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A Book of Tongues (The Hexslinger Series 1) by [Gemma Files]

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Gemma Files

A Book of Tongues (The Hexslinger Series 1) Kindle Edition

by Gemma Files (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Book 1 of 3: The Hexslinger

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“Gemma Files has one of the great dark imaginations in fiction―visionary, transgressive, and totally original.” —Jeff VanderMeer

In Gemma Files’s “boundary-busting horror–fantasy debut,” former Confederate chaplain Asher Rook has cheated death and now possesses a dark magic (Publishers Weekly). 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).

“Ridiculously vivid . . . A magic-riddled, horror-strewn West with hexes running around wrecking reality and a spectrum of queer characters.” —Tor.com

“Definitely promising—tantalizing, even, because it sets up such a fertile scenario and hammers home the themes of love, sacrifice, and apotheosis.” —Strange Horizons

“Truly one-of-a-kind: violent, carnal and creepy.” —Fangoria

Length: 280 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Book 1 of 3 in The Hexslinger

Books In This Series (3 Books)

Complete Series

The Hexslinger

Kindle Edition

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1
A Book of Tongues (The Hexslinger Series 1)
Gemma Files

(40)

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2
A Rope of Thorns (The Hexslinger Series Book 2)
Gemma Files

(5)

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3
A Tree of Bones (The Hexslinger Series)
Gemma Files

Kindle Edition

$9.99

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Pinkerton detective infiltrates a Wild West gang led by a spell-casting preacher in this boundary-busting horror–fantasy debut. Agent Ed Morrow is dispatched by a professor of magical research to evaluate the hexslinging abilities of Rev. Asher Rook, a renegade chaplain who survived his own hanging, and his lover, the prickly sharpshooter Chess Pargeter. As Morrow becomes part of the gang, the Aztec goddess Ixchel slowly seduces Rook into a bloody ritual marriage that endangers Pargeter and leads their followers down a road to hell. Files smoothly weaves an unusual magic system, Aztec mythology, and a raunchily explicit gay love story into a classic western tale of outlaws and revenge. Though it grows somewhat cumbersome in the leadup to a cliffhanger that demands resolution in the planned sequel, this promising debut fully delivers both sizzling passions and dark chills. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Review

“Experimental Film is sensational. When we speak of the best in contemporary horror and weird fiction, we must speak of Gemma Files.”
―Laird Barron

“Gemma Files has one of the great dark imaginations in fiction―visionary, transgressive, and totally original. With this new novel [Experimental Film], Files explores the world of film and horror in a way that will leave you reeling. A smart, sharp page-turner with heart and depth.”
―Jeff VanderMeer

“Gemma’s been producing top-notch horror stories for years, and her weird Western Hexslinger trilogy is chock full of hellish horrors.”
―Mike Allen

“I am surely addicted, and this new addiction has a name–Gemma Files. We had company over the weekend, company I adore and hadn’t seen in a year, and I still snuck in bits of this audio book. The author spins together imagery that is breath-taking in both beauty and terror.”
―A Dab of Darkness (audiobook review)

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

ASIN : B08F9G6182
Publisher : Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy (October 13, 2020)
Publication date : October 13, 2020
Language : English
File size : 7399 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 280 pages
Page numbers source ISBN : 0981297862
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #689,680 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #111 in LGBT Horror Fiction
- #277 in LGBT Horror eBooks
- #945 in LGBT Fantasy Fiction

Customer Reviews:
40 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		23%
4 star		31%
3 star		12%
2 star		21%
1 star		13%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Ekaterina

When it's good, it's good. When it's in the last third of the book...

Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2016

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I really, really wanted to give this book a higher rating. I will definetely be reading the sequel to find out what direction it goes, that's for sure.

This book starts off with a bang. It is not perfect - for one I find it lacked in subtlety a bit. But the concept was just so good. The magic system feels fresh and unique. Reverend Rook using passages from the Holy Bible as the base of his spells might have been my favorite part of the concept (or as I excidetly told my friend, someone's finally utilised HOW METAL the Old Testament is). Occasional weaving in of delightfully nightmarish Mesoamerican mythology was right up my alley. And the characters, of course - interesting, fleshed out, and unashamedly queer which is always a bonus in the lit world that either silences queer characters or makes things about their sexuality.

Like so many readers, I have qualms with the second part (and more specifically last third) of the book. As many pointed out, the pacing loses its rhythm, in fact i am reasonably sure that a single conversation occupied a 10% chunk of the book. While I enjoy Mesoamerican mythology, removing Rev's Bible spells was in my mind a huge mistake. And finally, finally, characters start acting in a way that make no sense, and the book makes a halfhearted attempt to explain it and immediately fails at it - sometimes it wants you to believe that all of the strange actions are Ixchel's influence or the hex, sometimes that none, and not in a good "waiting for plottwist reveal" way. I can frankly say I did not enjoy my slog through several chapters closer to the end there.

However, I enjoyed the rest of the book and I still would recommend it to lovers of horror fantasy, unusual mythology and magic system, and queer fantasy that is not about the big Q

6 people found this helpful

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changing # of times per page

Delicious!

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2016

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It's been quite a while since a trilogy held me all the way to the end, but the Hexslinger series did. Gemma Files paints in spectacularly vivid colors and she her palette is unapologetic, a rare thing in a day and age when everyone is pandering to sensitive sensibilities. I was shocked, offended, riveted, aroused, intrigued, disgusted, enchanted and thoroughly, thoroughly entertained! If you are one of The Triggered, perhaps not for you, but if you hold to a different mindset that a good read is one that takes you for a ride to places strange, bizarre, uncomfortable, distressing and very, very new, these books need to go to the top of you TBR pile.

One person found this helpful

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Kenneth Mark Hoover

Fastastic Old Weird West Worldbuilding -- and the kitchen sink.

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2010

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All too often when I pick up a dark fantasy or fantasy novel that's set in the Old West the west itself is little more than cheap background furniture. An afterthought.

Not so with A Book of Tongues Volume 1 (The Hexslinger Series) by Gemma Files. She not only knows the west, she brings it alive as part of a new and very different (and sometimes very disturbing) world. She not only gets the history right she gets the words people used back then, and their inflections, right. That's pretty rare for someone who wants to bring fantasy and speculative fiction to this genre. Like I said, ofttimes the west is just throwaway background. Files did her homework and I love that.

But the west, while integral, is not all there is to this world Files has created. There's a myriad of cultures intermixed with fantasy and sexual themes and while at times it might seem Files is bringing too much to the plate, at least she keeps it consistent. That, too, is rather unusual. Again, many fantasy writers throw magic against a wall to see what sticks. Files not only makes her magic work, but it has consequences and cultural influences you often don't see in other weird west stories. Or any fantasy stories for that matter.

There's a lot to like about this novel, but there are some problems, too. Because she brings so much to the world, so many varied cultures, it sometimes comes across as forced. We don't get to spend as much time with some characters as we would like, because Files has to keep the story moving.

What I mean is, you can tell she's going that extra mile to make the setting stark and unusual by bringing so much into the mix. Which is unnecessary because almost everything about the story is stark and unusual. She runs the gamut from Mayans to Christianity, gay sex to shootouts, dark magic to Steampunk. She gets it right and it's believable and it all hangs together, but it came across as too much. Not heavy-handed, mind you, not at all. But a little forced.

Another thing, and this is only a stylistic choice, one of the characters in the novel, the Rainbow Lady, has her thoughts presented in bold type. It jumps off the page and I found it distracting. But, seriously, that's only a stylistic choice and not a reason to pass this book by.

The setting is fantastic and all the characters are interesting, some more than others. I really liked Ed Morrow, the Pinkerton agent, and the wonderful twelve-year old Albino mage, Songbird. They both are wonderful and I would like to read more about them.

Since the book sets itself up for an obvious sequel on the last page I suggest you get on board now. There's a lot here to like. Give it a peek.

2 people found this helpful

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Kate S. Davis

Interesting

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2013

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I've gotten about 68% through this book, and I'm starting to flag a bit on it. It feels like the book is dragging some. The writing style is interesting, and it's a great take on an era that's not often written about from the horror/fantasy angle. I'm just not feeling connected to any of these characters, and it makes it hard for me to want to pick up the book and finish it.

2 people found this helpful

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Cepheus Paxton

Well written

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2015

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Very good original story line. Get's a bit heavy into Aztec lore, but over all a great, engaging plot.

One person found this helpful

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aviv shener

Not amazing.

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2013

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Ok, this book has a lot of problems, but the trilogy itself is fantastic. The second book is much better than the first, and the third one is by far the best.
Highly recommended, but not if you can't handle some violence.

2 people found this helpful

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rateto

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2015

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well

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Clanobucklin

SEXSLINGER? Well - This Sure Ain't Deadwood!

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2016

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I give it two stars based on the writing. Files can write and she has some novel ideas - and here's the BUT even if the characters were straight the constant tonguing and humping in each chapter would bore even the most raging heterosexual. I bought this book expecting to be entertained, and maybe a little shocked - I ended up being mildly disgusted, slightly annoyed and bored. Here's the rub - Gemna Files' writing reminds a lot of Poppy Z. Bright - both writers have interesting ideas but are unable to translate them effectively or coherently on paper. Bottom line - Folks there are better Weird Westerns out there.

3 people found this helpful

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Richard Wright

Strange, evocative, and distant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 10, 2017

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I’m not familiar with Files’s previous work, but what she displays here is an exceptional flair for evocative description and characterisation, particularly when it comes to flensing away normality to expose dark and rotting undercurrents. In fact, there’s almost no lingering on the world as a normal thing, the day-to-day Old West that her characters are supposed to be impacting, and that may be where the novel lost me.

This tale of hexslingers - bandits with incredible magical abilities - and the risks they pose for agencies like the Pinkertons, with characters as well realised as the central pairing of Rook and Chess, should have sucked me in. Instead it lost me early by its refusal to engage with normality, or linger on the consequences of the extreme events being played out. Characters bounce from one extravagant emotional or supernatural trauma to the next, and through environments so strange that the nominal setting of America in the 1800s is quickly forgotten. It’s flensing all the way down, and when the book crescendos on a cliffhanger that makes clear the entire world is under threat I found it difficult to care, because the entire world was long ago and far away, and hadn’t mattered much for a long time.

The story is a beautifully described thing, and intricate in its internal structure and rhythms, but at the same time it feels vain and uncaring. Too well written to abandon, I found myself exhausted for the wrong reasons by the final page.

One person found this helpful

Abi Walton

75 stars I loved this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 28, 2015

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4.75 stars I loved this book, It was definitely what I needed as I felt like I hadn't read anything really special lately and this was definitely the gem I had been looking for. A book of Tongues is set in a pre civil war western and is about Reverend Asher Rook and his lover Chess Pareter, and Ed Marrow an ex Pinkerton agent. Rook is a hex and Hex's powers only emerge is the body goes through extreme harm or trauma. Rook is accused of killing a senior officer (but actually chess killed him) and is hung.
The book is filled with Aztec mythology and lyrically gruesome descriptions of the life these outlaws lead. But it is the character development which made me give this book such a high rating because by the end of the book, the characters have acquired a depth and a resonance that made me truly feel their struggle in a place where life is cheap and disposable. Chess's rage and sheer hurt at the betrayal he'd been dealt is equally enthralling and believable and made me love this character which I would have normally shied away from. Rook, especially as we see his journey from somewhat meek preacher to desperate man in love all the way to vile villain, made me understand him and sympathise with him as he loved chess, and essentially just wanted to keep him safe. I felt for the characters. That says a lot, because in some other books I've read, I haven't developed any kind of empathy like this to characters who are thieves and murders.

All I know, is that Gemma Files has written a story that lives and breathes. And that I appreciate.I love Chess he is broken by betrayal and the fact that his is a whoreson but he lives by his own rules and that is the difference between him and Rook, he lives by his own set of rules. However deep down I think he still knows Rook is his and he is Rooks.

What an amazing book, go and read it and read something different and unique

R H Warwick

Not quite the book I thought it was, but different

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 17, 2018

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Not a easy book to read, as you have to really read it.
Its something not like a anything I have read before.
To say more might give the story away. As it's not easy
to say what it is about

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2014

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I love this book. Files take in the Weird West is excellent.

Kindle_lover

Huge Disappointment

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2013

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I was incredibly excited when I read the reviews of this novel. It sounded intriguing and had a gay theme: perfect. I was so disappointed with it. I confess I couldn't actually finish it. It isn't badly written; it's just too weird and the gay content is terribly disappointing. So, unfinished and not getting the sequel.

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