taking on the roles of refugees from the Godswar was easy for both of them. Walk like you’re hollow. Keep your voice low, as though speaking too loud might attract the attention of some mad deity. Shudder when the weather changes, when light breaks through the clouds, when certain noises are too loud, too charged with significance. Flinch at portents. The man whose name is not Sanhada Baradhin and the boy who didn’t have a name arrived on board the steamer a week ago with bowed heads, shuffling up the gangplank with a crowd of other survivors."

What we see of Ishmere, largely through Alic, is horrifying. Ishmere’s pantheon is currently set to win the Godswar; to the lion-headed goddess, Pesh, the Lion Queen, war is holy. War is endless, To conquer in war is her only purpose, and she will fulfill it at all costs. Every soul that dies on the battlefield goes to her, grows her, expands her. With support of the Kraken, Cloud Mother, and the rest of the pantheon… the Kept Gods of Guerdon, starved of soul-stuff and with only a handful of saints to their name, have little hope of defending their shores.

"The goddess Pesh, Lion Queen, war-goddess of the Ishmeric pantheon – or rather her avatar, made from Captain Isigi – purrs in satisfaction and settles back onto her seat. The spy notes without alarm that the simple wooden chair is now a throne of skulls, that the trestle table has become a blood-soaked altar. The hearts begin to beat again, squirting jets of crimson across the floor. The file folder, though, is still a file folder. Isigi – or is the overlapping entity in front of him more Pesh than Isigi now? – picks it up, extends a claw and slices through the metal seal holding it shut. The spy shudders at the grace of the movement, knowing that those selfsame claws recently tore a half-mile rent in the hillside below. Isigi removes the papers, reviews them in silence. The tent reverberates with her divine breath, which smells of meat and sandalwood. Everything comes down to this."

Through Terevant, brother to the Erevesic, we see a glimpse of the other side of the Godswar. Haith has been the primary opponent of Ishmere thus far, holding the front lines. Their god of death isn’t exactly present in the same way as Ishmere’s pantheon, but the undead Vigilant who hold front lines of the war are existence enough. In Ishmere, you’re no one one until you’re dead, after all. The great houses hold phylacteries, such as the Sword Erevesic, that allow, once again, a soul to be transfigured into a piece of a greater whole upon death. Terevant is still alive, and is very much hoping to remain that way. The political situation in Guerdon is fraught with danger for him, as his brother and his brother’s wife pull him in opposing directions.

The biggest and most important change between The Shadow Saint and the Gutter prayer lies in the characters. Here, the characters feel less like they exist to support and a plot, and more like agents who create the plot as their actions and decisions impact the world around them. They all interweave beautifully, creating an intricate web of cause and effect that I felt was missing in the first book. The worldbuilding, which previously became a bit of an infodump at times, now happens organically through the knowledge and experiences of the characters. Terevant and Alic, in particular, showcase Guerdon from an outsider’s perspective. To them, The Crisis was distant history; they weren’t a part of it like Cari and Eladora. It’s a fresh, new perspective on the city as it currently exists vs the perspective of those who have lived through its most recent incarnation.

I’ll confess, I was slightly hesitant when I picked up this book based on my experience with The Gutter Prayer; I was worried that it would drag, that the hefty page count would feel slow. Instead, I found myself anxious to pick up the book each time I had to set it down, constantly on the edge of my seat, and unable to wait to find out what the characters would do next. The final third of the book, in particular, had me curious and guessing. There was a small portion in the middle that felt a little slow, but it paid off in the end. Hanrahan’s growth as a writer is deeply impressive, and I am eagerly awaiting the next installment in The Black Iron Legacy.

This book carries on, more or less, from The Gutter Prayer, though it does follow different characters, for the most part.

The city of Guerdon has changed since the events of the last book. There is a New City that has sprouted in the midst of everything, and it has become a refuge for the poor and the seedier residents of the city.

There are rumours abound that hiding somewhere in the ghoul-filled tunnels of Guerdon, a weapon capable of killing the gods themselves can be found. While Guerdon tries very hard to stay neutral in the Godswar between the neighboring nations (and the gods therein) of Haith and Ishmere, both countries have sent people into the city to try and find this mysterious weapon and claim it for their side.

Our story (mostly) follows Eladora Duttin, a woman who we met a little bit in The Gutter Prayer; Terevant Erevesic, the second son of a noble house in Haith, and the brother of the current ambassador of Haith in Guerdon; and a spy from Ishmere, who has several identities that he slips into when required.

This one was just as fantastically written as its predecessor, with all kinds of awesome worldbuilding and twists and turns. While it was ever-present in the Guerdon of The Gutter Prayer, the vibe that I got from The Shadow Saint was very similar to that of China Miéville’s New Crobuzon. The city has a dirty, corrupt and ultimately otherworldly and weird feel to it, and boy, did Gareth Hanrahan really made me feel it. Like I once said about Perdido Street Station, this one gave me actual tangible reactions to the dangers or conditions of the city it takes place in. Things like disgust, repulsion, and fear. It should also be noted that in this case, just as in the case of New Crobuzon, I don’t mean this in a bad way. Not at all. Guerdon is supposed to feel corrupt and dangerous, and it does. A well told story can often make me emote for characters that I like or that I relate with, but it’s far more rare for me to have this sort of immersion in a world. Very well done.

I rather liked Terevant as a character, and the spy. Eladora wasn’t my favorite, just as she really wasn’t in the first book, but it was still entertaining to read her parts of the story. Enough that I really never wanted to put the book down no matter who was moving the story forward. Alas, real life stuff always interrupts my reading time these days.

All told, I thought this was a fantastic book in the Black Iron Legacy series, and I am excited to read more in the future!

Thanks to the author, as well as Orbit via NetGalley for the review copy.