The Gutter Prayer

By: Gareth Hanrahan

Narrated by: John Banks

Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

"The Gutter Prayer is captivating and complex. Guerdon is a city that seethes with history, horror, and hidden secrets." (Nicholas Eames)

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.

Enter a city of saints and thieves....

The city of Guerdon stands eternal. A refuge from the war that rages beyond its borders. But in the ancient tunnels deep beneath its streets, a malevolent power has begun to stir.

The fate of the city rests in the hands of three thieves. They alone stand against the coming darkness. As conspiracies unfold and secrets are revealed, their friendship will be tested to the limit. If they fail, all will be lost, and the streets of Guerdon will run with blood.

"A groundbreaking and extraordinary novel.... Hanrahan has an astonishing imagination." (Peter McLean)

The Gutter Prayer is an epic tale of sorcerers and thieves, treachery and revenge, from a remarkable new voice in fantasy.

©2019 Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Brilliant.

Fast, lyrical and passionately delivered.

What a fabulous world. There are so many layers to this story and it's mythology that I had to listen to it twice. I LOVE THAT!!

I was fully invested in the trio of friends from the very beginning and that ending. I will NOT spoil.

amazing！

Now in one of my top 10 favorite book. An amazing dark fantasy, if HP lovecraft and joe ambercomie wrote a book together this would be it.

This was one of the hardest books to finish

this felt like an early draft for a series that they forgot to expand on

underrated

so good, a little hard to get into but once you grasp what's going on it's great.

Something different

I was a little unsure about this book after reading the reviews, but had been looking for another series with John Banks as narrator after listening to the Tower of Babylon books. My trepidation continued for a few chapters, but I eventually began to enjoy the book.

This story is different than the usual fantasy book with its unique setting in a semi industrialized world with trains, subways, powered boats, and guns. The characters are equally different, with one of the main POVs a stone man and another a cannibal ghoul. There is a wide variety of people and creatures.

While the originality of the setting and characters are a strength of this book and kept it interesting throughout, sometimes the details of the story became a little confusing. The author also relied a little too much on the (magic?) created by the city’s foundries as an explanation for how anything convenient would work. The trains, guns, lights, or anything else needed, works on this magic. It was a bit too convenient.

Overall though, Gutter Prayer was a good listen and a nice alternative to the usual sword and sorcery fantasy. There were a few hiccups, but not unusual for a debut book, and nothing that should stop you from giving this a listen.

Update: The third book of this series (The Broken God) has been released for more than a year now. The author's website indicates there are no immediate plans on releasing that book in audiobook form. If you are beginning the series you should be aware that audio versions of future books in the series may not be available.

WOW!!! To think I almost missed this book!!!

I bought the audiobook because I didn’t have enough time to read this book! And, I’m glad I did! Thieves, scholars, elite, law enforcement, and magic users working out a puzzle of myth, legend, and religion!!! Great story, wonderful characters, a believable world, and, of course, great narration!!! I can’t wait for Book 2!!!

A full review will be available on my blog I. Due time!!!

brutal and imaginative.

It's like Bloodborne meets the Avengers.


(and some more words until the quota is met)

Pretty Unique

I like a few titles better, but the characters were unique, memorable, and the story wasn't predictable.

Come for the world, stay for the characters

The world sucked me in. Every chapter had something new, creative, inventive, weird, or fantastical. The characters, much to my pleasant surprise, ended up packing quite the punch in the end too. I was hesitant at first, but a full-fledged fan by the end. An instant top 10 for me. Give it a shot. You won’t be bored.

Absolutely incredible

I'm going to get this down in bullet points because there are lots of useless reviews that critique and interpret books and comparatively few that provide me with sufficient information to decide if it's worth trying. So, here are some of the things I think define this book.

-First chapter is in second person AND IT WORKS
-The rest of the book is in third person and follows a handful of characters, one at a time. None of that omniscient narrator garbage that makes it sound like a child explaining a drawing.
-Superb, Mieville-level use of language
-A complex, gothic city
-Insane gods, and insane interactions between those insane gods and sane and insane non-god characters
-A race of ghouls who are born undead(?) and live(?) alongside the living, and can become insane gods
-Imaginative everything, including diseases
-Interesting characters
-A relentless plot
-This line: "Rain drums on the warehouse roof like fingers on a coffin lid."
-Cool fights
-Explorations of fear, despair and complicated friendships
-Surreal yet visceral imagery

This book is a tour de force of originality. If you're sick of dragons but want to read fantasy, I hope you get this book. If you like weird fiction, Bloodborne, brilliant and beautiful use of language, horror, schemes, or monsters (oh my god, the MONSTERS this guy came up with), I think there's a good chance you'll like Gutter Prayer.