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oneofthewilliams's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
chamblyman's review against another edition
5.0
The Vorrh trilogy is a literary fantasy like no other: Brian Catling combines myriad far-ranging influences (surrealist painters, Heart Of Darkness, Holdstock's Mythago Wood, early Terry Gilliam films, the Bible) and characters both reality-based (photography pioneer Edward Muybridge, poet-artist-mystic Willliam Blake, naturalist Eugene Marais) and completely fantastical (A cyclops! Possibly fallen angels! Insectoid robots!) into a dense, poetic, slow-burning-yet-explosive epic that rewrites 20th century history, interrogates capitolism, war, and Euro-African colonialism, and reinvents mythology, art, and the natural world. It's a stunning, genre-defying work that lies somewhere between the realms of John Crowley's Aegypt cycle, Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, Clive Barker's Imajica, and Vandermeer's Area X trilogy (Annihilation).
jochno's review against another edition
4.0
[3.5 stars] Similar sins to the first, perhaps at times more blatant in its sexism and racism. Does not feel wonderfully edited and could demonstrates how much of an old white man echo chamber the publishing world can be. How Catling has managed to set a book in Africa with barely any black characters managing to avoid writing about a single one past page 30 is beyond me (worse than even the first book). That being said as 'a feverish epic' (Alan Moore's words not mine) it does contain moments of pure magic of the kind I have never read before after a somewhat groan inducing middle (he describes newly formed breasts as 'budding womanhood' followed by the description of what I can only imagine is someone perhaps with the body of a 13-15 year old stripping naked for no real reason in front of a priest). The opening four pages is in a similar format to the first book: a cut scene only somewhat more contextualised but still, through his insertion of a mythologised William Blake, one is left with their mouth ajar. It really comes into its stride, just as the Vorrh did, in the latter stages of the book and by the end you are enthralled once again. Certainly a true work of art in terms of its originaltiy and scope of imagination but I think this could as a series age horrendously. At its best awe-inspiring at its worst gratuitous, sometimes even obvious (no great surprise when Ishmael went into forest he was going to be the only one to come out unscathed). Also as a Jew, reading his Alt-London description of the historical Jewish East End did slightly feel as if he had googled 'cool Yiddish phrases' and 'things Jews did in 1924', added in his favorite bits at random and then proceeded to ignore common sense (How would Schumman, a German Jew not understand Yiddish phrases despite hanging around with radical Rabbis for much of his professional life). It slightly felt a bit shoehorned into the plot for authenticity and therefore a paint by numbers job but would probably pass well to most.
acaskoftroutwine's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The Erstwhile is a difficult book to review for me for different reasons than The Vorrh. Whereas The Vorrh was difficult due to the sheer breadth of the novel and how difficult it was to encapsulate exactly why it worked, The Erstwhile is a much simpler novel that loses a lot of what I enjoyed about the first one, but somehow I still devoured the book.
The book falls into the problem of most sequels, i.e. it simply expands on what the first book already did. Whereas the first book is constantly able to present us with new ideas both fantastical and grotesque, this just keeps returning to those elements, but in a way that makes it feel more mundane. Elements that created a sense of the unknown are passively brought up and skipped past, if not mostly abandoned. As a relevant example, the Erstwhile in the first book are introduced in a few scenes with stunning descriptions, of how their bodies are made up of disparate matter now as they attempt to accumulate form and permanence. Meanwhile, in this book, the Erswhile are mainly just introduced as blackened corpses. While the disparity is explained, the description as something both twistedly beautiful and evoking pity is lost.
What's worse, most of the book is written in a passive voice, simply summarizing the actions. In the beginning, it wasn't as noticeable because it was recapping the events of The Vorrh, but after a hundred or so pages I realized that the whole book was written in this way. The first books use of beautiful language and imagery was one of its greatest strengths, but its dropped in this book outside of a few moments.
The Vorrh was about a lot of things, most of which I went over in my review for that book, but mainly I would say that it's about the conflict between people attempting to understand the world or themselves and the difficulty or impossibility of that pursuit. This book I would say is more about dealing with the damage inflicted by those in power on those without, and how people respond to that. Some of them are more complicit in their situations than others.
The novel had the cyclops Ishmael go through a kind of character development that I find to be both rare and realistic. He's one of the few characters I've read who becomes worse due to admitting his vulnerabilities. The first novel has him go through a kind of hero's journey, traveling into the Vorrh as part of the novel's twisted take on the quest narrative. He nearly dies, decides to integrate into human society, returns, and settles down having been seemingly humbled. This book takes that and shows that everything he went through if anything has now made him worse. These traits of his, his misanthropy and feelings of superiority, don't just go away. And the fact that people have seen him humbled only worsens his behavior and resentment toward them.
His journey back into the Vorrh in the last half of the novel is also a highlight. The horrifying experiences of the mercenary group sent into the forest to retrieve the lost group of slaves and Ishmael's scheming were one of the parts of the book that were as tense and gripping as the first book.
There's also a new character named Hector Schumann, a German professor who gets pressed out of retirement by an ascendant Reich and becomes entangled in an investigation in England about the origin and possible uses of titular Erstwhile, who have begun to awaken across the world. A man of Jewish heritage, Schumann has to deal with his relationship with both Germany and the Reich as the investigation goes on.
And of course, that brings us to The Erstwhile themselves, forgotten, not fallen, angels, who because of their failure to prevent the biblical Fall were left abandoned on Earth. You could say that they're some of the biggest victims in the book, filled with such self-loathing that they auto-interr themselves. Seeking relief and substance, they have become twisted things of matter.
A lot of these ideas are interesting, but I don't feel that they get fully fleshed out in the book. Most of the events are summarized rather than explored, and I would say that a lot of the book feels like an extended epilogue to the first book, or a prologue to the third, rather than a full book in its own right.
Sadly, the book also mostly drops the short vignettes and side narratives of the first novel, but luckily we still get the detailed and darkly absurd history of the creation of Adam Longfellar, the world's most elaborate sculpture/guillotine. Catling is incredible at writing these little short narratives in his books, and again I wish he had a book of short stories published.
To conclude, the book is uneven, and I didn't find it as well-written or as memorable as the first one. The book seemed mainly concerned with answering questions posed by the first book, and while the answers range from unnecessary to interesting, the book doesn't really have enough going on to justify itself. But reading it I blew through dozens of pages at a time, and I never thought it insulted or ruined my enjoyment of the first book. Overall it mostly just felt unnecessary. However I'm still going to see it through and read the third book, hopefully it's a return to form and closer in style to the first one rather than this one.
The book falls into the problem of most sequels, i.e. it simply expands on what the first book already did. Whereas the first book is constantly able to present us with new ideas both fantastical and grotesque, this just keeps returning to those elements, but in a way that makes it feel more mundane. Elements that created a sense of the unknown are passively brought up and skipped past, if not mostly abandoned. As a relevant example, the Erstwhile in the first book are introduced in a few scenes with stunning descriptions, of how their bodies are made up of disparate matter now as they attempt to accumulate form and permanence. Meanwhile, in this book, the Erswhile are mainly just introduced as blackened corpses. While the disparity is explained, the description as something both twistedly beautiful and evoking pity is lost.
What's worse, most of the book is written in a passive voice, simply summarizing the actions. In the beginning, it wasn't as noticeable because it was recapping the events of The Vorrh, but after a hundred or so pages I realized that the whole book was written in this way. The first books use of beautiful language and imagery was one of its greatest strengths, but its dropped in this book outside of a few moments.
The Vorrh was about a lot of things, most of which I went over in my review for that book, but mainly I would say that it's about the conflict between people attempting to understand the world or themselves and the difficulty or impossibility of that pursuit. This book I would say is more about dealing with the damage inflicted by those in power on those without, and how people respond to that. Some of them are more complicit in their situations than others.
The novel had the cyclops Ishmael go through a kind of character development that I find to be both rare and realistic. He's one of the few characters I've read who becomes worse due to admitting his vulnerabilities. The first novel has him go through a kind of hero's journey, traveling into the Vorrh as part of the novel's twisted take on the quest narrative. He nearly dies, decides to integrate into human society, returns, and settles down having been seemingly humbled. This book takes that and shows that everything he went through if anything has now made him worse. These traits of his, his misanthropy and feelings of superiority, don't just go away. And the fact that people have seen him humbled only worsens his behavior and resentment toward them.
His journey back into the Vorrh in the last half of the novel is also a highlight. The horrifying experiences of the mercenary group sent into the forest to retrieve the lost group of slaves and Ishmael's scheming were one of the parts of the book that were as tense and gripping as the first book.
There's also a new character named Hector Schumann, a German professor who gets pressed out of retirement by an ascendant Reich and becomes entangled in an investigation in England about the origin and possible uses of titular Erstwhile, who have begun to awaken across the world. A man of Jewish heritage, Schumann has to deal with his relationship with both Germany and the Reich as the investigation goes on.
And of course, that brings us to The Erstwhile themselves, forgotten, not fallen, angels, who because of their failure to prevent the biblical Fall were left abandoned on Earth. You could say that they're some of the biggest victims in the book, filled with such self-loathing that they auto-interr themselves. Seeking relief and substance, they have become twisted things of matter.
A lot of these ideas are interesting, but I don't feel that they get fully fleshed out in the book. Most of the events are summarized rather than explored, and I would say that a lot of the book feels like an extended epilogue to the first book, or a prologue to the third, rather than a full book in its own right.
Sadly, the book also mostly drops the short vignettes and side narratives of the first novel, but luckily we still get the detailed and darkly absurd history of the creation of Adam Longfellar, the world's most elaborate sculpture/guillotine. Catling is incredible at writing these little short narratives in his books, and again I wish he had a book of short stories published.
To conclude, the book is uneven, and I didn't find it as well-written or as memorable as the first one. The book seemed mainly concerned with answering questions posed by the first book, and while the answers range from unnecessary to interesting, the book doesn't really have enough going on to justify itself. But reading it I blew through dozens of pages at a time, and I never thought it insulted or ruined my enjoyment of the first book. Overall it mostly just felt unnecessary. However I'm still going to see it through and read the third book, hopefully it's a return to form and closer in style to the first one rather than this one.
spo0kyayden's review against another edition
4.0
Number 2 down.
I think I enjoyed this one better than the first book, but I don't know!
I 'll have way more to say when I read the final book :)
I think I enjoyed this one better than the first book, but I don't know!
I 'll have way more to say when I read the final book :)
tamarasaurusrex's review against another edition
1.0
Cn: rape, child abuse, racism.
The truly upsetting thing is that this series had so much potential. An enormous, magical (?), mythologized forest-jungle in the centre of Africa, populated by biblical figures and angels and the kind of creatures found in the margins of medieval manuscripts? Yes. The action taking place in a world broadly resembling ours, first in the Victorian era and then the 1920s, with plenty of steampunk elements added in for fun? Yes. The appearance of such historical figures as Sarah Winchester, William Blake, Eadward Muybridge and H.R. Schumann, and places like Bedlam asylum? Yes! How could such a thing go wrong?
The writing is beautiful too. Perhaps a little overly indulgent at times, but I don't mind Catling indulging himself when the result is so very lovely. You can tell that he's an artist in a visual medium.
I was concerned at the racial politics and the lack of black and indigenous representation on finishing the Vorhh, and lord, everything got so much worse. Now that Tsungali's been shunted off the land of the living, the many different perspectives from which this story's being told are all white. In Africa. (And okay, there are chapters in Germany and England too. Still.)
Two of the characters we read about from the first book are Ghertrude and Cyrena and I love them and the friendship between them. I was always excited for the chapters featuring their voices, though those always felt shorter and fewer than the other chapters with their brutal masculinity.
Ghertrude is someone who is presented to us as courageous, independent, and curious. She seems to have built a life for herself without regard to the confines of the world she lives in and is proud of that, but in this book we and she discover that in fact, all along, she was being watched and controlled, and raped and impregnated in her sleep.
A twelve year-old girl is introduced, Meta, and Catling introduces her to us as someone who is, and I'm paraphrasing, fully developed and with a womans body. Gross. (Also, such a thing would be a medical marvel.) There's also another girl, a pre-teen, who is always taking her clothes off and causing a lot of confused feelings in the grown man she spends time with. GROSS.
Anyway, back to Meta. After a child she is caring for disappears, she travels to a dangerous place to try and find her. Catling makes sure to tell us that she is brave, as brave as her father and brother who have made similar journeys in the past, and been somewhat rewarded for them, with knowledge and validation. Meta is violently raped.
So, there's my problem. Ishmael travels into the Vorhh and instead of being killed and eaten or going mad, as everyone else does, he is told he is special and some sort of Chosen One-type figure. When men in these books show spunk and courage and adventurousness, they are rewarded; when women do, they are punished in the most terrible ways. That is the thing I hate most about these books.
There are a lot of mysteries I want the answers to, and aside from some hints, I am no more enlightened than I was on finishing the Vorrh. Who are the Limboia, how do they relate to Ishmael and Ghertrude? What is The Deal with Williams and Modesta? With The Vorrh? What do Muybridge and the woman who raped him have to do with it?
I don't know if I will read The Cloven. I might, because I want answers, but I will borrow it from the library, I imagine, because I cannot spend money on this. And I can't in good conscience recommend these books to anybody. And they had so much potential.
The truly upsetting thing is that this series had so much potential. An enormous, magical (?), mythologized forest-jungle in the centre of Africa, populated by biblical figures and angels and the kind of creatures found in the margins of medieval manuscripts? Yes. The action taking place in a world broadly resembling ours, first in the Victorian era and then the 1920s, with plenty of steampunk elements added in for fun? Yes. The appearance of such historical figures as Sarah Winchester, William Blake, Eadward Muybridge and H.R. Schumann, and places like Bedlam asylum? Yes! How could such a thing go wrong?
The writing is beautiful too. Perhaps a little overly indulgent at times, but I don't mind Catling indulging himself when the result is so very lovely. You can tell that he's an artist in a visual medium.
I was concerned at the racial politics and the lack of black and indigenous representation on finishing the Vorhh, and lord, everything got so much worse. Now that Tsungali's been shunted off the land of the living, the many different perspectives from which this story's being told are all white. In Africa. (And okay, there are chapters in Germany and England too. Still.)
Two of the characters we read about from the first book are Ghertrude and Cyrena and I love them and the friendship between them. I was always excited for the chapters featuring their voices, though those always felt shorter and fewer than the other chapters with their brutal masculinity.
Ghertrude is someone who is presented to us as courageous, independent, and curious. She seems to have built a life for herself without regard to the confines of the world she lives in and is proud of that, but in this book we and she discover that in fact, all along, she was being watched and controlled, and raped and impregnated in her sleep.
A twelve year-old girl is introduced, Meta, and Catling introduces her to us as someone who is, and I'm paraphrasing, fully developed and with a womans body. Gross. (Also, such a thing would be a medical marvel.) There's also another girl, a pre-teen, who is always taking her clothes off and causing a lot of confused feelings in the grown man she spends time with. GROSS.
Anyway, back to Meta. After a child she is caring for disappears, she travels to a dangerous place to try and find her. Catling makes sure to tell us that she is brave, as brave as her father and brother who have made similar journeys in the past, and been somewhat rewarded for them, with knowledge and validation. Meta is violently raped.
So, there's my problem. Ishmael travels into the Vorhh and instead of being killed and eaten or going mad, as everyone else does, he is told he is special and some sort of Chosen One-type figure. When men in these books show spunk and courage and adventurousness, they are rewarded; when women do, they are punished in the most terrible ways. That is the thing I hate most about these books.
There are a lot of mysteries I want the answers to, and aside from some hints, I am no more enlightened than I was on finishing the Vorrh. Who are the Limboia, how do they relate to Ishmael and Ghertrude? What is The Deal with Williams and Modesta? With The Vorrh? What do Muybridge and the woman who raped him have to do with it?
I don't know if I will read The Cloven. I might, because I want answers, but I will borrow it from the library, I imagine, because I cannot spend money on this. And I can't in good conscience recommend these books to anybody. And they had so much potential.
gatspender's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kir3n's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Coming from the intensity and psycho-sexuality of the first book, this book is very tame and much more plot-based. The focus on plot and world is the reason I continued through the book regardless of the disgusting nature of the first and its lingering aftertaste throughout the second. The characters are still mostly self-absorbed white men, but the new additions do help in breaking that annoying monotony up.
One thing to note is that the prose is TERRIBLE compared to the first book. There were several times I felt I was reading a YA written by a YA - unnecessary alliteration, dissatisfying use of adjectives, redundant and simplistic imagery, etc.. This was disappointing because the first book was so strong in the writing, making so much of it worth-while and magical. Thankfully, the content and plot-lines were more coherent, intriguing, and graspable, making up for this jarring change in flow.
One thing to note is that the prose is TERRIBLE compared to the first book. There were several times I felt I was reading a YA written by a YA - unnecessary alliteration, dissatisfying use of adjectives, redundant and simplistic imagery, etc.. This was disappointing because the first book was so strong in the writing, making so much of it worth-while and magical. Thankfully, the content and plot-lines were more coherent, intriguing, and graspable, making up for this jarring change in flow.
bei_02's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Rape, and Violence
leksikality's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5