The 7 Hungers is an urban fantasy tale blended with horror that will definitely appeal to fans of both genres. The story is set in London where the main protagonist, Ambrose Drake, a sorcerer who is under the watchful eye of an organisation called the ‘Crown,’ is enlisted to investigate a bizarre supernatural occurrence. Ambrose soon realises this occurrence is as a result of a demonic being from realms (called the Hungers), that exist below the natural world, attempting to find a way to cross into and conquer the natural world.
The demonic being is fuelling his power by stealing human souls and ‘monster mashing’ human bodies together into weird and frightening organic machines (think along the lines of John Carpenters ‘The Thing’ film) to achieve his goal, whilst stealing body parts from the living to create the ideal host body to step into. Ambrose must work with the Crown’s appointed Agents, and do the very thing the ‘Crown’ told him not to do, and travel back through the Hungers to find this demonic being and stop him. Throw in the added complication that Ambrose himself is possessed by the ruler of the seventh realm/hunger who also has her own agenda and that he must work with his ex-lover and the woman who betrayed him to the ‘Crown’ and readers have a delicious mix of drama, excitement, conflict, magic, action and horror.
The character of Ambrose very much reminds me of Jim Butcher’s ‘Harry Dresden’ mixed with a supernatural version of ‘Venom.’ Fans who are familiar with these characters will understand the similarities. The secondary characters created particularly Rook and Janus, readers will also find engaging and enjoy following. The plot moves at a good pace, the dialogue is believable and all of the characters are sufficiently developed to enable readers to build a connection with. I would recommend another editing pass as there are some occasional errors but not enough to spoil the enjoyment of the story. The ending clearly indicates that there is more to come.
I award 4 stars.
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