March 15, 2017
Set in a startling and strange 1924, Catling's wildly imaginative second novel in a trilogy sets the stage for a showdown of epic proportions. The Vorrh, an ancient, sentient forest in the heart of Africa, rumored to be the home of Eden, is steeling itself for a great threat. In London and rural England, degenerate remnants of the angels once tasked to protect Eden are reanimating and showing mysterious powers, drawing the interest of the emergent Nazis in Germany. In Essenwald, the European colony that came to great wealth harvesting timber from the Vorrh, leaders are frantic to locate their zombie-like workforce, the Limboia, who disappeared into the Vorrh without a trace; and a child, seemingly born of the forest, exhibits startling behaviors. The large cast of characters and intricate story lines slow the pace of the story, but the action sequences and drama are filled with descriptive and vivid violence. Catling combines fantasy, history, mythology, and the supernatural to create a menacing and dreamlike novel that is disturbing, immersive, and, ultimately, entertaining.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)
December 12, 2016
The middle volume in Catling’s alternate history trilogy (after 2015’s The Vorrh) successfully expands on the interesting premise of its predecessor: somewhere in Africa, there exists an enigmatic forest known as the Vorrh, “which was ancient before Adam was a supposed twinkle in God’s eye.” The Vorrh is inhabited by legendary creatures with goals opposed to those of humankind, setting up the potential for conflict with far-reaching consequences. In the 1920s, a priest learns of such a threat when a colleague alerts him to the Erstwhile, “deformed and degenerate remnants of the celestial beings” who had been created to protect the Tree of Knowledge. Upon their failure, they were forgotten by their creator, but they are now beginning to emerge from the Vorrh. Meanwhile, a cyclops named Ishmael, who had left the Vorrh to dwell among humans, comes across reports of the Erstwhile while researching his own mysterious origins, and he sets out on a path that leads him back to the forest. This imaginative and original work of fantasy will leave readers hungry for the series conclusion.