A Book of Tongues

The Hexslinger Series, Book 1

By: Gemma Files

Narrated by: Donald Corren

Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

In Gemma Files’s horror-fantasy debut, former Confederate chaplain Asher Rook has cheated death and now possesses a dark magic. He uses his power to terrorize the Wild West, leading a gang of outlaws, thieves, and killers, with his cruel lieutenant and lover, Chess Pargeter, by his side.

Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow is going undercover to infiltrate the gang, armed with a shotgun and a device that measures sorcerous energy. His job is to gain knowledge of Rook’s power and unlock its secrets. But there is someone else who has Rook in her sights: the Lady of Traps and Snares, a bloodthirsty Mayan goddess who will stop at nothing to satisfy her own desires.

Caught between the good, the bad, and the unholy, Morrow will have to ride out a storm of magical mayhem to survive, in this debut novel, the first book of Files’s “weird Western Hexslinger trilogy…[which] is chock full of hellish horrors” (Mike Allen, author of Unseaming).

©2010 Gemma Files (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

No Heroes. No Villains. Just Monsters.

These characters have more layers than a Vidalia and the magic system is amazing!
My only caution is how the author approaches universality. The system is inherently fluid and I'd rather it keep its mystery.
Without a doubt my favorite is Chess. All of them deserve an ignoble end, but Chess is the only one that isn't ready to regret the decisions that merit it.
Preacher is the one I love to hate. A true abomination and an anti hero of the 1st order.
Rook promises to be amazing as his character develops...provided he lives that long.
Monsters all of them. Glorious, horrible abominations.

Western fantasy leaning heavily towards fantasy

Gemma Files’ A Book of Tongues is a western-fantasy where the former is mostly due to time and place. A preacher turned outlaw who is also a hexslinger is power mad and wandering around the west causing mayhem along with his sidekick that he abuses constantly. He is being chased by the legendary Pinkerton posse.

Files offers a rambling tale that offers western bad boys and tough guys overlaid with magical abilities (a hexslinger) that is more aligned with spaghetti westerns. The preacher seems like he’s on a mission, but the objective is never quite clear. Overlaid is a heavy does graphic sex that typically comes out of nowhere.

The narration is decent with less than optimal character distinction. Pacing is a bit uneven.

An unfortunate miss for the author

I've been enjoying some of the author's other works, and while this one has plenty of the same themes and distinctive writing style on the surface, it just didn't come together for me. It's tough to pin down what didn't work, it just feels kind of flat and artificial, where the author usually feels much more personal. It's not terrible, but it's the kind of book I kept listening to out of obligation rather than any particular interest. Unfortunately, that doesn't make for a solid recommend.