Chuggie and the Desecration of Stagwater by Brent Michael Kelley

Get on with that, won't you, Brent Kelley? If you like fantasy lit, and like your characters irreverent and quirky, this book is a good fit for you. Every time I opened the book I knew I was in for a good time.

This book picked me up and threw me in the middle of a great adventure and kept me involved all the way through. You don't have to have read the first book to make sense of this book, but do yourself a favor- read it anyway. Plus, Chuggie is such a likable rogue, he keeps us entertained just sharing his thoughts. He tells us what we need to know in a clear and concise manner, all the while keeping things moving. There are Steel Jacks, demons, skultures, carnies, ghosts and all manner of unusual characters.Ī lot of fantasy literature gets bogged down in history and unnecessary detail. This is Dark Fantasy but there are no elves, goblins or fairies. Taking up the action moments after the end of the first book, we are reacquainted with the main characters and no sooner said than done the story carries us along, always wondering what's going to happen next, and marveling at each new twist and turn. I'd just taken a long journey along with a wild array of bizarre and wonderful characters, and at the end I came out alive. And at the end I heaved a sigh of relief. I cared, I cried, I rejoiced, I held my breath. I smiled, I chuckled, I laughed out loud. We know the world already, so Kelley cuts loose and gives us a rollicking grand adventure. In his second Chuggle book, 'Chuggie and the Bleeding Gateways.' author Kelley has the assurance to get on with matters. World and characters alike so clearly were cut from the same fabric, it was impossible not to fall under the spell of Kelley's writing. By way of reference, I likened it to Mervyn Peake's Gormanghast, but only in the way it was such an immersive world. While most fantasy novels borrow heavily from accepted traditions, Stagwater was like no world I'd ever encountered. It was so richly drawn, keenly observed, that the story played out in detailed images in my mind. It was a decadent, cruel world full of torture, violence and passion.

In 'Chuggie and the Desecration of Stagwater,' Brent Kelley's first Chuggie book, the author introduced us the the city of Stagwater and its environs.

Chuggie and the Desecration of Stagwater by Brent Michael Kelley