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The Vorrh

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The Vorrh

By: Brian Catling
Narrated by: Alan Corduner, Alan Moore
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About this listen

Prepare to lose yourself in the heady, mythical expanse of The Vorrh.

In B. Catling's twisting, poetic narrative, Bakelite robots lie broken - their hard shells cracked by human desire - and an inquisitive Cyclops waits for his keeper and guardian, growing in all directions.

Beyond the colonial city of Essenwald lies The Vorrh, the forest which sucks souls and wipes minds. There, a writer heads out on a giddy mission to experience otherness, fallen angels observe humanity from afar, and two hunters - one carrying a bow carved from his lover, the other a charmed Lee-Enfield rifle - fight to the end.

Thousands of miles away, famed photographer Eadweard Muybridge attempts to capture the ultimate truth, as rifle heiress Sarah Winchester erects a house to protect her from the spirits of her gun's victims.

In the tradition of China Miéville, Michael Moorcock and Alasdair Gray, B. Catling's The Vorrh is literary dark fantasy which wilfully ignores boundaries, crossing over into surrealism, magic-realism, horror and steampunk.

©2015 Brian Catling (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton Classics Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Science Fiction Steampunk Robotics

Critic Reviews

"There are not many books that rearrange the molecules of your being, turning your eyes inside out. The Vorrh, this saturnine post-traumatic testament, is one of them. A work of genius." (Iain Sinclair)
"Brian Catling is simply a genius. His writing is so extraordinary it hurts, it makes me realize how little imagination I have." (Terry Gilliam)
"In Brian Catling's phosphorescent masterpiece The Vorrh we have one of the most original and stunning works of fantasy that has ever been my privilege to read, a brilliant and sustained piece of invention which establishes a benchmark not just for imaginative writing but for the human imagination in itself. After investigating other worlds of fantasy, The Vorrh is like a first experience of the ocean. Read this book, and marvel." (Alan Moore)
"When even the warts of a novel are winning, it s hard to misunderstand that you have something special on your hands, and The Vorrh is absolutely that. Equal parts dark fantasy and surrealist dream, it is inescapably dense, and unrelentingly intense. Shelve it shoulder to shoulder with 2012s other most notable novels, be they of the genre or not, then consider carefully which stands lacking in comparison." (Tor.com)

What listeners say about The Vorrh

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Very Unusual

the storyline was very strange but in a way that made you want to hear more so that you could try to understand what was going on.

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Descriptive but Flawed

Good Performance by the reader. The story itself is unsettling, with a sense use of descriptive language to enhance a creepy use of imagery. However, this book is presented through a heavy colonialist, often racist lense, that makes it deeply uncomfortable and difficult to enjoy. very few of the characters are likable or even relatable. I won't read the next one.

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