✨⭐ 9 stars out of 10 ⭐✨
Reading this bring me so much nostalgia. The book is not perfect but it's enough for me.

Keywords: high fantasy, alchemy, dragon mafia, steampunk-ish vibes, journey, war, gay rep (side chara)
Trigger warning: violence and gore

REVIEW
In this third book of The Black Iron Legacy, the story took part some months away after the mess of The Shadow Saint. We're greeted once again with the familiar point of view of Carillon Thay, along with few new point of views spinning around the infamous city of Guerdon. It's the usual chaotic mess of politics between the guilds, alchemists, warring states with their gods, and mafia-ish dragons of Ghierdana. The citizens of Guerdon are powerless when trapped in the midst of it all. Especially those in the lower ladder of society. Will they submit to occupying power or will they prevail?

In this book, big chunks of the story are about exploring the condition of other country ravaged by the war of gods. We see all those devastations as we follow Cari in her journey to save Spar. I always love Cari ever since the first book, so her comeback is a comfortable welcome in this book. Among the POVs, hers always bring me joy to read.

Not just that, we also got more about Cari's backstory before her heist with Spar and Rat. We also see how she slowly matures throughout the course of the book. And how she bonded with people and recovered her previous bonds.

The other POVs are from the arrogant but self righteous dragon prince, Rasce, and from one of Spar's friend in the brotherhood, Baston. As Cari's pov tried to expand our view of the world, Rasce and Baston's POVs were focused in Guerdon.

The dragon pirates are a bit like mafia, so some people might find it cool and like them. We also see how common and the poor people trying to survive in the changes and chaos brought to Guerdon by the wars and gods. Even so, both Rasce and Baston's POVs are still intertwined greatly with Spar history in the Guerdon. We saw bits of Spar POVs scattered throughout the book. It's a delight to those who likes Spar.

There are a lot of cameos of previous characters and povs. Most of them working behind the scenes in the background like Eladora, Rat, and even the mysterious Spy entity from the previous book.

Storywise, I could agree with other reviewers who said some parts of the story served no purpose with the plot as a whole. Some might even feels pointless and got us questioning what are all that for. But then, I'm biased and I saw all of it benefit Cari's growth journey so I don't mind it.

It's still action-packed as before and fun little adventure. The world building is even more expanded and we got more understanding of the gods and magic of this world. Some weird world building aspects are still there too, bizarre and interesting to read as always.

Overall, I'm very biased in this review because I love Cari and significant portion of this book is about her.

There's also a gay pairing of older men with their little children as side characters that written in the way I like it. Just mentioned casually with no homophobia and very normalized.

This review is a rambling so I need to end it here. I deeply apologized to the writer and publisher for reviewing this arc too late. Though I kinda regret reading it this late because turned out this book is quite fun and really worth it. I am looking forward to the next book and its wonderful mayhem!



Thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for lending me the e-arc of this book in exchange of honest review.

It's been an absolute pleasure having Gareth's books to read these past few years. Completely steeped in invention, with incredible worlds, characters and magics, I've raced through each and every one of them and I'm always looking forward to the next. Keep up the excellent work, Gareth.

The Broken God is the final book the the The Black Iron Legacy series, I've had a bit of a rocky journey with this series, I've mostly enjoyed reading them but they take me a long time to get into and something just doesn't quite connect with me. That being said once I got into this one (after about the 30% mark) I really enjoyed the story - it was probably my favourite of the 3, I really like Cari as a protagonist and she definitely gets a chance to shine in this one.

The main characters we follow are Cari, as she tries to voyage to a mystical city to find salvation for her friend Spar and bumps into a lot of old friends and acquaitances along the way. The other main POVs are Rasce, a dragon rider who takes over the thieves guild and Baston, a minion of said guild. I liked following both their POVs as we hadn't seen much of them in previous books, I thought the stroy with Rasce and Spar was also interesting and liked getting to know more about Gheridina customs. I also really enjoyed the interludes we got with Eladora, I really didn't like her in book 1 but she grew on me a lot in book 2 and I loved the almost antagonist role she played in this book.

The prose and atmosphere as always was very good, there are so many unsettling creatures and enviroments - I think this series is a great testament to horror fantasy. The main trouble I have with this series is getting into the books and feeling a little scattered in the story sometimes but I have kept reading till the end of the triolgy so something is compelling me to read more haha.

Overall I think if you have enjoyed the first two books in the series you will really enjoy this one, it is definitely a strong entry and my critisims were generally ones I've had of the whole triolgy so if you gave book 1 5 stars you would probably give this 5 stars as well!

I will have a longer review for this one up on the blog later this month, along with reviews for the first two books but this was an absolutely fantastic book, and it feels as though this series is going from strength to strength. I loved that we got to see Cari as a POV character again and her chapters were some of my favourites, but while it took me a little while to take to the new POV characters I did feel they were excellent additions. Hanrahan's worldbuilding remains spectacular, and honestly I can't wait to see where he will go next with the world and characters.

Esperaba con muchísima expectación la tercera entrega de la saga The Black Iron Legacy de Gareth Hanrahan, después del excelente sabor de boca que me dejaron los dos primeros libros. Sin embargo, me ha costado horrores entrar en esta novela, a pesar de haberme leído los resúmenes que el autor ha colgado amablemente en su web, y el cambio de escenario de la historia no le ha sentado nada bien.


Mientras que en The Gutter Prayer y The Shadow Saint prácticamente toda la acción se circunscribía a la ciudad de Guerdon en esta ocasión uno de los personajes más queridos de la saga emprenderá un periplo que le llevará a otros lugares, también afectados por la guerra de los dioses. Este movimiento, que podría parecer a priori interesante por las muchas posibilidades que le ofrecería al autor, acaba siendo un recorrido lento e inexorable en busca de un objetivo que siempre parece estar más allá del horizonte. Se ralentiza la acción y solo acabamos deseando que llegue ya a algún sitio para que termine el dichoso viaje. Es cierto que algunas de las imágenes más poderosas de la novela pasan en esta parte, pero no es menos cierto que Cari da más vueltas que un trompo sin que avance mucho el relato.

En esta ocasión Hanrahan nos mostrará otra de las culturas que forman parte del débil armisticio que se mantiene la ciudad. Y, qué queréis que os diga, a mí es que me mencionas a los dragones y ya me están haciendo los ojos chiribitas. Pero esta facción, los Ghierdana, resulta mucho menos atractiva que los Haith del segundo libro, y los puntos de vista que nos ofrecen son algo repetitivos y si me lo permitís, previsibles. Que los dragones estén unidos a una familia humana considerándoles privilegiados parece un vínculo muy fuerte, pero es más bien una relación de subyugación muy desigual.

Es una lástima porque el autor vuelve a hacer gala de su portentosa imaginación, con un desfile de situaciones estrambóticas en los que el poder y la locura de los dioses nos vuelve a asombrar con sus enfrentamientos, pero esta vez no está acompañada de una profundidad en la historia que haga que merezca la pena el camino emprendido. No es que el libro sea malo, es que palidece en comparación con los anteriores, que eran sublimes.

No obstante, no deja de ser cierto que cuando salga la siguiente entrega de la historia ahí estaré yo para volver a darle una oportunidad

ARC provided by the publisher—Orbit—in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5 stars

The Broken God continues The Black Iron Legacy’s reputation as one of the most imaginative ongoing fantasy series right now.

First of all, thank you so much to Gareth Hanrahan for including a detailed summary of the previous two books on his website; I wish this is a norm, and if it is, it would be much easier for me to continue reading a series without feeling lost. Secondly, I was a bit sad that Richard Anderson didn’t return to do the cover art for this book, but Thea Dumitriu did a great job doing the new cover art. Lastly, I have been sitting on this review for a few days. This isn’t an easy review for me to write; I can’t seem to feel right with what I wanted to convey within my review as spoiler-free as possible.

The Broken God is the third book in The Black Iron Legacy series by Gareth Hanrahan, and it was easily one of my most anticipated books of the year. The first book in the series, The Gutter Prayer, is one of my favorite debuts of all time; the sequel to it, The Shadow Saint, was a political installment that almost matched the quality of the first book, in my opinion. The Broken God, however, is my least favorite volume in the series so far.

But allow me to start with the things I loved first. I absolutely loved Cari’s POV chapters; Cari didn’t appear much in The Shadow Saint, and it gave me joy that The Broken God featured her as one of the main characters again. And not only Cari returns as one of the POV characters, but Hanrahan’s decision to put her away from Guerdon was also a brilliant move. I totally didn’t expect Cari’s story to be an intimate dive into her background and origin story. We found out about Cari’s past friends and also how she met Spar and Rat. In her journey to find the legendary land of Khebesh, amidst the conflicts with the criminal dragons of Ghierdhana, in Cari’s POV chapters we also get to witness more display of Hanrahan’s breathtaking imagination. Seriously, some of the scenes exhibited in her POV chapters—or the entire book, really—were downright cruel, epic, and jaw-dropping. The characters Cari met in her chapters definitely enhanced my investment in her compelling characterizations and narrative. Artoro, the new villain in this book, was so insane and loyal towards achieving his revenge that tensions in the text were successfully pulled off. Cari’s and Artoro’s POV chapters were thoroughly captivating, and the highly fascinating world-building, divine powers, and creatures of the series showed Hanrahan’s storytelling capability at his best again.

So what went wrong for me? The two other new POV characters, and the climax sequences. Similar to The Shadow Saint, and quite likely the rest of the series, Hanrahan continues to introduce new characters as POV characters here. But unlike the character of The Spy in The Shadow Saint, which I ended up loving, things seem to turn the other way around with Rasce and Baston. I was interested in these two characters at first, but as the story goes on, it gets increasingly difficult for me to feel invested in their chapters. Their characterizations felt forced, and their motivations fluctuated too much; their actions felt unbelievable at times. Lastly, the climax sequences. One of the greatest things about The Black Iron Legacy series is in the climax sequences. The Gutter Prayer and The Shadow Saint have a memorable and epic climax sequences. As for The Broken God, after all the great build-up leading towards the final pages, things just sort of… ended unsatisfyingly. Also, I feel inclined to mention, please do not expect anything amazing to come out of Cari’s journey to Khebesh. As much as I enjoyed the characterizations of Cari’s here, I wish the result of her journey to Khebesh was more satisfying.

Honestly speaking, giving The Broken God a rating below 4 stars is painful to me, but I have to always be honest with my rating and review. This isn’t to say that The Broken God wasn’t a good book. As always, Hanrahan’s imagination blessed this book, Cari’s characterization was compelling, and the world-building was incredible; I’m definitely still a fan of the series. But The Broken God pales in comparison to the brilliance of The Gutter Prayer and The Shadow Saint, and I hope the next book in the series will bring the series back to its full glory. Right now, I’m still not too sure regarding the status of the series being extended into a five books series; there’s a definite middle book syndrome here. On the positive side, though, I totally have no idea where the series will go from here, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the future will be a bright one.

You can order the book from: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository (Free shipping) | The Broken Binding (Use my code: NOVELNOTIONS121 for discount!)

You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions

The Broken God


5/5 - The Broken God continues to build on the excellence of the other books in The Black Iron Legacy series and - unsurprisingly - leaves me desperate to see what Hanrahan will do with the overarching narrative. It’s flipping fantastic.


Read it. Well, start with The Gutter Prayer, then move onto The Shadow Saint, and then read this. This series should be a staple for any modern fantasy reader - and it’s well and truly worthy of a spot in the canon.

The below are high-level, spoiler-free thoughts. In short, read the book.

Highlights:
Story itself and its many different links - various threads, both new and continuations of previous instalments, mean that the narrative never gets old - and they’re interwoven just at the right intervals so you never forget what’s going on with character X and can link things up between plot points Y and Z. Basically, Hanrahan tells a multilayered, complex narrative without making reading it feel like work.
Worldbuilding is amazing - this won’t surprise anyone. We are introduced to new powers/godly abilities/political intrigue etc, with old threads reinforced and built on. In all honesty with the sheer scale of the worldbuilding in books 1 and 2, Hanrahan didn’t need to redesign the wheel here, but the new bits and bobs thrown in to keep things fresh and interesting. Minimal spoilers (but potentially spoilers all the same) - we see at least one new hybrid ‘species’ (freaked me out a bit when we first saw them to be honest!), different interactions with gods, and the authority/strength of gods. The worldbuilding shows an expansive imagination, and the ability to pull the different elements together so well is why Hanrahan is one of my favourite authors of all time.
Characters. In short, they’re well developed and at this point, returning characters are becoming familiar (in a good way! It means we can pre-judge and guess what decisions they will make and how they’re going to react to certain stimuli). New characters are quickly established and built on with sufficient detail - including at least one new ‘point of view’ (ish) character who quickly became one of my favourite focus points in the series. If I had one criticism in this area it’s that there are a small number of characters that I’m desperate to learn more about (maybe in future books - probably not for some of them, though) - this speaks more to Hanrahan’s ability to build an intriguing cast rather than accidentally leave some insufficiently undeveloped. I just want more exploration into some of them - what is that godly person doing? What’s that spy up to? Or that mastermind (are they still a mastermind?).
The ‘x’ factor - I don’t know what it is, but reading these books puts me in the mindset I used to have as a young lad watching cartoons and playing games - a genuine sense of wonder and excitement about the sheer scope of the story and the magic involved. After some of the bombshells in the previous books, readers never really know what’s going to go down here. Well, potential readers, you will not be disappointed, let me tell you that for free.
NB: similar vibes to the ‘power up’ scenes seen in things like Dragonball Z - or in literature the acceptance and shoulders of new powers and strengths in Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archives series - but with less certainty that the changes will be positive. Truly fantastic.
Overall writing - Hanrahan knows what he’s doing and his methodological writing, whilst not overly flowery, has a good deal of variety in terms of style and presents his narrative with great clarity. There were no pacing issues and it really felt like every page contributed to the story overall - that’s quite rare.

Summary: The Broken God by Gareth Hanrahan is a strong continuation to the Black Iron Legacy series, a world where mad gods walk the earth, monsters roam the streets, and Dragon crime families hold hostage entire cities. While perhaps a step down from the two previous entries, the book is still a great ride the whole way through.

The Broken God brings us back Carillion Thay and Spar as prominent POVs, and includes Baston, a former member of the criminal Brotherhood, and friend of Spar’s, and Rasce, Chosen of the dragon Taras, representing one of the Ghierdana families interests in the city of Guerdon.

For Cari, this book is somewhat of a journey of discovery, as she tries to figure out her place in the world beyond her position as the Saint of Knives, while also trying to make her way to Khebesh to trade knowledge for knowledge to bolster Spar’s waning power. She quickly finds herself hunted by Artolo, a Ghierdana agent she stabbed and drove out of Guerdon months previous. Cari’s story is one of reconnecting with her past, while trying to understand who she is and who she wants to be.

Rasce, Baston and Spar’s story is intertwined heavily in this book. Rasce is tasked by his great uncle dragon to corner the yliaster (alchemist stuff) supply in the city. This means working outside the zone of the city controlled by Lyrix, and potentially endangering the treaty that split the city apart in the first place. Baston is recruited due to his skills and his old contacts in the Brotherood, but his loyalties are divided, and struggles to figure out what the right thing to do is. Spar manages to make a connection with Rasce, giving him a similar sort of sainthood that Cari had, and their differing interests clash – Spar just wants to protect the people of the New City, his magic given body, without unravelling in the process.

As usual, the world-building is incredible. It came as no surprise to me the knowledge that Hanrahan writes books for roleplaying games, as the man is bursting with ideas. In this story, we get to see the return of old allies and enemies (well, mostly enemies) and a much bigger look at the Ghierdana. I was maybe a little disappointed that the Ghierdana are mostly just what they seem – crime families ran by dragons. The backstory to how the dragons came about is novel, but not used much, and as a faction they seem almost vanilla compared to some of the other crazy elements of this world. We get a lot more new stuff in Cari’s story, however, and even a look at what was once the heart of the godswar itself.

Eladora Duttin is back, in a mostly adversarial role this time, along with supporting players of hers from the previous novel. It’s great how the protagonists from one book become villains in the next. I have to admit, I never completely warmed to Rasce or Baston. I enjoyed their storylines, especially when characters from the previous books were involved (especially when Spar is involved) but I never found myself too bothered about what their eventual fate might be. Cari I still loved, even more for the development she underwent in the last two books.

I don’t think the plot had quite the impact that it did in the previous two books. It was good, but it didn’t have as much of the twists, turns, shifting factions and unfolding mysteries and before. And the last sequences were certainly less bombastic than in The Shadow Saint, and The Gutter Prayer.

Having said that, this is still a great book, with most of the elements I’ve come to expect from a Black Iron Legacy book. A world still bursting with character, twisty plots and danger round every corner. Don’t stop here fans (and if you’re not a fan, don’t start here either – pick up The Gutter Prayer for the start of this series).

Rating: 8/10

“There are always monsters and powerful folk in charge, scheming and squabbling with each other. Sometimes they’ll help you, and sometimes they’ll hurt, but they never give a damn about us on the streets.”

“The Broken God” is the third book of “The Black Iron Legacy” fantasy series by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan. This review will contain spoilers to the first two books because I can’t write anything of essence without it, so if you haven’t started this series yet, I advise you to go and read my review of “The Gutter Prayer” first, and then decide if you want to read it.
Every book in “The Black Iron Legacy” has a different central theme. “The Gutter Prayer” mainly evolved around a heist and took place in Guerdon, with only minor mentions of what is happening outside the city. “The Shadow Saint” focused on politics, elections, and trying to get ready for inevitably incoming threats. Finally, “The Broken God” is the damage control after the worst imaginable disaster already happened. Each volume is focused on a different set of characters that slowly show us the enormous wealth of the world that the author has created. I love that with every book, we got pulled into this expanding world more.
This series is very peculiar for me. It is not a quick read. I usually spent a week or two with those books, slowly making my way through the complicated and complex storylines. It doesn’t keep me on the edge of my seat the whole time (except the endings, as those are always highly gripping and epic), and I don’t love the characters so much that I would cry for them. And yet, I still love reading them! I come back to Guerdon repeatedly with every new book to see what crazy mess is happening now.
“The Black Iron Legacy” is one of my favorite series when it comes to world-building. It is dark, unprecedently imaginative, and simply stunning. The main attractions include the mad gods, corpse-eating ghouls, evil sorcerers made of worms, a magical city that is alive, crazy alchemists, and their horrible creations. And dragons, let’s not forget the dragons, who are mainly pirates. I couldn’t not fell in love with this world!
Moving on to the “The Broken God” itself. This time we follow Cari, who leaves Guerdon in a quest to make sure her friend Spar survives in whatever form was left for him. But in the meantime, Guerdon must face its internal troubles. With the fragile Armistice, life in the city is almost unbearable for ordinary people. The whole place is divided into three occupation zones controlled by Ishmere with their mad gods, Haith with their undead and Lyrix with their dragons. This book mostly features the last fraction, as one of the protagonists is Rasce, the chosen of the dragon and prince of Ghierdana. Spar, who is fading into oblivion while Cari is away, forms a bond with Rasce, who swiftly uses his newly acquired saint powers. It causes no end of trouble for poor Eladora, who is prepared to do everything to keep the Armistice in place. The last protagonist is Baston, a thief of the Brotherhood who used to be Spar’s friend and now has a hard time finding his place in the new Guerdon, so he eventually ends up supporting Ghierdana.
The book starts on a slow note, and it takes time to get to know a primarily new cast of characters, but after few first chapters, we are pulled into the dark world of intrigues and never-ending struggles for power. And the thing is, it’s hard to say who should we cheer for, as not one party has good intentions.
I immensely enjoyed another visit to Guerdon, and once again, I was left wanting more and looking forward to the next book.

The Broken God follows from The Gutter Prayer and The Shadow Saint, chronicling the prosperous manufacturing and trading city of Guerdon - a place where commerce, magic and industry mingle easily. The Godswar has finally come to Guerdon, but in contrast to the apocalyptic impact visited on other battlefields, an uneasy truce has been brokered with different areas of the city occupied by forces from Haith (a Northen power based on necromancy), Ishmere (home to mad gods) and Lyrix (a nation of pirates and dragons).

Action in The Broken God is chiefly focussed on Cari (Carillon Thay, who featured in Book 1, with less of a part in Book 2) and on Rasce, the human amanuensis of one of those dragons, who has been planted in Guerdon to reap the profits of the occupation ('The dragon takes what he wants'). Cari has left Guerdon carrying an ancient tome of magic (AKA 'the f****ng book') to trade her way into the wizard city of Khebesh where she hopes to find a cure for her friend Spar, who was turned into a new part of the city at the end of Book 1 (keep up!)

Cari's journey spirals into disaster, with an ally of the dragons chasing her for vengeance, power-hungry alchemists chasing her to find out what she's made of (literally) and exploit her connection to Spar, and... well, another old enemy also chasing her for vengeance (she killed a goddess). Rasce's story is like a supernatural twist on The Godfather - the dragons very much run their own organisation within the Lyrixian forces. It's all very family, with Rasce serving the dragon called Great-Uncle, who sets clear expectations of profit (the dragon takes what he wants). Soon, Rasce is allying with elements in Guerdon's restless underclasses of thieves and ghouls to seek power and wealth.

Hanrahan uses these two very different strands adroitly to keep the reader guessing, and the story flowing, both echoing and undercutting the style and themes of the first two books. The goings-on in Guerdon, featuring Rasce but also an espionage sub-plot as the authorities of the city try to tame him, reminded me more of the first book (which introduced Cari, Spar and their ghoul friend, Rat, in a doomed heist attempt) than the second (which largely followed the Haithi in their power plays). Again, there's more behind what happens than is apparent at first. Cari's adventures are rather different again - away from Guerdon and facing new threats from ragged gods, there is a real sense of her diminishment. Cari's lost the power that her bond with Spar gave her, and she's vulnerable again. In that vulnerability we discover a lot about Cari's history, her time as a sailor and why she fled Guerdon that first time. The world has changed since then, and a lot of what she remembers is now lost - when she discovers fragments of that early life, will they help her, or lead her into sentimentality and danger?

It's hard to convey the sense in this book of hard, or no, choices, of taint, a kind of moral culpability which infects everyone, Cari included, to some degree. There are really no heroes, only opponents. And there are no villains (one or two fairly minor characters excepted, perhaps) - only more opponents. Artolo, for example, wants revenge on Cari. He behaves in a pretty unpleasant way, but then Cari did cut off his fingers. Cari, equally, is ready to bargain with unspeakable horrors and to aid them, if it will get her into Khebesh. Rasce isn't all bad: the Guerdon thief Baston, who allies with him, tells himself that Rasce might be persuaded to serve a noble purpose - and justifies compromise in pursuit of that. The book conveys a unique atmosphere of shiftiness, compromise, failure, and decay.

Behind all this - somewhere - are the dreadful Black Iron Gods, and the tyrannical gods of Ishmere, but this is a world where people think they know how to deal with gods. Gods, here, are a kind of technology and none are so wild or so dangerous that somebody won't try to make use of them. The profusion of divinity emphasises, rather than overshadowing, human motivations, plots and struggles - while raising the stakes, the consequences of success or failure. If the gods are a technology, it's a deadly technology, a sort of nuclear-level dangerous technology which can leave whole lands haunted by monstrosities and fragments of jostling realities, a landscape worse than if it were simply made sterile. That's the world that Cari's struggling to travel through, subject to one horror after another, and it is a bad place to be, but the really scary truth she has to face is the ruin she seems to bring and the guilt that comes from that when the consequences come home to those she thinks of as friends.

The law of the Black Iron Gods seems to be the law of unintended consequences, of good intentions gone sour, of enmeshed and conflicting interests, of chains of events that nobody can foresee or control. It makes reading The Broken God into a fascinating, addictive and haunting experience where a distaste for what almost everyone is doing is finely balanced with a sneaking desire for them to push on further. To betray. To devastate.

The reader becomes complicit with what's happening, awful though it is.

It's the sort of book which, after you've finished it, doesn't so much make you feel unclean, as in need of an exorcism. In short, then, wonderful stuff, and a series that shows so signs of flagging, rather of really getting going. I can't recommend it too strongly.

The Black Iron Legacy is one of my favorite fantasy series and you always wonder what will happen as each book is full of surprises, new places and characters, and new horrors.
We get to discover new places , new gods and to learn what's happening in the life of the main characters.
My expectations for this book were very high and i can say I wasn't disappointed as I turned pages as fast as I could.
Spar, the man who became a city, is my favorite one and we follow his struggle to choose if reaming human or becoming a god. There's a lot of changes in this story and I was left wondering what will be next.
We follow Cari and we met people from her past and visit new places.
Rache is a sort of villain as we follow his descent into madness.
There are some images that reminded of me of Hyeronimus Bosch's The Garden of Delights. and I think that Gareth Hanrahan is one of the most visionary author in the fantasy field.
This books is well written and gripping, the world building is breath taking and the character development excellent.
I thought this was going to be the last in the series but I discovered that are some more. I'm more than happy because I want more places, more characters and more vision.
A gripping and highly entertaining book, strongly recommended.
Many thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The third instalment of the Black Iron Legacy, The Broken God, is a fantastic book, once again refreshing the world that Hanrahan is building and adding amazing new voices and faces to his extensive cast of saints, devils, mobsters and monstrosities.

This book puts the Dragon-led criminal families of the Ghierdana to the fore, with the main point of view going to new character, Rasce, Chosen of the Dragon, and second in command to Taras, the most powerful of the dragons of Lyrix. Rasce is a brilliant addition to this world: ambitious, clever, ruthless, full of agency. Tasked by his ‘Great Uncle’, Taras, with monopolising the supply lines of Guerdon’s alchemists, and affording the dragon far greater control of the tense three-way armistice that governs the city, Rasce assembles a group of no-less resourceful individuals to get the job done. Chief amongst these are brother and sister, Baston and Karla Hedanson, figures from Spar’s early life among the Brotherhood.

Rasce remains the heart of this story, however, holding the plot together while Cari moves away from Guerdon to show us the wider world of the Godswar. She’s no less important to the wider arc, but her thread is somewhat sidelined—necessarily so—and it’s a testament to Hanrahan’s skill that he still captures the reader so completely with a new set of protagonists now centre stage. Established favourites, like Eladora, Rat, and Spar, similarly recede to allow this new faction to spread their wings, if you’ll pardon the pun, but they still play vital parts in the denouement. And along the way, the horrors of the world are revisited, with the return of the Crawling Ones and an increased focus on the twisted economies of sorcery.

Still, the real focus is on the shifting nature of Guerdon itself. The city has always been the lead character of these books: even before Spar gave it a human soul of its own, the city was more than a place, and this theme develops through the finale here. This is expert-level world building, with a powerhouse plot that leads to a truly devastating ending.

I loved it and commend it to all.

Guerdon has been carved up in order to staunch its wounds. Tenaciously surviving invasion thanks to an armistice balanced on the threat of mutually assured destruction, the city and its occupying forces find themselves struggling to either maintain it or exploit the situation for their own ends. Meanwhile, across the sea, Carillon Thay contends with her growing legend and her difficult destiny as she attempts to help one of the few friends she has left. But with enemies both mortal and divine hungering for vengeance, it will take all her cunning and grit to evade her pursuers and get the answers she seeks.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of reading either of the preceding two books (click here for my review of The Shadow Saint) will be well aware by now of just how good Gareth Hanrahan is at injecting a setting with personality. Guerdon feels like a living, breathing - well, possibly wheezing, with all those fumes - place, with subways, corpse shafts and ghoul tunnels crisscrossing it like veins and arteries, clogged with socially stratified humanity and eldritch horrors alike. It’s an unalloyed joy to return to its twisting streets.

This time around, however, there’s even more of the world map to be fleshed out, and it’s every bit as entertaining to find out about more of the wider world outside Guerdon as it was to discover the eery lands of Haith in The Shadow Saint. The God-touched land of Ilbarin gets plenty of time in the spotlight here, allowing us to see the fallout from the Godswar not just in terms of the miracle-wracked landscape and seas but also in the unexpected consequences of a holy war being waged; namely, the opportunistic Ghierdana moving into the area to further their criminal enterprises.

The Ghierdana are undoubtedly the key players in this volume of the story, and they are yet another well-rounded and wholly distinct faction. Not for them the fervent devotion to the mad gods of the Ishmeric pantheon or the stolid endurance of the undying of Haith; no, they are all action and scheming, a no-nonsense criminal enterprise of fire and vengeance. Much of that fire, in a very literal sense, comes from that which gives them their edge, of course. The Ghierdana are a dragon mafia, essentially, and are every bit as exciting and dangerous as that implies. Their dragons have helped ensure the armistice in Guerdon holds, with their home nation of Lyrix uneasily allied to the criminal empire and the “final say” that the scaly horrors have over the other occupying forces of Haith and Ishmere.

The ambitious Rasce is ready to upset this delicate balance, however, as he seeks to tighten the Ghierdana’s hold on Guerdon. Rasce is an extremely entertaining character to get to know, with the kind of swaggering confidence that comes with flying into battle astride a massive dragon. Rasce’s character development is excellent too, as he desperately seeks to please the dragon that chose him by allying with the remnants of the Brotherhood to take on the Alchemists. Thanks to events elsewhere, we see plenty more about how the Ghierdana function and get a strong sense of exactly the kind of people they are, which gives plenty of context to Rasce’s actions and personality.

Cari, perhaps unsurprisingly, is not the biggest fan of the Ghierdana. Having come up against them in her role as divine backstreet vigilante the Saint of Knives, she’s wary of crossing them again without her formidable powers to back her up. Unfortunately for her, her travels bring her to Ilbarin, where the Ghierdana now rule over what’s left of the island nation in the aftermath of the Godswar wracking it. How her plans intersect with those of the Ghierdana, as well as their role in the armistice of the city she wants to protect, makes for very satisfying reading. This is extremely well plotted stuff, with characters being pulled this way and that by obligations to family, friends, honour and nation in ways that feel totally and believably human, despite the fantastical nature of much of the world.

The Black Iron Legacy impressed from the off, and this third instalment is no different. Hanrahan continues to build on the impressive foundations laid by the two excellent previous books, expanding on a world which once again surprises and delights with its dark wonders and disturbing creatures. The Broken God is another triumph, and the next book in this series can’t come soon enough.

I treated myself to a full re-read of the first two books before I picked up The Broken God and I definitely think that is the way to go. Hanrahan's world is so gloriously complex and the character journeys are often quite subtle so I think experiencing the full journey from books 1-3 is the more enjoyable experience. That being said, I think you could pick this up if you hadn't re-read the first two books, it just might take you a little longer to get into it.

The other thing I want to note right at the start of this review is that this is not, as I originally believed, the end of this series. In fact there are two more books planned. Since with every book we've seen Hanrahan expand the world (going from just a city in book one to crossing oceans in book three) I can only assume that by the end of book five we will have actually ascended to the heavenly realm (or space).

But let's dwell on The Broken God in particular. As with the previous books there are some familiar POV characters and some new ones - which I wasn't convinced I would enjoy but on reflection, I like having a slightly different perspective on events. I was delighted to have Cari's perspective back and the new characters definitely enhanced my view of this world which I appreciated.

One thing that I was concerned about was that by extending out the setting we would lose some of that detailed setting-building that we had in book one - but I think for the most part things remained just as detailed, but with new characters and new...types of character! I liked seeing more of the world that is in the grip of the Godswar and getting more of a feel for the wider reaching consequences of various other goings on. I think there are some moments where I miss the claustrophobic creepiness of book one, but to be honest I could quite happily just reread book one again!

One thing that definitely worked well was the fact that Cari was away from Guerdon - I like a book that sets up a character as powerful in some way and then distances them from that power, I think it's a great way to show character weakness and then subsequent growth and it definitely works in this particular book - I had the most cathartic feeling when certain plot elements resolved themselves (and that's probably all I can say without spoiling things!

I continue to love this series and, while I think this book actually ties off pretty nicely, I'll be very interested in reading the later books in the series and seeing just where else these characters can go!

I love this series. Let’s get that out of the way first. I love it. I could read a hundred novels set in Guerdon, and I’d likely ask for more. So it’s really no surprise that I loved this book, too.

Gareth Hanrahan has recently said that he’s aiming for five books in the Black Iron Legacy series. Which is great, because that means there’s more for me to read! But I feel like I should mention this up-front in case anyone is coming into The Broken God prepared to read a big, explosive, series-stopping conclusion. We’re not quite at that point yet.

Although, that being said, this book is big, and it is explosive.

For fans of the series so far, think of The Broken God as a book that lies somewhere between The Gutter Prayer and The Shadow Saint. You’ll remember that the first was more chaotic, more impulsive, and more high-energy, whereas the second was more thoughtful and deliberate (before everything blew up). Here, we have sort of a mix. I’ve seen some fans that have indicated that they have a preference between the first two books, but this feels like it threads the needle between the two very well. I’d guess that there’d be something to enjoy for all existing fans.

Cari returns as a main POV character, as Spar to a certain extent (or what remains of him). We also have two newcomers in Rasce — a leader amongst the dragon-worshipping Ghierdana — and Baston — a former thief in the brotherhood run by Spar’s father. The stories of the two newcomers become closely intertwined, as Rasce looks to gain an advantageous position for his people in the new political landscape of Guerdon, and Baston is at heart a man looking for a leader to follow. Cari, meanwhile, isn’t in the city at all. Instead, she’s at the other side of the godswar, looking for some magic that will keep Spar from death. Eladora lurks in the shadows, and for much of the book we only get glimpses of her and the larger game she’s playing.

Speaking just as a fan of the series, I was overjoyed to have Cari back as a main character. There’s just something that speaks to me about a character who deals with every possible situation by stabbing someone. What’s even better is that Cari has underwent a great deal of growth since the events of the first book — she now thinks about stabbing someone before doing it. Occasionally. And it was this kind of growth that led to perhaps my favourite line that I’ve read this year:

“The problem of who to stab, though, is vexing.”

I found Rasce to be quite the engaging character, too, mostly because of the relationships he shares with others. His presumed position of authority over Baston, his subservience to a dragon that doesn’t seem to care much about him, and the interplay between him and a certain sentient city district. Baston is quite interesting, too, and his “stop, think, then punch” attitude reminded me a lot of Spar’s chapters from The Gutter Prayer.

I’m struggling to think of what else to say about this book, other than that (as expected) I loved it. The world that Hanrahan has built is a frantic, bat-shit crazy mess in all of the best ways. We have city politics and economics juxtaposed with dragons, god-touched saints, and a ghoul with severe personal boundary issues.

If you’re a newcomer interested in starting the series, I’d recommend checking out my reviews of the The Gutter Prayer and The Shadow Saint to see if it’s your thing. If you’re a returning fan… well, I hope you have this pre-ordered.

And now I wait for book 4.

4.5 Stars

First of all, I'd like to say that to keep this review spoiler free is neigh impossible. This book builds so much of it's story upon the events the transpired at the end of the previous book (pretty much like how the previous book, the shadow Saint built upon the events of the ending of the gutter prayer). So unless you need a review under 30 words which just says "Yeah, this is a good book but I can't elaborate further because muh spoilers" please check elsewhere. (Also if you haven't even read the first book, what are you doing here reading this review)

Guerdon, the last city free of the godwar has been taken over, The three major factions who desired the city finally have it, expect there's a catch, there's no true winner. A fragile armistice holds the three powers at bay, dividing the city into three with the threat that if one tries to trun the balance, the other two would join forces to destroy it. The Empire of Haith with its dead soldiers gets the north. The sacred realm of Ishmere with their mad gods and endless conquest agree to the armistice after the death of their war goddess Pesh. (at the end of book 2, this is why I said a spoiler free review won't work) Because Pesh represented the concept of war, with her death the ishmerians loose most of their will for battle. This also leads to them being pushed back in the lands they've conquered. In Guerdon, they take the temple district pleading the return of their goddess. Lyrix , the third group takes the new city. Welcomed to Guerdon to maintain the armistice by Eladora Duttin in the previous book. The lyrixians and their dragons form the third main power.

While the second book focused on both Haith and Ishmere, this one focuses entirely on Lyrix (which is good as all we've seen of Lyrix previously were in the interludes and epilogue of the 2nd book). The ishmerians are mentioned more often but Haith is almost entirely absent from this book. The main point of view's we follow in this book includes Carillon Thay, the Saint of knives, vessel for the black iron gods, killer Pesh etc who is on her way to Khebesh, the city of sorcerers to return one of their journals and find a way to save her friend Spar (who literally became the new city, seriously these book are some of the most imaginative pieces of work I've read). Rasce , the dragon's chosen, leader of the Ghierdana the crime syndicate lead by the dragon's of Lyrix. Baston, a childhood friend of Spar who now has joined the Ghierdana as a spy but quickly rises among their ranks and finally Artolo, the dragon's chosen before Rasce, driven out of the new city by Carillon (events of 2nd book) and loosing his status and his fingers for his failure to capture the new city. Rat and Eladora, who were principal characters in the previous books are relegated to side characters and have little or no major presence most of the story.

All throughout the book, the Ghierdana are trying to control the supply of Yilaster, an alchemical compound which is required by the Alchemist's of Guerdon either by destroying their rival sellers or forcing them to subservience. The Ghierdana have a supply of Yilaster on Ushket, where they force people to work for them led by Artolo. Consequently this is where Carillon ends up and once Artolo finds out this, the two begin a cat and mouse chase with Carillon desperately trying to reach Khebesh while Artolo pursuing her with any means possible. Carillon tries her best but is betrayed, thwarted at every attempt of escape as even the gods are against her. Carillion's story starts pretty slow and her story can be summarised as journey, obstacle, capture, escape, new obstacle repeat. Although her journey attributes to some amazing worldbuilding. We are also shown the risks of using Sorcery, there's always a price to pay and it will be costly.

Unlike the other books, there is no threat approaching, be it the waking of the gods of black iron in the first book or the invasion by the sacred realm in the second. This time the threat is already here, the fragile armistice is all that is holding the city back from complete bloodbath. it's not a matter of if but when it all goes to shit and we see characters desperately try to maintain peace while others try to shake this balance.

Spar, who is now slowly loosing himself (mainly due to the absence of Carillon anchoring him to the world) finds a new host in Rasce, creating a new pseudo Saint of knives. But Rasce unlike Carillon uses his newfound power for his own needs going against what Spar originally had intended for him. And finally Baston, his was the most interesting story initially considering his history with Spar and apprenticeship with the fever knight whom Spar had killed. Baston was the representation of the majority of the population, the every man and his character arc was probably the one that frustrated me the most, this cannot be explained without going into spoiler territory so I would be elaborating it suffice to say, Baston sort of went against everything he stood for. This is probably the one thing I truly didn't like in the book. Another small criticism would be the names of places and things kind of overlap for example, we have Ushket, Ulbishe and Usharet, two are cities one is a goddess but the names feel so similar that it becomes difficult to keep track sometimes when these are mentioned. One more issue (which is mostly an issue for me alone) is the fact that there was no map for Guerdon. For a story so focused on the city, the absence of a map even after three books is a little disappointing. A map will only add to the worldbuilding, never take away anything from it.

These issues aside, the book was one of the most imaginative piece of fantasy I've read in a while. The worldbuilding in this series for me atleast is up there with the world's of craft sequence and divine cities and just below Malazan. A very enjoyable read which is why I still love it despite some of the issues I had with character arcs. I sincerely hope this isn't the end of the series (though this might be the end of the books focused on Guerdon) and more books are coming.

ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

The Broken God is a sequel that forms itself upon the carcass of books one and two; it’s the new growth upon well set roots. And I ate it up like a ghoul to a corpse. The foundation had been laid well and truly before now, what you get here is what I feel like’s the start of the rest of the story. It’s Guerdon in all its strange glory, with buried secrets and old monsters about to unearth themselves. Of sleeping, and broken gods, of warring factions and – most importantly – gangster dragons. It is a book you really should read, and I’m going to try and distil why in this review. Reader: I am a Black Iron Legacy fanboy.

The focus in this book is on the Ghierdana, the dragons of Lyrix and their pirate/gangster-styled families – the dragon Taras wants to make a permanent mark on Guerdon, wants to plant his feet for good. He orders Rasce – a new POV character and Chosen of the Dragon – to destroy any yliaster stores in Guerdon, so when they ship their own over from Ilbarin they’ll have monopoly on the sale of an ingredient the alchemists so covet. The by-product of warring gods. Within this, Rasce hires Baston and Karla, members who were close to Heinreil in the Brotherhood – who also become embroiled in a plot led by Eladora Thay and Sinter. Meanwhile, Cari, our lovable, knife-wielding (and still very stab-happy) heroine is on her way to Khebesh, to find a cure for Spar, to stop him from fading into nothing. Along the way, the Ghierdana’s reach is known to her, as well as her weakness to stop their wrath now she is no longer the Saint of Knives. The dragons are coming for Cari, they want her blood for her part in keeping them out of Guerdon until they were needed for the Armistice. Overall, I – loved – this – book. It is everything weird and wonderful about the world that Hanrahan has crafted. But now the crafting has settled, and all the game pieces (or most, perhaps?) are in the fray, it’s about them crashing; from the strange, deadly miracles by the Kraken and the gods of the Sacred Realm of Ishmere, to the focus on the dragons and their divine and evil presence in the plot, it’s so on brand for the Black Iron Legacy and so damned cool.

While I missed Guerdon, and not having all the characters run around its streets for the whole book, I enjoyed how expansive this book was. We get a bit of a sea-faring adventure, insofar as travelling by sea over water that’s been scarred by the Godswar can be an adventure and not absolute mayhem. We get to see Gissa, Ilbarin, mention of Ulbishe, there’s a lot we get to see here because of the clever working of POV. There’s more gods, new gods, and old gods added to the fray and generally the world is explored in a way that left me hungering for more, but glad when we landed back in Guerdon. It’s like that feeling you get when you come home from a good holiday. The sights were good, but home is home, and Guerdon is Guerdon.

What was great about this book, and new, that perhaps the other two hadn’t yet delved into too much, was how gods work, what they are; I know back in book one we got an explanation from Ongent, but we go further into that here. We look at gods-incarnate, saints and explore how these differ. It is all very cleverly veiled in wonderful prose and intriguing plot points, but there’s certainly an underlying current here of information. Which is why I got to the point that this book would be the foundation for the final part of the series. If the rest of the series presented plot threads and things to explore, the Broken God tied them together and set them off in an exciting direction.

We also explore human sorcerers and their magic – and the cost of such magic – which was cool. We looked at what Spar has become and whether he is a god, also how him and Cari made their initial god-saint relationship, which was cooler still. And then the damned Crawling Ones are back and … urgh … Hanrahan had plucked a personal nightmare of my own and crafted it into this series as type of sorcery-wielding hive-mind monster. I thought they’d bit the dust in the first book, but here they are again to haunt me … thanks, Gareth.

If Cari and the Alchemist Guild were the focal point of the first book, Haith and Ishmere the second, then we finally got a huge introduction to Lyrix and the Ghierdana in this book. And what an introduction it was. The Ghierdana are a group of gangster pirates that – to me – give the impression of mafia families, each one led by a dragon. Having these mythical beasts that are usually grand, noble, and mystical that are actually the heads of criminal families, that are brutal, evil and calculating. They do guard their own hordes of dragon gold and treasure, but this is blood money that’s been stolen, plundered and pillaged, or scammed, from others. I absolutely enjoyed this subversion of the dragon trope. It refreshed what is an overused mythical beast and made it new and intriguing.

A special mention has to go to the absolute mastery of POV that Hanrahan has on display here. And by that, I mean in the way that he’s a wizard of finding ways to show you what’s going on elsewhere that isn’t jumping into a random character’s head. The way that Spar works for Guerdon in a fantastic use of third person omni that keeps it fresh and doesn’t necessarily rely on an omnipotent narrator that just knows because … they know.

As the book boils down to the last twenty percent it is absolutely unputdownable. I mean, life got in the way of my read through this one at some points, but I certainly didn’t move an inch while it got there. It didn’t let me. It was one of the most exciting, heart-breaking, wince-inducing, and action-packed ends to a book that I’ve read in a long while, whilst at the same time keeping that cool intelligence that Hanrahan plots with. It keeps the promise of mystery and intrigue until the end … some things are solved in unexpected ways that just work; others are left wide-open. That I need the answer to now … I must know how it continues, what happens. So, it’s going to be a long wait. MORE, I NEED MORE, I want to cry. But that makes me sound like Rat and I’m no ghoul, man.
Overall, just read the book, or start the series. Do it.

I read the Gutter Prayer and to be honest was not overly impressed by it as I felt there was nothing new or original (yes I know that is almost impossible to do) consequently I did not read the second book in this saga and probably would not have read this book were it not for Netgalley, I can see I made a big mistake and that the author had a plan and that plan is very good, this book is outstanding and I am immediately going to buy book 2 to see what I missed!!