I still can’t get over the fact that I am absolutely loving a book that has taken its inspiration from pro wrestling. It’s beautifully bonkers. Who knew mixing something as over the top as pro wrestling with fantasy would yield something so wholesomely epic? Well, there you go. 

Samuel Gately writes in a style and manner that reminds readers why they love to read. His style is polished and his writing has a stride that’s as confident as a titan approaching a squared circle for the fight of his life. You’d think fight-scenes inspired by pro wrestling would be one of the hardest to present in writing. You’d sort of expect a sordid mess of who done what and when and it’s a tangle of sweaty hair and squeaky leather hot-pants on muscled thighs and grunting, alas no… Rematch of the Titans takes its fight scenes seriously, its titans even more seriously, and its plot is more wholesome than you can ever expect. It’s a success of a book of its kind in this genre for many reasons… 

For example, Scott Lawless, our main character. What an arsehole he is. He truly thinks he’s the god’s gift upon the world and he can do no wrong. He’s a prick to the people around him. Kind of makes you want to… wait for it… clothesline him! See? I am learning the terminology! So, anyway, Scott’s done well for himself, he’s a champ and he likes to live in luxury. I mean, I guess being a daggum arrogant, confident prick is exactly the secret sauce to success. But in this book, [redacted] has called him away from his 24/7 glory and he’s on the road, kind of roughing it, meeting new people that he likes to a be a prick to. It’s the very [redacted] thing that sets the wheels in motion, right. But from the get-go you start to get a feel that Scott is not quite right. He may come across all bravado and ‘here, eat my fist’ but you get a feel he’s off kilter. And you just want to know what’s got the ten-man’s knickers in a twist. And once you find out, it’s going to be fantastically epic, I can promise you that! 

So, once the story unravels, you think it’s going to be a straight forward, banging heads together, taking over the world because Scott deserves it kind of thing but you’re wrong. Oh, so, so wrong. This book takes a seriously unexpected turn and secondary characters are introduced that you can and will love. Fact is, you simply won’t see some stuff coming. It was the absolute beauty of the story – the surprise revelations, no matter how small a detail about his very self and what he likes, that left me rethinking all I knew about Scott. 

And, I mean, I have to say that it’s a very balanced book – the story, the secondary characters and their place in the world, as well as that main overarching conflict that needs to be solved in this book – you know, they’re all in very good balance when compared to the ground and pound scenes. You will not feel yourself straying from the story because it has too much or too little of one element over the others. It takes you right in and boom, before you know it, you’ve devoured the book and you’re just like: wow! 

The ending… It’s been a while I quite literally laughed out loud reading a book… it’s probably been years, yeah. Rematch of the Titans has a wonderful ending. It’s a wholesome book. Yes, you get gritty, angry dudes who just want to punch your lights out, but the dialogues is so, so well done! The descriptions of scenes and settings are creative writing masterclass, and the characters are just who you want to meet in a fantasy story. It’s fun, it’s entertaining, it reads fast and you don’t often come across pro wrestling inspired fantasy. If you like your fantasy reads slightly darker and you don’t mind some foul language, then you’re going to want to give this one a go. It’ll be more than worth it!