A review by karp76
The Vorrh by Brian Catling

4.0

Here is a strange land. Here be angels. And monsters. Cyclops and robots. Fact and fiction woven and knotted into one another, one indecipherable from the next. We come into this strange land not knowing what to expect. We are lured by mystery and the unknown. We find mythology and history walking hand in hand, just enough to convince us to continue, that this is in the right hands. The flavors are familiar. The hints are closest, oddly enough, to those of Pynchon (sweeping and grandiose, a sense of world weariness, of its time and of its place). We read and we devour, clawing, demanding to see beneath the surface, only to reveal the only true taint of the work, that unlike Pynchon, true and meaningful poignancy is lacking or shallow at best. Most works would crumble at this, dissolve under the expectation not to be found. Not here. Catling has created something very special here. It is haunting and lyrical. A gem of weird literature. A tale born in this world but told in another. This is not for the faint of heart or the passive. Heroes will die and die awfully and questions will remain unanswered. It seems apt in here, in this place, the wilds of the Vorrh. There is more. This is the only beginning. I am eager for the rest.