This book by sculptor Brian Catling is hands-down the weirdest, most original fantasy novel I've ever read. It blends together biblical mythology, real people from history, critiques of colonialism, generations-long revenge dramas, black magic, experimental science, a cyclops, robot guardians, a mysterious house, quasi-magical mutant elements, and so much else.
I'm extremely hesitant to try to give an overview of what happens in this, partly because I don't want to spoil in the slightest an incredible experience of being pulled into another world, but also frankly I'm not entirely sure what was going on. I know I'm familiar with the names and strangenesses of a couple dozen characters, not to mention the backdrop setting of Essenwald, a colonial city built within the edges of the vast prehistoric forest called the Vorrh, at the heart of which is said to lie the remains of Eden. But all the elements blend together and collide with or miss each other with such deftness of prose that upon finishing the book I am left with very little of substance that I can say for sure I know was going on. It's like a fever dream; the deepest, most pungent, most beautifully-written fever dream imaginable. And I say that wholeheartedly - this book contains some of the most ecstatic and innovative prose I have ever had the privilege of reading. I can't wait to finish the trilogy.
I would strongly recommend this to any reader willing to be a bit uncomfortable with their reading experience, even if you don't usually go for fantasy. This is not magical realism, or any other shade of 'believable' fantasy - this is our own world viewed through a kaleidoscope that seems to have been built by a committee of angels and demons and monkeys and monks. Ask me not what the book is about, know only I will be thinking about it for months.
