 Neither beer nor wrestling appealed to me, so why on earth did I have so much fun with the headlock of Destiny? A book about, what else, but wrestling in beer. And it's not your average quantities of beer either, nor are the contestants in the eponymous tournament, the headlock of Destiny, your normal wrestlers. No, this is a fantasy novel we're talking about here. Why have average humans when you could have Titans? These Titans are mighty indeed, known as Ten Men. Their physical prowess, making yours and mine look like nothing at all too impressive, well mine in particular, would be as significant to theirs as that of The Fly, you'll swat it and forget five heartbeat later. So between you and I, it might be the beer drinking that the Titans do well enough for Ten Men, and the one who excels at this admirable task most is of course our protagonist. Brewery worker Van, soon to be known as Van the Beer Man. Van has spent his entire life trying to make himself look smaller. An impossible task for a Titan, and one he has paid for. The folks of the Oplands where he grew up ostracize him, when they even remember he's among them. His only friend and love interest is wet to his bully and his boss of the brewery. And carrying barrels full of beer is no one's idea of a life well lived. For all that it's familiar, is what Van has known all his life. So when an impromptu meeting with a woman, Kyle, promises a chance at change, Van is less than pleased. I didn't thrilled about it. Kyle is first presented to us as a scout, searching for talent to represent the Oplands in the headlock of Destiny. In fact she's a lot more than first catches the eye. Her relationship with Van moves the story forwards and draws unexpected qualities from both herself and the Titan, while avoiding cliched one-note romance. No one save Kyle, least of all Van expects that the green Titan will make it pass the qualifier round, squaring off against another Opland's Titan, the lewing portrait. So naturally Van kicks the ever-living crap out of him and makes it onto the tournament by which nation states triumph or are pushed into the dust of history. It's a nifty idea, using fantasy battles between these massive wrestlers in order to dictate policy and not just your state policy but international policy. It's not something I've seen before, I have to admit that. And the headlock is one of those fantasy novels which definitely get points for making strides in territories you would not necessarily expect out of fantasy novels. The wrestling matches between the Titans are of course one of the biggest draws. They're the action-packed core prepositions of the novel and they make for engaging action sequences. Gately succeeds at differentiating each and every one of them. The way every one of the Titans squares off against Van is an extent of the author's characterization, fitting perfectly with the Titans' personalities, their sport-trading dialogue and true description. The sporting cast is memorable, especially some of the friendly Titans Van meets along the way and the antagonists are easy to the test, not just dislike, the test note. If a little more two-dimensional than what I would have preferred. There's more going on than the tournament as well and the novel ends on what a lesser reviewer would call a literal cliffhanger. Me, I'd never lower myself to such wordplay. What I was drawn to most is this sense that the headlock of Destiny was written by someone having having fun and it was written as an invitation for you to join in this this preposterous ridiculous amount of of wrestling and beer and a very irreverent style of fantasy writing that you have to appreciate. There's more than enough here for those of you who are looking for a fantasy read, the steps are well outside the boundaries of your classical fantasy novel as you might expect it. There's more than enough here for those of you who are looking for a fantasy read that steps outside many of the usual fantasy elements and embraces the tropes of a wholly different medium that of wrestling and I think I just might have to do a proper investigation of some of these tropes. I have been looking forward for more novels to try and do a series that I will call trope check. I even have a musical team in mind but as I'm unskilled at music as unskilled at music as the making of videos I suppose that will have to wait. Now tell me down in the comments have you taught about reading more indie fantasy? If you have would this one be a good start? Please I would like to know and of course I'm always open to hearing what you'd like me to review soon. If you've got any books you're wondering about anything you're interested in let me know down in the comments and I will try to make that happen. If you enjoyed this video I have only one more word for you and that is subscribe. Also don't forget to like comment again share with your friends and enemies especially if you've got enemies. I suspect that if if you have enemies they might might really hate you for sharing this video. It is quite painful to to get all the way through isn't it? Oh well thanks for watching folks and I look forward to seeing you next time. We're doing a lot of science fiction over the next many months. I will actually be doing a weekly or sometimes bi-weekly series called Philip Does or Philip Reads the Hugos. I still haven't decided yet in which I will be reading all the Hugo Ward winning novels from 1953 to the present. I'm very excited about it. I've already read a couple of them and I have the reviews all written up so now all I have to do is turn them into videos. Toodles! That's not what I say is it? Oh I know. Bye!