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benegesserwitch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Slavery, Death, Toxic friendship, Violence, War, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Trafficking, Body horror, Murder, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Racism, Police brutality, and Ableism
Moderate: Cannibalism, Animal death, Dementia, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Antisemitism, and Addiction
sohxpie's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
What a frustrating trilogy to have read. After all of that, I didn't even get closure for the part of the story I was most interested in. Ghertrude's story felt like a last minute afterthought throughout this book, I am extremely disappointed that her story ended the way it did. She fell in love and suddenly her missing baby and mysterious origin didn't matter, it was ludicrous. It almost felt like Catling decided that Meta was more important and he needed to focus on her story instead. I just don't feel that it should have pushed Ghertrude's story aside. A large portion of the first two books were exploring when Ishmael and Ghertrude came from so it feels incredibly strange to just write it off as a quick 'we'll never know' right at the end. The more I think about it, the more I wonder what actually happened in this trilogy. I can tell you specific events and character arcs but I just can't tell you what it all built up to. I think it was a very poorly thought-out story that just kept changing, it felt like
each book was dependent on which character was the author's favourite at the time. We were also back to the unnecessarily jarring scenes in this book as well, I really didn't need a graphic description of how the kin 'turned off' Ishmael, it wasn't a shock factor, it didn't add anything to the story, it was outright weird and disgusting. I mentioned it in my review of the first book, I am very clearly not the target audience for the trilogy, it is a very specific kind of person. Unfortunately I very much regret reading these books but the completionist in me had to do it.
each book was dependent on which character was the author's favourite at the time. We were also back to the unnecessarily jarring scenes in this book as well, I really didn't need a graphic description of how the kin 'turned off' Ishmael, it wasn't a shock factor, it didn't add anything to the story, it was outright weird and disgusting. I mentioned it in my review of the first book, I am very clearly not the target audience for the trilogy, it is a very specific kind of person. Unfortunately I very much regret reading these books but the completionist in me had to do it.
gerren's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
4.5
thebreadloaf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
bjorrdan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
jasperge's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
akahige86's review against another edition
5.0
Don't really know what the hell happened but I loved every page.
dreamgalaxies's review against another edition
4.0
I have a booktube channel now! Subscribe here.
I spent a lot of time trying to find the appropriate descriptor for Catling's writing, and I think the best I've got is a mixture of the weird meditative horror of David Lynch and the philosophical detail-oriented narration of Philip Pullman.
I like both of those things a lot so it's no great surprise I'd find their compound entertaining to read. And yet...to what end?
The prose was almost without fail magnificent. And yet there was almost no real closure at all for the many characters we've encountered along the way. Those who were sacrificed had some end purpose but I've no idea how it was connected to the greater narrative in terms of causality. The last third of this volume felt rushed to catharsis.
(spoilers)
The bourgeoise, self-centered occupants of colonial Essenwald got their just desserts. The forest will absorb the horrors of the city and heal the aberration of humankind. It's a familiar story, but usually there's someone likeable on the side of good.
But one is almost left wondering: why did we have to endure the horrors of their stories at all? Almost no one was sympathetic. I think Cyrena, Ghertrude and Nicholas were the only three of the many characters I felt kinship with and two of the three turned out to be angels, not humans...and the third may not have even been that.
My biggest complaint is that the character who became the new first man was the worst of them all. What did Ishmael ever do to deserve to become the avatar of salvation?
(end spoilers)
Heady ideas, beautiful prose but too misanthropic perhaps even for me...and I wanted the symbols, creepy-crawlies and philosophy to amount to more. Rounded up from a 3.5 for the series. (The books ranked at 1/3/2).
I spent a lot of time trying to find the appropriate descriptor for Catling's writing, and I think the best I've got is a mixture of the weird meditative horror of David Lynch and the philosophical detail-oriented narration of Philip Pullman.
I like both of those things a lot so it's no great surprise I'd find their compound entertaining to read. And yet...to what end?
The prose was almost without fail magnificent. And yet there was almost no real closure at all for the many characters we've encountered along the way. Those who were sacrificed had some end purpose but I've no idea how it was connected to the greater narrative in terms of causality. The last third of this volume felt rushed to catharsis.
(spoilers)
The bourgeoise, self-centered occupants of colonial Essenwald got their just desserts. The forest will absorb the horrors of the city and heal the aberration of humankind. It's a familiar story, but usually there's someone likeable on the side of good.
But one is almost left wondering: why did we have to endure the horrors of their stories at all? Almost no one was sympathetic. I think Cyrena, Ghertrude and Nicholas were the only three of the many characters I felt kinship with and two of the three turned out to be angels, not humans...and the third may not have even been that.
My biggest complaint is that the character who became the new first man was the worst of them all. What did Ishmael ever do to deserve to become the avatar of salvation?
(end spoilers)
Heady ideas, beautiful prose but too misanthropic perhaps even for me...and I wanted the symbols, creepy-crawlies and philosophy to amount to more. Rounded up from a 3.5 for the series. (The books ranked at 1/3/2).
thorium0232's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
karp76's review against another edition
3.0
Once again, we return. To the Vorrh, and to the Erstwhile. We are moving towards an end, not completion or fulfillment but the end of things for this world, or rather, our understanding of it. There is a hint of the magic that first swept us through the tangled beauty of the Vorrh, especially in the beginning, the stark mood rising out of the forsaken settings. But, we cannot linger. Tsk, tsk. There is too much ground to cover, because, remember, we are moving towards the end. Before long, as the tempo increases, details brushed over or forgotten or sloshed through to a hasty presentation, the narrative bends to conformity, the plot reverting to the uninspired convention of the previous installment of the trilogy. The checklist of characters is marked, each given their own end, the dangling threads tucked untidy into their hurried resolutions. Nothing is finished here. We come to this place, this end, because we must. The plot demands it. The checklist is done. And we turn and leave, the memory of the magic of the Vorrh still tingling in old pages remembered, as we wonder what might have been, what might have been.