The Vorrh – A surreal and timeless fantasy

The Vorrh. The name rolls mysteriously off the tongue. It's a book, and a forest. Ancient, sacred; populated by monsters, angels, and those who have lost all memory and time. This is the first offering from B. (Brian) Catling, and it comes recommended by Alan Moore (Watchmen, V is for Vendetta) who said of it -

Easily the current century's first landmark work of fantasy

This is a great book. It's highly readable, imaginative and vivid, with a thread that winds four story plots around an altered sense of time. Catling, who sees his work as Surrealist, draws a very human character in Ishmael, the Cyclops, while some of the humans have monstrous tendencies.

The web of the characters' various journeys are brought together in the ancient forest, somewhere in darkest Africa. Be warned there are one or two grisly scenes, but quite essential to the sense of ceremony in the plot. Likewise, there is a little sex.

The story revolves around the Vorrh, a Cyclops, an English Photographer (based on Eadweard Muybridge, famous for proving that horses gallop with all four feet off the ground), a Frenchman (based on Raymond Roussel), and a Scot; "One of the Williamses", who abandons the Army to fight for the native Erstwhile, and his wife Este.

The Vorrh

B. Catling has penned two sequels to The Vorrh, picking up on the Trail of Tsungali, an Erstwhile hunter, as he takes the Bow back to the forest.

A little Gormenghast, a little Cloud Atlas, perhaps? Surreal and timeless.

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