The Erstwhile: Book Two in the Vorrh Trilogy Hardcover – 9 Mar. 2017

Some reviews have incorrectly claimed that this book is outside any existing genre - it is in fact a fabulous melange of forms created by authors like Borges, Eco, Marquez, Poe, Shelley and other greats and not-so greats. While disappointed by the lack of ultimate resolution of plot (I am such a square), the excessive violence, the sometimes pornographic ikeyness of some of the scenes painted and the apparent tendency to lean just a bit too heavily on the crutch of obscurantism, I forgive all for the immense joy of the linguistic invention, the newness of metaphor, the (to me) astonishingly creative linguistic vigour. J. C. Crabtree

The books are an amazing feat of imagination; as someone else pointed out, they are on the scale of Gormenghast though the subject matter is totally different. The use of language is entrancing though, occasionally, one wonders if there are proofreading errors and there were cases of obvious error ('ascent' instead of 'accent' was particularly noticeable)The weaving together of the stories of the individual characters and their, sometimes very oblique, effect on each other and the various events, is a spellbinding achievement.I am reading the third and eagerly anticipating the drawing together of all the disparate, yet interwoven, character story lines.

I loved The Vorrh and although I am only halfway through this sequel, I am enjoying it just as much - if not more. Brian Catling is an incredible writer with a very interesting way with words that perfectly encapsulates the unsettling atmosphere of this story. Whenever I start reading it again I struggle to put it down, it’s genuinely like nothing I’ve ever read before. Highly recommend.

This is just a stunning book. I loved 'The Vorrh', and this just builds beautifully on Catling's world. The way he meshes fantasy and reality is sublime. The first book dangled many questions. This book answers some of them, and poses more.Truly one of the best books I've ever read.And Nicholas Parson. Oh my. No deviation, repition or hesitation with that erstwhile.

'The Erstwhile' builds on and deepens the enigmatic world of 'The Vorrh', the first book in the trilogy. Like the first book, this is a textrooted in questions of politics, religion and identity. The writing is rich and highly imaginative, the plot both labyrinthine and intoxicating. As with the first book in the series, I would like to feel a little closer to some of the characters — they are complex and thoughtfully crafted, but somehow I can't connect with and as strongly as I would like. There not many interwoven threads in the narrative, several of them continuations of storylines from Book One, others new, and I'm excited quite see how they might all come together in the olast bok.

Written in a rich and textured language, the complex threads of the characters stories loop and weave, suspending understanding but driving curiosity. Visceral descriptions are blended with sublime observations to produce a dense carpet of mysterious text that hangs in the mind for days....

Having loved “The Vorrh”, I also could not put this second book in Catling’s Trilogy down; it’s such a great read and am so relieved there’s “The Cloven” to read next. Haven’t been this captivated for a long time!

The Vorrh was clearly a labour of love. Forgiving the lacklustre end, it was nearly the perfect fantasy novel. The Erstwhile is clearly a labour of deadline, which seems to have skirted the essential process of editing. The author thanks his editor at the end of this novel, but it’s an automatic gratitude; the text is littered with typos, missed words, messy sentences and incremental explanations. You can forgive one or two. This has them in spades.The story has also become largely incomprehensible and – dare I say – ludicrous. You can get away with a lot in the genre of fantasy, but it has to be coherent. Surely?B Catling seems to have taken it as given that the reader will share his own fascination with his premise and plot arc, and therefore be prepared to wade through all 400 odd pages.He rhapsodizes way too much, which is a technique that can add a lot to a novel, as it did in the Vorrh, but he seriously needs to curtail his penchant for doing so. Countless times whilst reading this I wished he’d stop trying so hard to explain things in quite such a profound or poetic way and just tell it like it is. A few instances shine through, but not enough to save the narrative, which sinks under its own baggage as it limps to its non-existent conclusion.Yea ok so it’s a trilogy, but it has no sense of a story in its own right, and seems to rely too heavily on the story arc yet to be told. I lost interest in what was going on before I’d even reached the half-way point, and as the author has no interest in explaining anything until the "ultimate" ending, good luck trying to parse any sense from what the heck is going on here.This is largely because none of the characters themselves know, and all seem at sea when it comes to explaining what's going on around them. Entrusted as they are with their own perspectives, they all need to get out of their own heads occasionally to gain some equity.Not all sections conclude with anything resembling an incentive to continue reading, which can – when reading purely for pleasure – set those impatient alarm bells ringing. B Catling seems to rely a lot on flowery interpretations and clumsy metaphors to, in effect, seal the deal when it comes to summation.And on a structural note, and again something that really should have been saved by the editing: the paragraphs are way too long, sometimes taking up entire pages. What is it King says about the paragraph? That they are the building blocks of stories. I wonder if he might cut to the chase and be quicker if he built with smaller blocks.The interpolation of perspectives within those long paragraphs would sometimes leave my reeling, as well. Too many points of view shared within the same section, sometimes switching by the sentence, which again felt clumsy.I have no idea why his character’s do half the things they do in this book. Largely because it flies in the face of reason. Trying to avoid spoilers: at one point a kid goes missing, and if any authorities are contacted I don’t remember reading about it.There’s also something about a priest writing a language on the ground with his finger, yet I didn’t get any sense of why he was doing so. It’s agony for him, apparently; his finger whittled to the bone, yet he doesn’t stop. And, so far as I could tell, there’s no real reason for it. He’s then sent on some other obscure errand by the character who “coerced” him to write whatever it is that needed writing. Why? It could just be me, but I didn’t believe their responses to their circumstances displayed any modicum of sense.I tried to like it; to fight against the author’s inclination for buffeting descriptions and deliberately obscured logical interactions, to find what so enthralled me with The Vorrh. But somewhere in all the ruminating waffle and uncertainty he bested me, and I admitted defeat.