Well, damn. Gately doesn’t slip up. I’ve read 3 of the 4 Titan Wars books over the past few months (I read the first Titan Wars book in 2021!) and not a single blip. It has been solid, entertaining fantasy fun. Yes, I am still – STILL – baffled myself that this fantasy series has won me over – effortlessly – because pro wrestling (I know! I say it every time and if I can just shut up about it already…) is NOT my thing. But, it just comes to show you what a writer with a skillful pen and creative mind can deliver. I have truly been enjoying the Titan Wars series, yes, for the fun it has delivered, and the EPIC fight scenes, but equally as much for its characters. Maybe because of its characters, starting with Van the Beer Man in books 1 and 2; and finishing up with Scott Flawless in books 3 and 4, because Gately puts the soul into those titans. The very soul.

I sure do hope that there will be more titan fun in the future. And I sure do hope these books will get the love they deserve. You know, reading is meant to entertain as much as make us think and feel all moustached intellectual. But Titan Wars is all about the creative fun. You start the book, bam, you’re right into it and it doesn’t stop until the last page! This is what reading should be about, too… The fun. The getting lost in the story. The anticipation of what might happen on the next page. Titan Wars books will give you that. The books in the series are not 84634 kilo doorstoppers, requiring a hazard warning should you drop one on your face when you read them in bed. They’re easily done and dusted in a day, 200 something pages – totally doable for your average bookworm, AND they’re packed with well placed wording to make you squirm in excitement, to pump your fist in the air whilst you sigh a Hell Yeah!, to tremble in your literal seat to see what the outcome will be. Prose and dialogue – pshaw! – Gately is a master in both!

The Jaws of Hell … I mean, there’s another thing with Gately. You just don’t know what he comes up with next. Every book in the Titan Wars series has taken me by surprise, plot wise, and The Jaws of Hell was no different. It went down avenues and explored the main character arc in a way that, even though it made god damned sense, still managed to surprise me. Like, pleasantly. It’s the human aspect, the observation of human characteristics that Gately seems to base his main conflicts around for our characters and that is done so utterly well. I am here for this! Throughout the Titan Wars, we have had a focus on things like not fitting in, having to fill big shoes without having the confidence to do so, having TOO MUCH bloody confidence, being an unwielding self centred bastard who has another thing coming, fear as the biggest driver of making decisions, and trying to be and do good. The Jaws of Hell is sort of a new becoming, it’s a crossroad for a character and they have to decide if they’re going to remain who they have always been, or if they will find that something within that will make them good. And there’s a question about whether they care about being good, or not. And whether they care about others or only themselves.

Anyway, a little step back before I embarrass myself further with the fangirling… The plot focus in The Jaws of Hell is this tournament held in Stillwaters. It’s the titan matches that the utterly rich hold for their entertainment and show of wealth… There’s a ton of money moving hands, there’s your cream of the crop being sponsors and ogling at spit and blood and pain like the closet sadists they are. Security is tight and egos sky high. Add rough and ready to tumble titans into the mix, and you got some delicious reading time right there.

A different kind of frustration is brought upon Scott Flawless in this book. Following the events of the Rematch of the Titans, you’d think Scott has possibly faced the worst life has to offer. Oh, no. In The Jaws of Hell, it’s a bit like raw skin is being sandpapered again. It’s not smooth sailing for our man, at all. Not that sailing ever would be smooth for Scott, ahem. He doesn’t do boats. So, once the pieces are set on the chessboard and a sponsor has paid a LOT of money for Scott, you’d expect Scott to just get it over and done with. But what kind of a book would it be, if Gately let us all off the hook this easy. Hahahaha…. Where there’s trouble, expect some more… And then more… and more. Gately really brought multiple threads together in story and at the risk of repeating myself – not a single blip! Smooth story arc, brilliant conflicts, superb dialogue (with that bit of snark we all like) and the fight scenes are just the best I’ve ever read in any fantasy. Prowrestling, you have made fantasy fight scenes epic!

But, what really got my jowls dripping with drool, figuratively speaking? Scott’s spine. Scott and his unbendable spine. He’s a stubborn freaking ox and it will get him into trouble as much as save his soul. Is he still as unlikeable as we have come to know him from previous books? Well, you can’t completely remove the asshole from man. Why would you be able to remove it from titan? But… I love a principled person… real or fictional.. and it was simply fantastic that every time when someone tried to bend Scott to their will, saying how spineless he was, he simply would not yield! And this was the reason this character won me over. Finally. His goddamned spine.

But fret not… The overall gist, still, to these books is a humorous slant. It’s all a bit of fun, albeit with a tendency to get very painful and very bloody. I guess, the best way to describe the reader of these books, is to imagine you were living in the way back when gladiator arenas were a thing, and you were the bloodmad crazy nutter, salivating at the sidelines for blood to be drawn. Except, maybe, you are only that secretly. Not at all in real life. Nuh-uh. Anyway, read the damn books!