Chuggie and the Desecration of Stagwater by Brent Michael Kelley

A non-Medieval Europe analog secondary world fantasy novel, with some SF sprinkles, and smothered with plenty of bloody horror gravy. If you like some interdimensional energy beings clothed in giant robot armor alongside hordes of undead ghoulies, black magicians, and scarecrow armies, then you're going to really like this.

I'm particularly partial to genre mash-ups like this. The only issue I had with the book was that it could have gone through another round of line edits. The writing itself was very good. It's just that there was a bit of detritus left behind from someone (the author? the editor?) reworking sentences in earlier drafts. I'm talking about the kind of thing that leaves an extra word in a sentence that obviously wasn't meant to be left there, or an errant letter "t" from an omitted word.

Fiddly bits, really. Distracting? Yes. But nothing that stopped me from really enjoying this piece and adding the next in the series to my to-read pile.

Oh, and I must mention that the titular character, Chuggie, is a singular creation. He's sort of a wandering, bumbling, drunken badass. His weapon of choice(?) is a boat anchor chained to his torso. He's ugly as sin, has five horns on his head, and just happens to be the walking embodiment of drought.

Recommended to readers of both New Weird and Horror.

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