So. The Shadow Saint. It’s good. Like, really, really good. It’s the sequel to Gareth Hanrahan’s The Gutter Prayer, which I also thought was, er, really, really good. Before digging into it a little more, I may be able to save you some time by saying that if you read and enjoyed The Gutter Prayer, you’ll be wanting to pick up the sequel. You won’t be disappointed.
There’s a lot going on this time, as the text examines big issues – religion, politics, identity – through a personal and fantastic lens. It does this with some top-notch characterisation, and by extending the vividly detailed worldbuilding of the previous instalment.
There are three central characters to the story: Eladora, Terevant, and The Spy. Eladora was a member of the supporting cast in the previous book, and it’s great to see her get room to grow here. She’s clever, razor-sharp, a little ambitious, and trying to do the right thing. A the story begins, she’s finding a vocation as a political operative, trying to shape the direction of the city of Guerdon, recently reshaped by magical fiat. There’s a fair amount of politics in this story, centred around an upcoming election. Eladora is the pivot, a woman trying to speak to and for the dispossessed, the disenfranchised, and those otherwise unable to have a voice of their own. Eladora is fierce. Flawed, yes. Mistaken, from time to time. But driven to succeed, and putting the best interests of people and city before her own personal needs. I might not describe her as a woman of action, but a compelling, convincing heroine nonetheless.
While Eladora is out causing trouble in the city, we also spend some time with Terevant. He’s the scion of a noble family, from a country where the dead have a tendency to hang around after their demise and offer advice and post-generational disappointment in equal measure. More of the latter for Terevant, if I’m honest. The juniour scion of a great family, and survivor of a supernatural war, he’s not really up to much when the story begins. That said, he is both a pitch-perfect portrayal of a younger son, and a great point of view into both Guerdon (as an outsider) and into a contracting empire where the dead-but-walking-around outnumber the living. I won’t dig into his role too much, or fear of spoilers – but Terevant is keenly observed and compellingly written. I’d say his narrative strand is melancholy, investigative and intriguing – as he starts digging around in the dark corners of Guerdon society, neither he or we know what he’ll find. Though it might be explosive once dug up.
And then there’s The Spy. Too much spoiler potential here. But The Spy puts on faces like the rest of us wear shoes. They switch personalities, they drift in and out of view. They’re never quite who you expect. And each time The Spy is someone knew, their writing changes; they become, to us as well as themselves, the person they portray. I found the multiple perspectives with an underlying agenda to be a frightfully clever piece of writing, and was gripped by the dilemma’s and struggles of The Spy’s various personae, even while trying to work out what it was they were up to.
All three are strutting their stuff against the backdrop of Guerdon, the city rebuilt at the close of The Gutter Prayer. This is a new world. But it’s as multi-faceted and lovingly described as it was before. Each twisted alleyway. Each marble tower populated by squatters. Each ship of refugees crossing the thrashing waters to enter a neutral port in a world wracked by conflict. They all feel real. This is a world which lives and breathes, and invites you to inhabit it. Of course, there is a war on. And that is as lovingly, horrifyingly, lavishly described as the city which serves as a shelter from it. This is a war of mad gods, an epic struggle that seems likely to end only in annihilation, where worshippers are less than chaff between the toes of the gods, and the gods are less divine than they are broken, screaming monstrosities. The war will stop your heart, and Guerdon, an oasis of sanity in a world obviously insane, will take you into its own.
The story I won’t get into, for fear of spoilers. That said, it’s good stuff. There are crosses, double crosses, betrayals and unmaskings aplenty. There’s some truly epic magic, if that’s your thing – warring divinities don’t tend to play nice, and definitely get messy. In amongst this chaos there are beautiful moments of personal tenderness, hardship, heartbreak, friendship, and hope. There are people. There are emotional stakes which will wrench at your heart, and Big Damn Explosions which will threaten to displace that same heart into another country via your ribcage. There’s wry humour and a dash of romance. What there is most though, is a sense that all of these things matter, to the world and to the people we see within it. This is a story which will get its hooks into you. This is a story which won’t let go. This is a story you’ll find yourself staying up until 4am to finish. This is a story you’ll want to read.
So why wait? Go on, get reading.
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