Why The Vorrh is Unlike Anything You’ll Read This Year

It’s impossible to categorize
It’s entirely possible the bookseller question of the year will be “where do you shelveThe Vorrh.” It’s easily one of the most uncategorizable novels in recent memory. There are elements of fantasy in it, certainly, but also steampunk, magical realism, and alternate history. The handful of characters and plots start off as separate trunks and only slowly grow together into a thick jungle, often in confounding or uncertain ways. It’s a book you’ll re-read several times, and enjoy on a different level each time.
The plot is dense
The story of The Vorrh is challenging and ethereal. The Vorrh itself is a mythical forest in Africa, described in Raymond Roussel’s 1910 work Impressions of Africa (Roussel himself is a character in Caitling’s book). In the Vorrh, time is elusive, people lose their memories, and the literal Garden of Eden might lie at its center, guarded by creatures that may have once been angels, present at the beginning of creation. Several people converge on this strange landscape, each seeking their own goals, slowly drawing closer as they prepare to enter the mysterious woods, their stories converging in unexpected—and occasionally beguiling—ways.
The characters defy expectation
Roussel is not the only real person in the story. Sarah Winchester, heiress to the rifle empire, makes an appearance, endlessly building her mad house. Photographer Eadweard Muybridge is a key player, seeking truth through his art and pioneering work in motion pictures. Other characters are more magical: an unnamed bowman who creates his weapon from the bones of a dead woman. An assassin named Tsungali who is assigned by untrustworthy “colonial” authorities to track and kill the bowman. A cyclops, initially imprisoned in am African city designed to replicate a German one, educated by Bakelite androids, set free to discover the world and pursue his sexual urges. Each of these strangers has a story to unpack, and still we’re left with questions.
The language is thick as undergrowth
Catling is as close to a Renaissance Man as we get these days, and the novel reads like a painting, filled with intense imagery, complex constructions, and unusual metaphors. Of Muybridge, Catling writes, “It was said that he was hunting stillness.” Describing a sunset: “Outside, the swallows were changing to bats.” The language is rich and even overwhelming, often teetering on the edge of bombast without ever quite going over. You can get lost in its passages; Catling has an eerie ability to bring all of your senses to bear.
There’s no hero
Fantasies, even complex, modern ones, usually have at least one character who conforms to the expectations of the “hero,” the character, good or evil, who will prevail in the end. The Vorrh doesn’t make it that easy. There is no central character whose cause you’ll champion. All of them are flawed, without an easy shape or obvious journey. They have different hungers, different appetites, and different reasons for seeking the Vorrh, with none elevated above another.
The Vorrh is the first novel in a planned trilogy. No less a personage than Alan Moore has written a glowing foreword describing it as a “masterpiece.” It’s a challenging, haunting story that offers solutions to only some of its mysteries, but it’s one of those rare opaque novels well worth your time and energy. Love it or hate it, it will stay with you, even if you can’t quite decide what it is.
The Vorrh is available now.