The Vorrh

By: Brian Catling, Alan Moore

Narrated by: Allan Corduner

Prepare to lose yourself in the heady, mythical expanse of The Vorrh, a daring debut that Alan Moore has called “a phosphorescent masterpiece” and “the current century's first landmark work of fantasy.”

Next to the colonial town of Essenwald sits the Vorrh, a vast—perhaps endless—forest. It is a place of demons and angels, of warriors and priests. Sentient and magical, the Vorrh bends time and wipes memory. Legend has it that the Garden of Eden still exists at its heart. Now, a renegade English soldier aims to be the first human to traverse its expanse. Armed with only a strange bow, he begins his journey, but some fear the consequences of his mission, and a native marksman has been chosen to stop him. Around them swirl a remarkable cast of characters, including a Cyclops raised by robots and a young girl with tragic curiosity, as well as historical figures, such as writer Raymond Roussel and photographer and Edward Muybridge. While fact and fictional blend, and the hunter will become the hunted, and everyone’s fate hangs in the balance, under the will of the Vorrh.

Afterword by Alan Moore

Fantastic fiction with heavy religious inspiration

Surprised I’d never heard of this before. As someone who grew up heavily indoctrinated as an Independent Baptist with background in versions religions, this was an absolutely phenomenal read and very interesting glance into the “different bibles”. I’m very excited to read The Erstwhile to see where these familiar tales take me!

What the heck!

What a wild ride! Excellent narrator, and a wonderful writer. A possible good find for fans of Gene Wolfe.

Unusual

I finished this story but it was not what I was expecting. It was interesting in it own right, but I found it sometimes hard to follow. Maybe that's just me however. It did catch me enough that I will listen to the rest, but it is very different from what I was thinking.

Skillfully written and superbly narrated

No one else writes like Calling. I think his writing is beautiful, weird, and completely original. I got goosebumps from the way he described a tear moving down an old man's face. This trilogy feels like a fever dream and I loved it.

The narrator is tied with Simon Vance and Steven Pacey for my favorite narrator of all time. I think a big part of why the story works is because of his expert delivery.

Incredibly complex but imaginative

This book, both its performance and its story, take some time to warm up to, but in the end an absolutely worthwhile read. Though fantasy, it is without a doubt a literary feat. The language borders on the poetic and the plot meanders and pulls together an almost impossible web of characters, locations, and events. Initially I tried to listen to the book and had to put it down. It required too much concentration to follow the story, and the narrator’s tone was more grandiloquent than I prefer. However, much later (after continually hearing about the book’s merit) I gave it another shot. Again it took a LONG time to warm up to the book, but ultimately I grew to enjoy the author’s style and storytelling, and the narrator’s skill shone through as more characters developed. I’m only giving it a 4 because of the difficulty of the read, some of which I felt was distracting to the plot itself. For lovers of fantasy or literature, this is a must read.