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A review by lgrunwald
The Bone Forest by Robert Holdstock
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
4.5/5
This is without a doubt the best short story collection I have ever read and I guess I'm not surprised that it would be Robert Holdstock that would deliver this into my lap as he is my favourite author of all time. To be honest I'm not the biggest fan of short stories in general and have a hard time getting myself invested due to their length. However, Holdstock does what he does best and makes a story, characters, and environment so alive and so realistic that I can practically feel the cold winds of the tundra, the earth under my toes, smell the rotting scents of the old wood, and hear the chantings of the old world and the ghost around me. I truely feel Holdstocks stories in my very soul and that is no different here. In this collection he not only spoils us with seven short stories but also a novella which the entire collection "The Bone Forest" is named after. The novella is a brilliant prequel to Holdstocks first book in the mythago cycle and my favourite book of all time "Mythago Wood". The rest of the stories are random with some having a place in the mythago universe while others do not, such as the very last story which is a more sci fi futuristic story. I wouldn't recommend reading this if you haven't read at the very least "Mythago Wood" as you will be very confused and not have a lot of context for the novella which is the largest section of this collection. I saw a lot of reviews of people not liking it for that reason and DNFing or hating it due to not knowing what was going on. Which, I understand as I see people online saying you don't need to read his other books to read this collection. While that's technically true for the rest of the stories in this it's definitely not true for the actual "The Bone Forest" story. You will also miss minor influences of his novels (as some of these short stories had been previously published in magazines before the mythago cycle started to release) that adds some appreciation to the text. Below I will include my thoughts on all of the stories blow and separate them out into sections like I do with all of my short story reviews.
*The Bone Forest:
This first story was incredibly fascinating and an absolute treat to the people who read Holdstocks first book in the mythago cycle "Mythago Wood". Here we get a deeper insight and perspective into the father of our protagonist Steven from the first novel named George Huxley. It takes place during a time period when Steven was just a child and goes into depth of George and his madness as he does research into the Ryhope Wood. It's hard to make out if certain sections of this take place in an alternative reality or demision but I believe that this is done intentionally as Ryhope does intended to disorient time and space around it's characters. It has loads of foreshadowing to the events that happen in the previous book and also uniquely stands on its own two feet with its more psychological perspective on what happens to the characters that interact with the wood rather than a story focused plot like "Mythago Wood". Holdstock once again is a master at writing a myth within a myth with his own story of "The Drummer Fox and Boy Ralph" and how it was a form of another tale, a much older tale, of a woman shaman named Ash who we also met in Holdstocks second novel in this series "Lavondyss". He once again shows his expert knowledge in the progression of myth and folklore and how we as humans interpret and reinterpret the same stories over and over again for centuries to create heros and morality stories to fit our current narrative. As always, it's brilliant and my love for Holdstocks work only continues to grow.
*Thorn:
A hauntingly terrifying tale that is a clear representation of the struggle between paganism and Christianity in England we meet a stone mason named Thomas who helping create his villages first stone church...or so it seems. In reality he is hearing the voices of an old entity named Thorn (who I'm assuming is a representation of the English folk tale "The Green Man") who is asking him to go to the church by night and carve his face into the churches framework so he can have his spiritual hold on it forever. It's suspenseful, thrilling, terrifying, and a fascinating look into the idea of what the Lord of The Wood may have looked like through pagan eyes. If any of you possibly reading this are a gamer it reminds me of one section of the video game "Pentiment" where the protagonist finds out about the true pagan origins of the town is stuck on the predicament on whether to bring this to light or keep in a secret to protect the town's reputation. Awesome story! Loved it.
*The Shapechanger:
This was an interesting look into what old pagan magic and rituals may have actually looked like in practice and it was very fascinating. Here we meet a shaman named Wolfhead who uses mask magic, similar to our protagonist Tallis in Holdstocks second book "Lavondyss", and his boy apprentice Inkmaker who writes his notes down for him. Here we good a good mix of what Holdstock is best at. Coming up with historical ideas of what Britain's lost pagan beliefs would look like mixed with some lore we actually know such as the King Arthur legend. In this story the two are sent by a village leader named Gilla to rid his town of a demon who has possessed it and it leads to a very dark result.
*The Boy Who Jumped The Rapids:
While this one was a very good story the ending of it, admittedly has me a bit confused as it wasn't very clear as to what happened or if it's a bit more up to interpretation (although I do have my own theory). Here we meet a young boy named Caylen who lives in a village where he is the son of the village chief. However, this privileged status doesn't do him much good as the village seems to think he is cursed or possessed due to the fact he has the ability to see through, what Caylen realises, are illusions of magic around his home. To him a calm stream he can easily walk through looks like a violent rapids to others for example. His villiage is visited by a red haired nordic looking warrior who is creating a mystic shrine for unknown reasons and all of this leads to a grand escape of his abusive village, a legend passed down, and a difficult decision to make.
*Time Of The Tree:
Unique is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of "Time Of The Tree" and that's not a bad thing. I've just simply never read something quite like this. It seems to be told from the perspective of "the land" which is also a human form taking perspective of itself and it's surrounding in an almost scientific observation style. Time is passing in an episodic format from what sounds like the ending of the ice age, through the first contact of humans, and maybe to a symbolic modern era? Very fascinating. Its hard to put my finger on exactly what I liked about this one because, admittedly, it was very strange but I know I loved the imagery of it. Holdstock has a gift similar to Tolkien in the fashion of the way he can perfectly describe an an environment and make you feel like you are truly living in it.
*Magic Man:
This one was particularly violent. Its a more simple story with themes of greed and murder. Here we meet One Eye who is the magic man in the title. His magic is that he paints cave paintings on the walls that help his tribes hunters with their kills when they go out on said hunts. However, despite his magic, the tribal leader (or maybe he is just the head hunter. It isn't made clear if they are one and the same or not) hates him and says that his magic is useless and that the only thing he needs to be the best hunter that he already has been is his own hands and weapons. The tension building between these two plus the fact that the head hunters son has been spending time with the cave painter learning from him has made the lead hunters hatred of One Eye become dangerous. This leads to the events of the rest of the story where ghost come to life, murder comes into play, and the hunters son soon discovers his own magical abilities. This was a very cool story but overall I have to say this one is probably the most boring and the most basic of the stories. Its not bad obviously, but compared to Holdstocks usual standards of creativity and unique story telling and world building this one fell a little flat for me personally.
*Scarrowfell:
...all I have to say is what the f*** just happened? That was wild. One moment I thought we were in a Christian town who got caught up with some sort of weird pagan ritual stuff like in the "Thorn" story but nope! This was just full blown dark magic pagan ritual stuff. My mind is blown and I still have no idea what just happened. It reminds me a lot of a very similar ritual that happened in Holdstocks second Mythago book "Lavondyss" but much, much darker. Its hard to talk about the plot of this one too much without giving it away so I'll just leave this here.
*The Time Beyond Age:
This was definitely the wild card of the collection as, unlike our other short stories, this one was a sci fi. We are looking at things from the perspective of Dr. Lipman who works for a place called The Institute. He and a team of scientists dedicated themselves to an experiment in which they took two children (one male and one female) who were grown in a lab and kept them in an inclosed disease free environment while being injected with a substance called Chronon that rapidly increased their aging allowing them to live centuries in the span of a few years. All the test on what would happen to the human condition and physical self on if all things that lead to natural human death were removed. They observed the two 24/7 and gave them fake memories and virtual lives to see how everything would play out. This was...a deeply uncomfortable story as I think it was meant to be. I was so disturbed at the torture they put these two people through and the lack of regard for them as people. They didn't even see them as people due to the fact they grew them in a lab rather than them being naturally born children. Dr. Lipman himself even began having disgusting sexual fantasies about the female subject at a young age and would implant memories into her mind that he was one of her lovers for some disgusting...erotic satisfaction as he watched from a distance as she would have arousing dreams about a man she thought she had a relationship with in the past. I'm not sure what to make of this story. It genuinely was fascinating and Holdstock definitely did his job at making me understand how sick and disgusting these doctors were and the value of human life no matter what form it comes in. It makes me think of some of those disgusting experiments Vault Tech did on some of the people in its experiments in the fallout video game universe. Disturbing stuff.
This is without a doubt the best short story collection I have ever read and I guess I'm not surprised that it would be Robert Holdstock that would deliver this into my lap as he is my favourite author of all time. To be honest I'm not the biggest fan of short stories in general and have a hard time getting myself invested due to their length. However, Holdstock does what he does best and makes a story, characters, and environment so alive and so realistic that I can practically feel the cold winds of the tundra, the earth under my toes, smell the rotting scents of the old wood, and hear the chantings of the old world and the ghost around me. I truely feel Holdstocks stories in my very soul and that is no different here. In this collection he not only spoils us with seven short stories but also a novella which the entire collection "The Bone Forest" is named after. The novella is a brilliant prequel to Holdstocks first book in the mythago cycle and my favourite book of all time "Mythago Wood". The rest of the stories are random with some having a place in the mythago universe while others do not, such as the very last story which is a more sci fi futuristic story. I wouldn't recommend reading this if you haven't read at the very least "Mythago Wood" as you will be very confused and not have a lot of context for the novella which is the largest section of this collection. I saw a lot of reviews of people not liking it for that reason and DNFing or hating it due to not knowing what was going on. Which, I understand as I see people online saying you don't need to read his other books to read this collection. While that's technically true for the rest of the stories in this it's definitely not true for the actual "The Bone Forest" story. You will also miss minor influences of his novels (as some of these short stories had been previously published in magazines before the mythago cycle started to release) that adds some appreciation to the text. Below I will include my thoughts on all of the stories blow and separate them out into sections like I do with all of my short story reviews.
*The Bone Forest:
This first story was incredibly fascinating and an absolute treat to the people who read Holdstocks first book in the mythago cycle "Mythago Wood". Here we get a deeper insight and perspective into the father of our protagonist Steven from the first novel named George Huxley. It takes place during a time period when Steven was just a child and goes into depth of George and his madness as he does research into the Ryhope Wood. It's hard to make out if certain sections of this take place in an alternative reality or demision but I believe that this is done intentionally as Ryhope does intended to disorient time and space around it's characters. It has loads of foreshadowing to the events that happen in the previous book and also uniquely stands on its own two feet with its more psychological perspective on what happens to the characters that interact with the wood rather than a story focused plot like "Mythago Wood". Holdstock once again is a master at writing a myth within a myth with his own story of "The Drummer Fox and Boy Ralph" and how it was a form of another tale, a much older tale, of a woman shaman named Ash who we also met in Holdstocks second novel in this series "Lavondyss". He once again shows his expert knowledge in the progression of myth and folklore and how we as humans interpret and reinterpret the same stories over and over again for centuries to create heros and morality stories to fit our current narrative. As always, it's brilliant and my love for Holdstocks work only continues to grow.
*Thorn:
A hauntingly terrifying tale that is a clear representation of the struggle between paganism and Christianity in England we meet a stone mason named Thomas who helping create his villages first stone church...or so it seems. In reality he is hearing the voices of an old entity named Thorn (who I'm assuming is a representation of the English folk tale "The Green Man") who is asking him to go to the church by night and carve his face into the churches framework so he can have his spiritual hold on it forever. It's suspenseful, thrilling, terrifying, and a fascinating look into the idea of what the Lord of The Wood may have looked like through pagan eyes. If any of you possibly reading this are a gamer it reminds me of one section of the video game "Pentiment" where the protagonist finds out about the true pagan origins of the town is stuck on the predicament on whether to bring this to light or keep in a secret to protect the town's reputation. Awesome story! Loved it.
*The Shapechanger:
This was an interesting look into what old pagan magic and rituals may have actually looked like in practice and it was very fascinating. Here we meet a shaman named Wolfhead who uses mask magic, similar to our protagonist Tallis in Holdstocks second book "Lavondyss", and his boy apprentice Inkmaker who writes his notes down for him. Here we good a good mix of what Holdstock is best at. Coming up with historical ideas of what Britain's lost pagan beliefs would look like mixed with some lore we actually know such as the King Arthur legend. In this story the two are sent by a village leader named Gilla to rid his town of a demon who has possessed it and it leads to a very dark result.
*The Boy Who Jumped The Rapids:
While this one was a very good story the ending of it, admittedly has me a bit confused as it wasn't very clear as to what happened or if it's a bit more up to interpretation (although I do have my own theory). Here we meet a young boy named Caylen who lives in a village where he is the son of the village chief. However, this privileged status doesn't do him much good as the village seems to think he is cursed or possessed due to the fact he has the ability to see through, what Caylen realises, are illusions of magic around his home. To him a calm stream he can easily walk through looks like a violent rapids to others for example. His villiage is visited by a red haired nordic looking warrior who is creating a mystic shrine for unknown reasons and all of this leads to a grand escape of his abusive village, a legend passed down, and a difficult decision to make.
*Time Of The Tree:
Unique is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of "Time Of The Tree" and that's not a bad thing. I've just simply never read something quite like this. It seems to be told from the perspective of "the land" which is also a human form taking perspective of itself and it's surrounding in an almost scientific observation style. Time is passing in an episodic format from what sounds like the ending of the ice age, through the first contact of humans, and maybe to a symbolic modern era? Very fascinating. Its hard to put my finger on exactly what I liked about this one because, admittedly, it was very strange but I know I loved the imagery of it. Holdstock has a gift similar to Tolkien in the fashion of the way he can perfectly describe an an environment and make you feel like you are truly living in it.
*Magic Man:
This one was particularly violent. Its a more simple story with themes of greed and murder. Here we meet One Eye who is the magic man in the title. His magic is that he paints cave paintings on the walls that help his tribes hunters with their kills when they go out on said hunts. However, despite his magic, the tribal leader (or maybe he is just the head hunter. It isn't made clear if they are one and the same or not) hates him and says that his magic is useless and that the only thing he needs to be the best hunter that he already has been is his own hands and weapons. The tension building between these two plus the fact that the head hunters son has been spending time with the cave painter learning from him has made the lead hunters hatred of One Eye become dangerous. This leads to the events of the rest of the story where ghost come to life, murder comes into play, and the hunters son soon discovers his own magical abilities. This was a very cool story but overall I have to say this one is probably the most boring and the most basic of the stories. Its not bad obviously, but compared to Holdstocks usual standards of creativity and unique story telling and world building this one fell a little flat for me personally.
*Scarrowfell:
...all I have to say is what the f*** just happened? That was wild. One moment I thought we were in a Christian town who got caught up with some sort of weird pagan ritual stuff like in the "Thorn" story but nope! This was just full blown dark magic pagan ritual stuff. My mind is blown and I still have no idea what just happened. It reminds me a lot of a very similar ritual that happened in Holdstocks second Mythago book "Lavondyss" but much, much darker. Its hard to talk about the plot of this one too much without giving it away so I'll just leave this here.
*The Time Beyond Age:
This was definitely the wild card of the collection as, unlike our other short stories, this one was a sci fi. We are looking at things from the perspective of Dr. Lipman who works for a place called The Institute. He and a team of scientists dedicated themselves to an experiment in which they took two children (one male and one female) who were grown in a lab and kept them in an inclosed disease free environment while being injected with a substance called Chronon that rapidly increased their aging allowing them to live centuries in the span of a few years. All the test on what would happen to the human condition and physical self on if all things that lead to natural human death were removed. They observed the two 24/7 and gave them fake memories and virtual lives to see how everything would play out. This was...a deeply uncomfortable story as I think it was meant to be. I was so disturbed at the torture they put these two people through and the lack of regard for them as people. They didn't even see them as people due to the fact they grew them in a lab rather than them being naturally born children. Dr. Lipman himself even began having disgusting sexual fantasies about the female subject at a young age and would implant memories into her mind that he was one of her lovers for some disgusting...erotic satisfaction as he watched from a distance as she would have arousing dreams about a man she thought she had a relationship with in the past. I'm not sure what to make of this story. It genuinely was fascinating and Holdstock definitely did his job at making me understand how sick and disgusting these doctors were and the value of human life no matter what form it comes in. It makes me think of some of those disgusting experiments Vault Tech did on some of the people in its experiments in the fallout video game universe. Disturbing stuff.