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Hollow
From the acclaimed author of the Vorrh Trilogy comes an epic odyssey following a group of mercenaries hired to escort a divine oracle on a long journey amidst a war between the living and the dead.
Sheltering beneath Das Kagel, the cloud-scraping structure rumored to be the Tower of Babel, the sacred Monastery of the Eastern Gate descends into bedlam. Their ancient oracle, Quite Testiyont--whose prophesies helped protect the church--has died, leaving the monks vulnerable to the war raging between the living and the dead. Tasked by the High Church to deliver a new oracle, Barry Follett and his group of hired mercenaries are forced to confront wicked giants and dangerous sirens on their mission, keeping the divine creature alive by feeding it marrow and confessing their darkest sins.
But as Follett and his men carve their way through the treacherous landscape, the world around them spirals deeper into chaos. Dominic, a young monk who has mysteriously lost his voice, makes a pilgrimage to see surreal paintings, believing they reveal the empire's fate; a local woman called Mad Meg hopes to free and vindicate her jailed son and becomes the leader of the most unexpected revolution; and the abbott of the monastery, influential as he is, seeks to gain even more power in this world and the next.
Rich with action and fantastic creatures, Hollow ushers the reader through a world of ruin where holy secrets are unearthed, art mirrors life through a glass darkly, and death looms over everything. It is B. Catling's most accomplished and gripping tale yet.
A VINTAGE ORIGINAL
Sheltering beneath Das Kagel, the cloud-scraping structure rumored to be the Tower of Babel, the sacred Monastery of the Eastern Gate descends into bedlam. Their ancient oracle, Quite Testiyont--whose prophesies helped protect the church--has died, leaving the monks vulnerable to the war raging between the living and the dead. Tasked by the High Church to deliver a new oracle, Barry Follett and his group of hired mercenaries are forced to confront wicked giants and dangerous sirens on their mission, keeping the divine creature alive by feeding it marrow and confessing their darkest sins.
But as Follett and his men carve their way through the treacherous landscape, the world around them spirals deeper into chaos. Dominic, a young monk who has mysteriously lost his voice, makes a pilgrimage to see surreal paintings, believing they reveal the empire's fate; a local woman called Mad Meg hopes to free and vindicate her jailed son and becomes the leader of the most unexpected revolution; and the abbott of the monastery, influential as he is, seeks to gain even more power in this world and the next.
Rich with action and fantastic creatures, Hollow ushers the reader through a world of ruin where holy secrets are unearthed, art mirrors life through a glass darkly, and death looms over everything. It is B. Catling's most accomplished and gripping tale yet.
A VINTAGE ORIGINAL
253 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2021
229 people are currently reading
7758 people want to read
About the author
Brian Catling
27 books351 followersAlso publishes as B. Catling.
Brian Catling was born in London in 1948. He was a poet, sculptor and performance artist, who made installations and painted egg tempera portraits of imagined Cyclops. He was commissioned to make solo installations and performances in many countries including Spain, Japan, Iceland, Israel, Denmark, Holland, Norway, Germany, Greenland and Australia. He also wrote novels.
He was Professor of Fine Art at The Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, University of Oxford, and a fellow of Linacre College.
Brian Catling was born in London in 1948. He was a poet, sculptor and performance artist, who made installations and painted egg tempera portraits of imagined Cyclops. He was commissioned to make solo installations and performances in many countries including Spain, Japan, Iceland, Israel, Denmark, Holland, Norway, Germany, Greenland and Australia. He also wrote novels.
He was Professor of Fine Art at The Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, University of Oxford, and a fellow of Linacre College.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 244 reviews
April 4, 2024
Incredible. This ruled. I was already a huge fan of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder (see my display pic), so to have a novel where their paintings come to life was amazing. At times it's kind of hard to follow the logic of the story, though the effect is to enhance the horror element. Definitely one I'd like to come back to and re-read in a few years.
My advice is, if possible, to read Hollow with a laptop or tablet handy so you can reference the paintings.
P.S. Can someone reading this point what painting the little pumpkin fellow is from? In the story, they're looking at Bosch's Temptation of St. Anthony, but then see the pumpkin in another painting off to the side, but for the life of me I can't figure out which one. It's next to an upended dog kennel?
P.P.S. If you liked this check out the film The Mill and the Cross starring Rutger Hauer as Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It's about his painting The Procession to Calvary in 1564, but it's more about the painting than the painter, and even more than Hollow it has its own sort of oneiric logic rather than a plot.
My advice is, if possible, to read Hollow with a laptop or tablet handy so you can reference the paintings.
P.S. Can someone reading this point what painting the little pumpkin fellow is from? In the story, they're looking at Bosch's Temptation of St. Anthony, but then see the pumpkin in another painting off to the side, but for the life of me I can't figure out which one. It's next to an upended dog kennel?
P.P.S. If you liked this check out the film The Mill and the Cross starring Rutger Hauer as Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It's about his painting The Procession to Calvary in 1564, but it's more about the painting than the painter, and even more than Hollow it has its own sort of oneiric logic rather than a plot.
March 26, 2021
I wanted to let this one sit before I tried writing it up. Tldr this book is a hell of a trip, in all possible senses of the word. It’s like the experience of looking at a Bosch painting (which I’m reasonably sure is intentional, given direct references to Bosch in the text). At first glance, it seems fairly straightforward - a group of mercenaries hired to take a replacement oracle to its new home, a woman trying to recover her son and deal with her shitty ass husband, a monastery and the struggle between a brother and an Abbott. But as you look closer and deeper you see the weird fucking details of what’s going on - the steeping of the bones, the Woebegones, the oracle that came before the one en route, and you realize that you’re actually looking at a purgatory of sorts. There’s lots of gore in this, a more brutal look at vaguely Middle Ages. The trip is worth it - take a look when it comes out.
April 25, 2025
I have no idea how to review this. I’m not sure what the point of it all was, if I missed some deeper meaning or if it was weird for the sake of being weird — but the setting and imagery and atmosphere were exactly what I hoped for going in. It was a medieval fever dream, it was surrealistic, it was uncomfortable, it was gross. Unfortunately I did not connect to any of the characters and I wish that SOME things were a little more clear, but if you want to be taken purely on a journey through a sort of apolyptic hellish landscape of human depravity, then this was pretty cool.
October 26, 2021
Another fantasy book where the author has spent a lot of effort on world building then forgot to have a decent plot or characters to go with it. For all it's rococo grimness and invention it's just dull.
December 4, 2021
My favourite thing about this novel is how Catling has brought Hieronymus Bosch's various fantastical creations into the real world of 16th century Europe
October 6, 2021
Ok so let’s be honest. Catling’s last few books were real stinkers. But it didn’t take a Cassandra to see that coming. Think of all the praise heaped on his first novel. The Vorrh was called one of the most significant works of genre fiction published in the last twenty years. With a debut like that it’s hard not to foster expectations of diminishing returns.
And Catlings follow up novels did disappoint. The reception was lukewarm. AndPerhaps with good reason. While the Vorrh made for a really impactful reading experience whereas the other two books in the trilogy felt pretty lacklustre and hastily put together (why even make it a trilogy at all?). The reception for this new book was even worse. I’d actually seen quite a few negative reviews for Hollow before I read it.
But I gotta say I was pretty much guaranteed to give it a go after I heard about the premise. A novel set in a Brueghel painting? Count me in!
Yet it It’s pretty much exactly what you imagine. As expected you can see Catlings influences and interests as a painter pretty much everywhere. For better and worse (his own pastels and watercolours are the sort of ‘Arthur Anybody’ work you could find in any car boot sale) But irrefutably there’s a painters eye at play in what the prose chooses to describe. Also painters are a big part of the plot. the Dutch Primitives yknow- thise painters who make for popular posters in college dormrooms and heavy meta album covers. And Catlings enthusiasm about this period- and these artists is probably the real highlight of the novel. It’s infectious. But maybe that’s the problem. I start reading about these marvellous paintings and suddenly I’m stuck thinking that I would infinitely prefer to be looking at those paintings then reading Brian Catling talk about them
Don’t get me wrong- there is something groovy and kind of noble about trying to create a connection between historical fantasy fiction and the delirious violent sometimes nightmarish represented in those old allegorical paintings. But it’s hardly new- just take Kentaro Miuras long running Berserk manga, where references to Bosch, Brian de Palma, Evil Dead and Paradise Lost often appear simultaneously. I’m also reminded now of a novel called The Sad Tale of The Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington which is about two medieval thugs who make their way from one Boschian encounter to the next. It’s worth noting because that novel was actually intended for young adults on recollection it’s actually superior to Hollow in almost every way as a novel.
the overall similarity of the story to to story we got in The Vorrh is significant too. except in that novel we had a mysterious haunted jungle- In Hollow we get a mysterious haunted mountain. everyone is trying to solve the mystery of the haunted mountain. In Vorrh everyone is trying to solve the mystery of the haunted jungle
And the prose is the same highfalutin thing that Catling likes to do. It’s very nice. He uses some old timey antique words that sound interesting and have an interesting texture and give off that kind of highbrow seriousness Catling is definitely aiming for. But Sadly there’s not a lot of the same poetry that you got in the Vorrh, where he’s using really inventive and weird verbs for things. And his debt to Cormac McCarthy as a prose stylist is a little harder to overlook in this novel too- sometimes obnoxiously so. Often I had the rather uneasy feeling that the initial idea for Hollow must have been ‘Blood Meridian meets Bosch!’. There’s even a character in it named the Kid!
The dialogue however is much more strained than anything you’d find in Blood Meridian tho. People speak and we have little to no sense how educated or uneducated they might be. In Catling’s world everyone, even people who are professed illiterates, talk as if they’ve read Paracelsus and Von Essenbech. Is it supposed to be social commentary? Sometimes Catling will try throw in something that he thinks sounds like Cockney gutter speak or patois and it just comes across as cutesy and, well...Hollow.
Also the whole book comes to a screeching halt just so Catling can have two characters laugh at someone who vocally praises Bosch’s ‘brushstrokes’. Now if you ask me this is supposed to be a send up of ‘formalists’ who talk about art in an apparently prissy and reductionist way. But I ask you - what’s the proper way to highlight Bosch’s skill as a painter if we’re not even allowed to talk about brushstrokes? Perhaps we should give up on our formalist theorising and join Catling if writing elaborate fantasy fiction? It’s an attempt at social satire (or artworld satire) that sorta backfires. It’s helpful to remember that Catling is a conceptual artist- and generally conceptual artists are far more interested in ideas then how to actually make those ideas work
So the characters aren’t amazing. And the plot just kind of trudges on until suddenly it’s not trudging anymore and the book is over. So what have we got? well - it’s basically a tableau of fairly cool imagery and episodes and historical anecdotes that Catling has haphazardly woven together. Sometimes it’s convincing but by the end it sort of unravels
This is Catlings problem. I say: stick to stick to short stories and short form stuff in general. In fact part of the strength of that first novel is that it feels so much like an anthology- a bunch of separate stories that just happened to take coincide geographically, more or less. That Vorrh only really loses its cool when tries to consolidate the yarns.
So- if you like the Vorrh but don’t mind slightly less interesting characters- this is the book for you. Or if you like medieval fantasy with some weird stylistic embellishment. Or if you like the kind of Psychadelic period fiction you get in films like Diabel by Zulawski or Hard to be a God but with a little more Art History thrown in. Real renaissance scholars probably won’t find this work very interesting except as a curiosity and zealous fantasy dudes who like Dune and Tolkien will probably be turned off by all the Art stuff and indulgent prose. Perhaps if you’re the kind of guy who likes heavy metal albums that use Bosch on the cover- maybe this will be your new favourite book!
And Catlings follow up novels did disappoint. The reception was lukewarm. AndPerhaps with good reason. While the Vorrh made for a really impactful reading experience whereas the other two books in the trilogy felt pretty lacklustre and hastily put together (why even make it a trilogy at all?). The reception for this new book was even worse. I’d actually seen quite a few negative reviews for Hollow before I read it.
But I gotta say I was pretty much guaranteed to give it a go after I heard about the premise. A novel set in a Brueghel painting? Count me in!
Yet it It’s pretty much exactly what you imagine. As expected you can see Catlings influences and interests as a painter pretty much everywhere. For better and worse (his own pastels and watercolours are the sort of ‘Arthur Anybody’ work you could find in any car boot sale) But irrefutably there’s a painters eye at play in what the prose chooses to describe. Also painters are a big part of the plot. the Dutch Primitives yknow- thise painters who make for popular posters in college dormrooms and heavy meta album covers. And Catlings enthusiasm about this period- and these artists is probably the real highlight of the novel. It’s infectious. But maybe that’s the problem. I start reading about these marvellous paintings and suddenly I’m stuck thinking that I would infinitely prefer to be looking at those paintings then reading Brian Catling talk about them
Don’t get me wrong- there is something groovy and kind of noble about trying to create a connection between historical fantasy fiction and the delirious violent sometimes nightmarish represented in those old allegorical paintings. But it’s hardly new- just take Kentaro Miuras long running Berserk manga, where references to Bosch, Brian de Palma, Evil Dead and Paradise Lost often appear simultaneously. I’m also reminded now of a novel called The Sad Tale of The Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington which is about two medieval thugs who make their way from one Boschian encounter to the next. It’s worth noting because that novel was actually intended for young adults on recollection it’s actually superior to Hollow in almost every way as a novel.
the overall similarity of the story to to story we got in The Vorrh is significant too. except in that novel we had a mysterious haunted jungle- In Hollow we get a mysterious haunted mountain. everyone is trying to solve the mystery of the haunted mountain. In Vorrh everyone is trying to solve the mystery of the haunted jungle
And the prose is the same highfalutin thing that Catling likes to do. It’s very nice. He uses some old timey antique words that sound interesting and have an interesting texture and give off that kind of highbrow seriousness Catling is definitely aiming for. But Sadly there’s not a lot of the same poetry that you got in the Vorrh, where he’s using really inventive and weird verbs for things. And his debt to Cormac McCarthy as a prose stylist is a little harder to overlook in this novel too- sometimes obnoxiously so. Often I had the rather uneasy feeling that the initial idea for Hollow must have been ‘Blood Meridian meets Bosch!’. There’s even a character in it named the Kid!
The dialogue however is much more strained than anything you’d find in Blood Meridian tho. People speak and we have little to no sense how educated or uneducated they might be. In Catling’s world everyone, even people who are professed illiterates, talk as if they’ve read Paracelsus and Von Essenbech. Is it supposed to be social commentary? Sometimes Catling will try throw in something that he thinks sounds like Cockney gutter speak or patois and it just comes across as cutesy and, well...Hollow.
Also the whole book comes to a screeching halt just so Catling can have two characters laugh at someone who vocally praises Bosch’s ‘brushstrokes’. Now if you ask me this is supposed to be a send up of ‘formalists’ who talk about art in an apparently prissy and reductionist way. But I ask you - what’s the proper way to highlight Bosch’s skill as a painter if we’re not even allowed to talk about brushstrokes? Perhaps we should give up on our formalist theorising and join Catling if writing elaborate fantasy fiction? It’s an attempt at social satire (or artworld satire) that sorta backfires. It’s helpful to remember that Catling is a conceptual artist- and generally conceptual artists are far more interested in ideas then how to actually make those ideas work
So the characters aren’t amazing. And the plot just kind of trudges on until suddenly it’s not trudging anymore and the book is over. So what have we got? well - it’s basically a tableau of fairly cool imagery and episodes and historical anecdotes that Catling has haphazardly woven together. Sometimes it’s convincing but by the end it sort of unravels
This is Catlings problem. I say: stick to stick to short stories and short form stuff in general. In fact part of the strength of that first novel is that it feels so much like an anthology- a bunch of separate stories that just happened to take coincide geographically, more or less. That Vorrh only really loses its cool when tries to consolidate the yarns.
So- if you like the Vorrh but don’t mind slightly less interesting characters- this is the book for you. Or if you like medieval fantasy with some weird stylistic embellishment. Or if you like the kind of Psychadelic period fiction you get in films like Diabel by Zulawski or Hard to be a God but with a little more Art History thrown in. Real renaissance scholars probably won’t find this work very interesting except as a curiosity and zealous fantasy dudes who like Dune and Tolkien will probably be turned off by all the Art stuff and indulgent prose. Perhaps if you’re the kind of guy who likes heavy metal albums that use Bosch on the cover- maybe this will be your new favourite book!
July 9, 2021
Brian Catling burst onto the fantasy stage with a somersault and a reeking cyclops suit. He gave us the Vorrh trilogy (which I personally rate very highly): a gross, creepy, unnerving spectacle of a series, and Catling’s writing was very good - if in danger of overdoing it. Hollow (2021) is the start of something new. Catling, coming from the world of painting and performance art, took for Hollow his inspiration from painters Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder to write a macabre, Biblically inspired dark fantasy that walks a line between life and afterlife.
The mercenary Barry Follett is hired by a Coptic priest to transport a highly valued Oracle to the Monastery of the Eastern Gate, which recently lost theirs. Follett collects the vilest murderers and sinners for his band, as per the revolting feeding requirements of the desiccated, wrapped corpse that is the Oracle. Along the way, it speaks sometimes, guiding their journey. Meanwhile, brother Dominic at the Monastery of the Eastern Gate is receiving visions. The Monastery, sitting at the foot of the mountain Das Kagel (which is the collapsed remains of the Tower of Babel), works like a cork to prevent the world of the dead from spilling over into the countryside. With the death of their Oracle, disaster is imminent. Follett and his band have to traverse a landscape of nightmarish creatures to deliver the replacement.
Set in some 16th century version of the Lowlands, some of the chapters seem lifted straight out of a Bruegel painting. A third storyline follows Meg Verstraeten, a peasant living in the shadow of the collapsed mountain of Babel. The Spanish Inquisition is terrorising the countryside and Meg suddenly stands at the helm of an uprising, under the nickname of Dull Gret (if you are Dutch or Flemish you might recognise this name as Dulle Griet, also known as Mad Meg in England. There’s also a stone-throwing giant, which I believe is a legend from Antwerp. I love seeing some Low Country references in fantasy. One chapter is named Ol’ Klootzak’s Plot and I laughed out loud). While all this is going on, the world of the dead starts spilling over from the Monastery of the Eastern Gate, infesting the landscape with demonic creatures, so-called Woebegots and Filthlings.
Catling is interested mostly in communicating an aesthetic, a certain brand of the fantastic. One that appeals to me greatly. There is a danger, however, in writing fiction inspired by other art, and that is letting the references dictate the story. This went wrong before with China Mieville’s The Last Days of New Paris (2016) which was not much more than a novella of name-dropping surrealist artworks against a thin and sluggish backstory. Catling does not totally avoid this trap. When the story is written around the references to real paintings, then the logic of the plot to tie it all together becomes a bit tortuous. Brother Dominic’s story includes a search for the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, but the why and the wherefore have more to do with Catling wanting to refer to those works than with the story he is telling.
Catling’s weakness is plotting. The story does not accomplish everything that it promises at the outset and ends in a quick resolution that leaves many questions unanswered. His Vorrh trilogy had the same problem. As a writer, he loves setting up ideas and mysteries, focusing heavily on the aesthetics (which are great, no doubt), but just like a modern art piece, does not give a plot-heavy narrative with a clear answer. The story ultimately left me a bit unsatisfied. It depends on what you’re looking for in a novel.
It is easily forgiven, because the book is full of wonder. Each little chapter has some strange creature or stunning magical event - a real parade of the amazing and the grotesque. Each wonder has the miraculous and the terrifying in it. And Catling is doing what perhaps no other fantasy writer is doing: mining art history for fantasy stories - and in this book in particular turning the Low Countries into a mystical landscape connected to 17th century paintings and legends. If you’re tired of the usual fantasy and are looking for something new, something inspired and strange, try this.
The mercenary Barry Follett is hired by a Coptic priest to transport a highly valued Oracle to the Monastery of the Eastern Gate, which recently lost theirs. Follett collects the vilest murderers and sinners for his band, as per the revolting feeding requirements of the desiccated, wrapped corpse that is the Oracle. Along the way, it speaks sometimes, guiding their journey. Meanwhile, brother Dominic at the Monastery of the Eastern Gate is receiving visions. The Monastery, sitting at the foot of the mountain Das Kagel (which is the collapsed remains of the Tower of Babel), works like a cork to prevent the world of the dead from spilling over into the countryside. With the death of their Oracle, disaster is imminent. Follett and his band have to traverse a landscape of nightmarish creatures to deliver the replacement.
Set in some 16th century version of the Lowlands, some of the chapters seem lifted straight out of a Bruegel painting. A third storyline follows Meg Verstraeten, a peasant living in the shadow of the collapsed mountain of Babel. The Spanish Inquisition is terrorising the countryside and Meg suddenly stands at the helm of an uprising, under the nickname of Dull Gret (if you are Dutch or Flemish you might recognise this name as Dulle Griet, also known as Mad Meg in England. There’s also a stone-throwing giant, which I believe is a legend from Antwerp. I love seeing some Low Country references in fantasy. One chapter is named Ol’ Klootzak’s Plot and I laughed out loud). While all this is going on, the world of the dead starts spilling over from the Monastery of the Eastern Gate, infesting the landscape with demonic creatures, so-called Woebegots and Filthlings.
Catling is interested mostly in communicating an aesthetic, a certain brand of the fantastic. One that appeals to me greatly. There is a danger, however, in writing fiction inspired by other art, and that is letting the references dictate the story. This went wrong before with China Mieville’s The Last Days of New Paris (2016) which was not much more than a novella of name-dropping surrealist artworks against a thin and sluggish backstory. Catling does not totally avoid this trap. When the story is written around the references to real paintings, then the logic of the plot to tie it all together becomes a bit tortuous. Brother Dominic’s story includes a search for the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, but the why and the wherefore have more to do with Catling wanting to refer to those works than with the story he is telling.
Catling’s weakness is plotting. The story does not accomplish everything that it promises at the outset and ends in a quick resolution that leaves many questions unanswered. His Vorrh trilogy had the same problem. As a writer, he loves setting up ideas and mysteries, focusing heavily on the aesthetics (which are great, no doubt), but just like a modern art piece, does not give a plot-heavy narrative with a clear answer. The story ultimately left me a bit unsatisfied. It depends on what you’re looking for in a novel.
It is easily forgiven, because the book is full of wonder. Each little chapter has some strange creature or stunning magical event - a real parade of the amazing and the grotesque. Each wonder has the miraculous and the terrifying in it. And Catling is doing what perhaps no other fantasy writer is doing: mining art history for fantasy stories - and in this book in particular turning the Low Countries into a mystical landscape connected to 17th century paintings and legends. If you’re tired of the usual fantasy and are looking for something new, something inspired and strange, try this.
October 18, 2023
Well, let's see here.
I'm a weird guy. I don't dispute that. I own it. Mordew, The Blizzard, two strange little tales that I dig. So, this book fits squarely into my little world. It has strange goings on, strange rituals, strange creatures, and odd people. But, it means, precisely, dick. It is weird, but the plot is weak. The characters are nonexistent and can pretty much be interchanged with one another outside of Benedict (I think that was his name)and the Oracle. Nobody else really matters, and I thought I was enjoying it until suddenly I caught myself asking, "What is the point?" There really is no reason for anything. The nonending that leaves it open for a sequel causes more issues than it solves. There were several moments that I thought were cool, and that's why the 3 stars, but overall, I was left wanting. It's not a very coherent story, and a lot of it felt like so much media of today. Just doing shit for the sake of doing it and not for any real substance. I can't be the only one sick of interpreting media. Just point in a direction, dude, any direction. Not everything needs to be high art. This could have been a good story if it actually kept to a story. You've got a weirdo painting pictures, and the creatures show up. Are they manifesting from the dude, or is he drawing from experience? If the explanation given is a guess from one of your characters, you've lost your plot. And then to top it off, it doesn't really fit with the oracle bit. Or the mad village women, or the band of soldiers. And then, it's just dropped. Whiplash.
Sigh. I'm probably being unfair here, but it just didn't work. I wanted it to, but there was too much with too little offered. Maybe someone can make sense out of it. I really hope so, but it's not gonna be me.
There it is and there you have it.
I'm a weird guy. I don't dispute that. I own it. Mordew, The Blizzard, two strange little tales that I dig. So, this book fits squarely into my little world. It has strange goings on, strange rituals, strange creatures, and odd people. But, it means, precisely, dick. It is weird, but the plot is weak. The characters are nonexistent and can pretty much be interchanged with one another outside of Benedict (I think that was his name)and the Oracle. Nobody else really matters, and I thought I was enjoying it until suddenly I caught myself asking, "What is the point?" There really is no reason for anything. The nonending that leaves it open for a sequel causes more issues than it solves. There were several moments that I thought were cool, and that's why the 3 stars, but overall, I was left wanting. It's not a very coherent story, and a lot of it felt like so much media of today. Just doing shit for the sake of doing it and not for any real substance. I can't be the only one sick of interpreting media. Just point in a direction, dude, any direction. Not everything needs to be high art. This could have been a good story if it actually kept to a story. You've got a weirdo painting pictures, and the creatures show up. Are they manifesting from the dude, or is he drawing from experience? If the explanation given is a guess from one of your characters, you've lost your plot. And then to top it off, it doesn't really fit with the oracle bit. Or the mad village women, or the band of soldiers. And then, it's just dropped. Whiplash.
Sigh. I'm probably being unfair here, but it just didn't work. I wanted it to, but there was too much with too little offered. Maybe someone can make sense out of it. I really hope so, but it's not gonna be me.
There it is and there you have it.
May 19, 2024
If Hieronymous Bosch has 1000 fans, i’m one if them. if Hieronymous Bosch has 10 fans, i’m one of them. If Hieronymous Bosch has 1 fan, it’s me. If Hieronymous Bosch has no fans, i’m dead.
January 12, 2023
Art bleeds into fiction as Brian Catling takes his inspiration from painters Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder to write a dark/horror fantasy heavily fixated on aesthetics, which worked wonders for me. I wish more authors would probe art history for fantasy stories. Catling’s writing style and particular brand of the grotesque aren’t for everyone, that’s for sure, but if you’re tired of the usual fantasy novel, give this a try.
August 14, 2021
It was ok. I only had 2 major problems with it. The mercenaries accents and Meg. Lets start with the accents. Maybe it was fit for the time, but no one else spoke like that. Not a single person. It was out of place and every time I had to read over that it took me right out of the story. Second of all Meg's character sucked. (All of the characters sucked really, there was no development for any other them, but Megs was the worse). The worse thing about Meg was that the thing that tipped her over the edge was not being molested as a child, wasn't her best friend getting murdered and accused of witchcraft, it wasn't her son being arrested, it was when her husband touched another woman's thigh.
The book would have been better if it was actually developed and made any bit of sense. But I did like the story, the plot was interesting, but nothing about it was explained and I didn't really want to finish it.
The book would have been better if it was actually developed and made any bit of sense. But I did like the story, the plot was interesting, but nothing about it was explained and I didn't really want to finish it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 25, 2025
Però què és aquest deliri?
Una novel·la fantàstica ambientada en les obres del Bosco i Brueghel? Un món medieval de guerrers i monjos i criatures fabuloses on la ronya i el nihilisme ja han fet la volta al marcador del grimdark?
M'he begut la novel·la a glopades, fascinadíssim amb una aventura que, d'entrada, hauria de recordar molt a l'argument de Los diablos, però que després juga a un joc diferent.
A quin?
Ni idea.
M'he deixat endur sense saber ben bé on em conduïa la narració. Tenia la sensació que molts cops no passava res, o passaven massa coses, o potser havia passat però no me n'havia adonat. Hi ha una certa sensació de caos, de riuada que t'arrossega novel·la avall.
A l'arribar a la desembocadura, confesso que m'he perdut. Em costava trobar un sentit o una lògica al que estava llegint, però tot i així no podia deixar de fer-ho, hipnotitzat pel sentit de la meravella.
En acabar, m'he sentit com si hagués jugat una campanya al Trophy Dark.
Una novel·la fantàstica ambientada en les obres del Bosco i Brueghel? Un món medieval de guerrers i monjos i criatures fabuloses on la ronya i el nihilisme ja han fet la volta al marcador del grimdark?
M'he begut la novel·la a glopades, fascinadíssim amb una aventura que, d'entrada, hauria de recordar molt a l'argument de Los diablos, però que després juga a un joc diferent.
A quin?
Ni idea.
M'he deixat endur sense saber ben bé on em conduïa la narració. Tenia la sensació que molts cops no passava res, o passaven massa coses, o potser havia passat però no me n'havia adonat. Hi ha una certa sensació de caos, de riuada que t'arrossega novel·la avall.
A l'arribar a la desembocadura, confesso que m'he perdut. Em costava trobar un sentit o una lògica al que estava llegint, però tot i així no podia deixar de fer-ho, hipnotitzat pel sentit de la meravella.
En acabar, m'he sentit com si hagués jugat una campanya al Trophy Dark.
October 24, 2025
Que alegría da que se traduzcan y editen obras de terror medieval en español. Es una pasada de libro. Uno extraño, sí, pero no por su forma sino por la historia que cuenta, que no es que sea alocada ni incomprensible, sino tremendamente particular. Como lo sería admirar un cuadro de Jerónimo el Bosco. Y es que esa es, en mi opinión, la intención del autor: crear un delirio integrado de tal forma que se hace natural.
January 23, 2022
Satire…. It’s a funny old thing, isn’t it? Or is it?
I was reminded of this when I started reading Hollow, which has been described as a “Dark humour fantasy.”
You don’t need to know that. To begin with, the story is a quest story.
Hollow is a strange, strange story filled with allegory, weird people and weirder creatures. The plot is not particularly unusual, at least to begin with, as a quest story. Barry Follett is the leader of a group of seven mercenaries who have been tasked by the High Church to collect and then deliver a new Oracle to the Monastery of the Eastern Gate after their old one has died. If left without an Oracle, the monks are prone to attack in the unending war between the worlds of the living and the dead.
None of the mercenary group are particularly pleasant, and this is indicated by Barry killing one of them in the first chapter. But stranger still are the people and creatures Barry and his coworkers meet along the way. Dominic, a young monk who has mysteriously lost his voice, makes a pilgrimage to see surreal paintings, believing they reveal the empire's fate; a local woman called Mad Meg hopes to free and vindicate her jailed son and becomes the leader of the most unexpected revolution; and the abbot of the monastery, influential as he is, seeks to gain even more power in this world and the next. Even the Oracle is odd, having to be kept alive by the mercenaries feeding it bone marrow and telling it their darkest sins.
The story is vividly imaginative, the plot straightforward, but this is a book whose weirdness may remain with you for a long time afterwards. Comparisons with the works of Hieronymus Bosch and Salvador Dali are to be expected and I suspect totally deliberate, as Catling is a visual artist as well as a novelist. Hollow is definitely not for everyone, and the un-lovableness of the characters may repel as much as endear, but the dense vocabulary and complex world place this one above the morass of mainstream novels.
I liked the visuality of the dialogue and was interested to see where the story went, especially as I had no idea myself as to what could happen next. But all of the dark grotesque imagery, as memorable as it was, will not be enough to impress everyone.
This one will polarize views, I think. Mind you, I was warned. The publisher has said to “prepare to be challenged, intrigued and even revolted”, and for what it is worth, I agree. Hollow will be liked as much as disliked. Like much work that is art, it will not appeal to everyone, but for many it will be memorable. In that sense, I think that Hollow says as much about the author as it does the book.
I was reminded of this when I started reading Hollow, which has been described as a “Dark humour fantasy.”
You don’t need to know that. To begin with, the story is a quest story.
Hollow is a strange, strange story filled with allegory, weird people and weirder creatures. The plot is not particularly unusual, at least to begin with, as a quest story. Barry Follett is the leader of a group of seven mercenaries who have been tasked by the High Church to collect and then deliver a new Oracle to the Monastery of the Eastern Gate after their old one has died. If left without an Oracle, the monks are prone to attack in the unending war between the worlds of the living and the dead.
None of the mercenary group are particularly pleasant, and this is indicated by Barry killing one of them in the first chapter. But stranger still are the people and creatures Barry and his coworkers meet along the way. Dominic, a young monk who has mysteriously lost his voice, makes a pilgrimage to see surreal paintings, believing they reveal the empire's fate; a local woman called Mad Meg hopes to free and vindicate her jailed son and becomes the leader of the most unexpected revolution; and the abbot of the monastery, influential as he is, seeks to gain even more power in this world and the next. Even the Oracle is odd, having to be kept alive by the mercenaries feeding it bone marrow and telling it their darkest sins.
The story is vividly imaginative, the plot straightforward, but this is a book whose weirdness may remain with you for a long time afterwards. Comparisons with the works of Hieronymus Bosch and Salvador Dali are to be expected and I suspect totally deliberate, as Catling is a visual artist as well as a novelist. Hollow is definitely not for everyone, and the un-lovableness of the characters may repel as much as endear, but the dense vocabulary and complex world place this one above the morass of mainstream novels.
I liked the visuality of the dialogue and was interested to see where the story went, especially as I had no idea myself as to what could happen next. But all of the dark grotesque imagery, as memorable as it was, will not be enough to impress everyone.
This one will polarize views, I think. Mind you, I was warned. The publisher has said to “prepare to be challenged, intrigued and even revolted”, and for what it is worth, I agree. Hollow will be liked as much as disliked. Like much work that is art, it will not appeal to everyone, but for many it will be memorable. In that sense, I think that Hollow says as much about the author as it does the book.
December 4, 2023
I feel like I've been looking for a book like this my entire life, honestly. It speaks to my love of horror, art, surreal shit, and religion all in one wonderful little novel. I've never read anything like it, and I doubt I ever will.
It reminded me a bit of a medieval version of another book I read this year and enjoyed, Bête by Robert Adams. I do think Hollow was executed much better and lagged less, so I enjoyed it more. (Not to mention the VIBES were just *chef's kiss*).
I loved how the three separate storylines intertwined and played off of each other. The wordplay in the book was also incredible! I'm excited to read more by Catling because I loved this one so much!
It reminded me a bit of a medieval version of another book I read this year and enjoyed, Bête by Robert Adams. I do think Hollow was executed much better and lagged less, so I enjoyed it more. (Not to mention the VIBES were just *chef's kiss*).
I loved how the three separate storylines intertwined and played off of each other. The wordplay in the book was also incredible! I'm excited to read more by Catling because I loved this one so much!
April 11, 2022
Couldn't finish 3/4 through. Despite being pretty short, the book moves along at such an unbelievably slow pace because of it being chopped up into 3 different points of view. The characters are completely flat (except for Dull Gret, ironically, who we don't spend enough time with), and right before anything remotely interesting is about to happen, the chapter is cut short in an attempt at a vague cliff-hanger or ominous note, we switch perspectives to another character where, once again, very little is happening to advance the plot.
July 11, 2021
B. Catling, author the incredible Vorrh trilogy, does it again: his coagulated prose takes the broken bones of Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, wraps them in a decaying Bruegel canvas, and bakes them in a womb of quasi-medieval fantasy until some unholy phantasmagorical union of China Mieville's Iron Council and Clive Barker's Weaveworld is birthed.
September 14, 2025
I am honestly just happy i can start a different book
July 2, 2021
DNF p.84/30%
Didn't click with me.
Didn't click with me.
November 24, 2021
When I had started this book I wasn't too sure what to expect, partly because the previous book I had read by this author I had disliked. And to be truthful the main reason why I had grabbed this one was because of the horses on the cover! If you know me than you know I am a bit horse crazy too. But to my surprise I ended up really enjoying this story. It's fantasy and certainly different from anything I have read before. The story takes place somewhere in Europe during an Inquisition. Exactly where is unknown but Germany was mentioned and so is Rome. But it's an adventure story with monsters and sword fights and all sorts of weird stuff. Plus the Church and a holy order of monks and an Oracle.
There are three plots running through the book and they meet at the end. Each plot has a separate bunch of characters. The chapters mostly alternate between the groups. My favorite ones were with the swordsmen who travel on horseback carrying the new Oracle (the new Oracle is not human). In my opinion this was the most exciting parts of the book because they faced the most danger. Plus I really could feel for Pearlbinder when he was forced to do something he sure didn't want to do! Then as I read the rest of the book (which had added up to be a lot of pages) I had hoped for a solution (resolution) to this issue - and I did get one - but not the one I had been expecting! But at least the issue has been remembered by the author and not totally forgotten! So I am satisfied.
The second group was with the monks and the abbott. This was my second favorite group in here and to be truthful they actually discussed some very interesting things. Like what are those Woebegots and where did they come from? The Woebegots are these strange mutated animals. Them there is the Gland of Mercy! Boy, is that place ever weird! I must admit I don't understand why the Abbott had such a hard time believing that the Woebegots were real creatures when he lives every day with the fantastical Gland of Mercy? I suppose maybe he was in denial? Anyway these chapters had a lot of intellectual questions and ideas. Stuff about fate and where things come from.
The third bunch of chapters were with Meg, who is a woman living near the church where the Abbott is. I found these chapters the least interesting. It touches a bit on witchcraft and woman's rights and the problems with husbands... As a character I just didn't find Meg interesting. I guess I could not relate to her?
There is some horse stuff in here with Follett and Pearlbinder going on a long ride through mountain terrain on their mission. It seems the author might know some horse stuff but they are not the focus of the story. Still I did enjoy the scenes with the horses. They do have incredibly long legs on the cover image, don't they? Like colts. And if you look close, their saddles actually have eyes and ears on them!
I must say how this all ended was a surprise to me. I guess as I was reading I had thought maybe the story would continue in a sequel? Because I would like to see a sequel to this. I think this fantasy world is well thought out and planned. And I would like to know more about the Woebegones and that Gland of Mercy too. And what about Meg?
All in all it was a grand adventure story in a very unique setting.
There are three plots running through the book and they meet at the end. Each plot has a separate bunch of characters. The chapters mostly alternate between the groups. My favorite ones were with the swordsmen who travel on horseback carrying the new Oracle (the new Oracle is not human). In my opinion this was the most exciting parts of the book because they faced the most danger. Plus I really could feel for Pearlbinder when he was forced to do something he sure didn't want to do! Then as I read the rest of the book (which had added up to be a lot of pages) I had hoped for a solution (resolution) to this issue - and I did get one - but not the one I had been expecting! But at least the issue has been remembered by the author and not totally forgotten! So I am satisfied.
The second group was with the monks and the abbott. This was my second favorite group in here and to be truthful they actually discussed some very interesting things. Like what are those Woebegots and where did they come from? The Woebegots are these strange mutated animals. Them there is the Gland of Mercy! Boy, is that place ever weird! I must admit I don't understand why the Abbott had such a hard time believing that the Woebegots were real creatures when he lives every day with the fantastical Gland of Mercy? I suppose maybe he was in denial? Anyway these chapters had a lot of intellectual questions and ideas. Stuff about fate and where things come from.
The third bunch of chapters were with Meg, who is a woman living near the church where the Abbott is. I found these chapters the least interesting. It touches a bit on witchcraft and woman's rights and the problems with husbands... As a character I just didn't find Meg interesting. I guess I could not relate to her?
There is some horse stuff in here with Follett and Pearlbinder going on a long ride through mountain terrain on their mission. It seems the author might know some horse stuff but they are not the focus of the story. Still I did enjoy the scenes with the horses. They do have incredibly long legs on the cover image, don't they? Like colts. And if you look close, their saddles actually have eyes and ears on them!
I must say how this all ended was a surprise to me. I guess as I was reading I had thought maybe the story would continue in a sequel? Because I would like to see a sequel to this. I think this fantasy world is well thought out and planned. And I would like to know more about the Woebegones and that Gland of Mercy too. And what about Meg?
All in all it was a grand adventure story in a very unique setting.
May 28, 2025
Hollow's premise and setting hold great potential which the actual book falls woefully short of. There are three plots: a caravan of brigands transporting the oracle to a monastery, the friars at the monastery, and a gangly village wife in the nearby town. The letdown is large because the subject matter is so dark and fantastical and the story does not deliver.
In reverse order, the wife's tale is by far the worst. Her predicaments are tedious, which does highlight the drudgery of a commoner's life, but she's incredibly boring herself. Despite throwing peasant cruelty, fantastic demons, and witchcraft into the mix, I couldn't care less. Everything is unfair and there's nothing she can do. It's like watching a blind person searching for something they've dropped in the street.
The monastery segment plays out like a mystery/follow-the-clues ordeal and despite only having one and a half enjoyable characters, still had its moments. The monks go on their own perilous journey, which is glossed over in less than a page and ironically sounds like it could have been the most engaging part of the story.
Finally, the bandit team and their precious human cargo. This story was by far the strongest. It's apparent from the start that these players are expendable and that they're going to get picked off one by one as the caravan encounters periodic dangers on the road. The book is short at 250 pages and consequently none of the bandits are developed to the point of caring for them, but there's enough individual backstory given to roughly flesh out their personalities. A few of their encounters are the closest the book comes to being horror, though there aren't any actual scares.
This book really started to decay when I realized that all the landmarks and locations are pretty close together. The mountain the bandits spend 80% of their story traversing is within a morning stroll from the village. The village in turn seems to run right up to the monastery doors. Even the monks' journey to another church appears to have been accomplished within a few nights. Losing a sense of grand scale amplifies the "oh, that's it?" factor which the book was already cultivating through utterly dorky demons (familiars), the witches/village plot, and mildly boring caravan escort.
To top it off, the finale (the intersection of plots) is so forced. The story's pacing and writing quality take a noticeable dive at this point with truly bad prose, dialog, and events. Several poorly orchestrated and contrived action sequences are thrust forth, and the surrounding cocoon of explanatory and transitory chapters serve to mop up and enforce the tattered plot ends.
The good ideas (Bosch+Bruegel influence, the oracle and steeping, familiars, murderer escort, various magical encounters) all came out underutilized and unexplored allowing the bad and the boring to drag Hollow into the abyss.
In reverse order, the wife's tale is by far the worst. Her predicaments are tedious, which does highlight the drudgery of a commoner's life, but she's incredibly boring herself. Despite throwing peasant cruelty, fantastic demons, and witchcraft into the mix, I couldn't care less. Everything is unfair and there's nothing she can do. It's like watching a blind person searching for something they've dropped in the street.
The monastery segment plays out like a mystery/follow-the-clues ordeal and despite only having one and a half enjoyable characters, still had its moments. The monks go on their own perilous journey, which is glossed over in less than a page and ironically sounds like it could have been the most engaging part of the story.
Finally, the bandit team and their precious human cargo. This story was by far the strongest. It's apparent from the start that these players are expendable and that they're going to get picked off one by one as the caravan encounters periodic dangers on the road. The book is short at 250 pages and consequently none of the bandits are developed to the point of caring for them, but there's enough individual backstory given to roughly flesh out their personalities. A few of their encounters are the closest the book comes to being horror, though there aren't any actual scares.
This book really started to decay when I realized that all the landmarks and locations are pretty close together. The mountain the bandits spend 80% of their story traversing is within a morning stroll from the village. The village in turn seems to run right up to the monastery doors. Even the monks' journey to another church appears to have been accomplished within a few nights. Losing a sense of grand scale amplifies the "oh, that's it?" factor which the book was already cultivating through utterly dorky demons (familiars), the witches/village plot, and mildly boring caravan escort.
To top it off, the finale (the intersection of plots) is so forced. The story's pacing and writing quality take a noticeable dive at this point with truly bad prose, dialog, and events. Several poorly orchestrated and contrived action sequences are thrust forth, and the surrounding cocoon of explanatory and transitory chapters serve to mop up and enforce the tattered plot ends.
The good ideas (Bosch+Bruegel influence, the oracle and steeping, familiars, murderer escort, various magical encounters) all came out underutilized and unexplored allowing the bad and the boring to drag Hollow into the abyss.
May 2, 2022
finally finished this fucking thing and can i just ask: did a single person proofread this book before they published it? like a single human being? lmfao
absolutely gave me a headache. didn’t want to finish it for like two months. it’s been a weight on my stack and nothing more. pleased to be done with it
i shouldn’t have to take a full course on bosch and his paintings to be able to have fun with this book. i know enough and it still isn’t nearly enough to make any one sentence of this story make sense
absolutely gave me a headache. didn’t want to finish it for like two months. it’s been a weight on my stack and nothing more. pleased to be done with it
i shouldn’t have to take a full course on bosch and his paintings to be able to have fun with this book. i know enough and it still isn’t nearly enough to make any one sentence of this story make sense
June 29, 2021
What a difficult book to rate! The aesthetic of the story I just loved. The plot was at the same time simple and obfuscated - I’m not sure I ever really knew what was going on or how/if the different threads connected. Might benefit from a reread one day. The writing was tremendous - character voice was memorable and moving. At times it felt a bit like a dark fantasy Name of the Rose. I liked it. Didn’t love it.
September 4, 2024
3 separate DnD sessions gone wrong
October 18, 2021
Mild spoilers follow
In many ways Hollow was written to target me. The aesthetic, the tone, the setting, the language - I loved them all. But I can't help but feel like the plot (specifically the ending) represent a huge missed opportunity to become a modern cult classic.
The first thing to speak of among that list is the aesthetic. The author has done a remarkable job in striking a dismal, grim-fantasy tone. Intersections between character histories, archaic language, religious intrigue, horror references, monstrous creatures - these come together to weave a potent horror tone. I was a huge fan. Significant care has been taken to maintain a consistent terrible flavour. Plot points weave into the tone just as much as the dialogue, which is variably given in explicitly and sometimes almost crude archaic fashion ('whomst', 'thoust' etc.) It works, although I can see how it might rub some the wrong way.
It is worth mentioning Hieronymus Bosch, whose output very evidently influenced the author and indeed who is explicitly mentioned in the work as a man gifted with maddening visions. It's probably the best way to describe the general tone of the novel without specifics: it's like looking at a particularly haunted Bosch painting and imagining a grim quest attended to by a host of ill-fated bastards within it.
About said bastards next. The novel is roughly divided into three storylines, each of which have mostly consistent but sometimes-changing points of view and converge at the end.
The first concerns a gang of unscrupulous and repulsive mercenaries who have taken up a job that nobody else would dare to take: the delivery of an Oracle to a sacred monastery as a place known as Das Kagel. This is by far the most engaging of the storylines. Each of the characters are fairly thinly developed, but have enough of a personality to feel meaningful; exceptions are Follett, Pearlbinder, and the Kid. The Oracle is a masterpiece of horror-writing. It is something not at all human, carried around in a crate of ice and fed human bones to guide the men. The party has to stop every now and then to perform a ritual they call 'scrying' - they take fresh man-bones and whisper their greatest sins into them to infuse them with terrible energies before feeding the marrow to the Oracle. It goes without saying that this serves as a horrific engine for character exposition and a weighty dose of existential horror. Throughout their adventure they encounter a healthy dose of fantasy adventure mainstays: giants, sirens, skeletons - it is even revealed that Das Kagel is the mythical Tower of Babel, and host to all manner of horrific entities that predate the modern world. The author seemed to enjoy the occasional tangent in decorating the work with references to implied time travel and immortality that were never really explored further or explained, something I consider a bit of indulgence on his behalf.
Second comes the story of the monks at the monastery at Das Kagel. Their Oracle has died and they await the arrival of the new one, which must travel a long distance. Should it not arrive in a timely fashion, all manner of horrors encased within Das Kagel may burst forth, and the monks have started noticing the emergence of peculiar creatures and hauntings. Worse, if the Oracle does not soon turn up, then the structural integrity of the Gland of Mercy may be irrepressibly damaged, exposing reality to terrible privation. What is the Gland of Mercy? I won't detail it here because it may dull the edge of the first read. Safe to say that any interruption to its workings would be a Bad Thing.
This storyline I also enjoyed. It is host to several engaging characters and responsible for genuinely thoughtful and curious worldbuilding, encased in political intrigue and scheming. There is a slight sojourn during which two of the main characters go on a pilgrimage to a nearby monastery, which is host to a painting by Bosch. I'm not convinced this was at all necessary. It had no measurable impact on the plot and has use mainly as an extended semi-fourth-wall-breaking fan reference to the paintings.
The last of the storylines concerns a woman near Meg, who lives in a village adjacent to the monastery at Das Kagel. She is the lucky recipient of the standard fare of fantasy villager misfortunes. Her son has been imprisoned, her husband is abusive and useless, and her friend has recently been burned at the stake. There is also the unfortunate development of "woebegots" and "filthlings" infesting the village. These are just names for 'things the author found in Bosch paintings that he wanted to turn into characters'.
I did not find this storyline interesting in the slightest. Neither did it seem particularly meaningful to the wider plot. It is the weakest part of the novel.
On the topic of weaknesses: the denouement almost in its entirety. Follett's gang of mercenaries slims at almost comically rapid pace - characters are written off carelessly, inexplicably, or unsatisfactorily. It is as though the author was bored of them and felt rushed, a night-before-the-deadline race to the ending. It's a terrible shame, because it undermines the plot as a whole. The monastery sub plot comes to a mostly satisfactory conclusion, and the Meg one ends pointlessly as it started, but I really hoped for a solid ending for what I thought was by far the most interesting story and character set. It is the one thing that prevented me from rating the novel more highly. Discarding the adventurers so rapidly and without care cheapens the adventure.
I would recommend the novel to fans of dark fantasy. If nothing else, it'll scratch an itch for spooky, horror-inspired fantasy with elements of reality. But it's a shame the plot started off strong and never truly concludes, as though someone truncated the last quarter of the novel proper and what we're left with is someone quickly tying off loose ends.
In many ways Hollow was written to target me. The aesthetic, the tone, the setting, the language - I loved them all. But I can't help but feel like the plot (specifically the ending) represent a huge missed opportunity to become a modern cult classic.
The first thing to speak of among that list is the aesthetic. The author has done a remarkable job in striking a dismal, grim-fantasy tone. Intersections between character histories, archaic language, religious intrigue, horror references, monstrous creatures - these come together to weave a potent horror tone. I was a huge fan. Significant care has been taken to maintain a consistent terrible flavour. Plot points weave into the tone just as much as the dialogue, which is variably given in explicitly and sometimes almost crude archaic fashion ('whomst', 'thoust' etc.) It works, although I can see how it might rub some the wrong way.
It is worth mentioning Hieronymus Bosch, whose output very evidently influenced the author and indeed who is explicitly mentioned in the work as a man gifted with maddening visions. It's probably the best way to describe the general tone of the novel without specifics: it's like looking at a particularly haunted Bosch painting and imagining a grim quest attended to by a host of ill-fated bastards within it.
About said bastards next. The novel is roughly divided into three storylines, each of which have mostly consistent but sometimes-changing points of view and converge at the end.
The first concerns a gang of unscrupulous and repulsive mercenaries who have taken up a job that nobody else would dare to take: the delivery of an Oracle to a sacred monastery as a place known as Das Kagel. This is by far the most engaging of the storylines. Each of the characters are fairly thinly developed, but have enough of a personality to feel meaningful; exceptions are Follett, Pearlbinder, and the Kid. The Oracle is a masterpiece of horror-writing. It is something not at all human, carried around in a crate of ice and fed human bones to guide the men. The party has to stop every now and then to perform a ritual they call 'scrying' - they take fresh man-bones and whisper their greatest sins into them to infuse them with terrible energies before feeding the marrow to the Oracle. It goes without saying that this serves as a horrific engine for character exposition and a weighty dose of existential horror. Throughout their adventure they encounter a healthy dose of fantasy adventure mainstays: giants, sirens, skeletons - it is even revealed that Das Kagel is the mythical Tower of Babel, and host to all manner of horrific entities that predate the modern world. The author seemed to enjoy the occasional tangent in decorating the work with references to implied time travel and immortality that were never really explored further or explained, something I consider a bit of indulgence on his behalf.
Second comes the story of the monks at the monastery at Das Kagel. Their Oracle has died and they await the arrival of the new one, which must travel a long distance. Should it not arrive in a timely fashion, all manner of horrors encased within Das Kagel may burst forth, and the monks have started noticing the emergence of peculiar creatures and hauntings. Worse, if the Oracle does not soon turn up, then the structural integrity of the Gland of Mercy may be irrepressibly damaged, exposing reality to terrible privation. What is the Gland of Mercy? I won't detail it here because it may dull the edge of the first read. Safe to say that any interruption to its workings would be a Bad Thing.
This storyline I also enjoyed. It is host to several engaging characters and responsible for genuinely thoughtful and curious worldbuilding, encased in political intrigue and scheming. There is a slight sojourn during which two of the main characters go on a pilgrimage to a nearby monastery, which is host to a painting by Bosch. I'm not convinced this was at all necessary. It had no measurable impact on the plot and has use mainly as an extended semi-fourth-wall-breaking fan reference to the paintings.
The last of the storylines concerns a woman near Meg, who lives in a village adjacent to the monastery at Das Kagel. She is the lucky recipient of the standard fare of fantasy villager misfortunes. Her son has been imprisoned, her husband is abusive and useless, and her friend has recently been burned at the stake. There is also the unfortunate development of "woebegots" and "filthlings" infesting the village. These are just names for 'things the author found in Bosch paintings that he wanted to turn into characters'.
I did not find this storyline interesting in the slightest. Neither did it seem particularly meaningful to the wider plot. It is the weakest part of the novel.
On the topic of weaknesses: the denouement almost in its entirety. Follett's gang of mercenaries slims at almost comically rapid pace - characters are written off carelessly, inexplicably, or unsatisfactorily. It is as though the author was bored of them and felt rushed, a night-before-the-deadline race to the ending. It's a terrible shame, because it undermines the plot as a whole. The monastery sub plot comes to a mostly satisfactory conclusion, and the Meg one ends pointlessly as it started, but I really hoped for a solid ending for what I thought was by far the most interesting story and character set. It is the one thing that prevented me from rating the novel more highly. Discarding the adventurers so rapidly and without care cheapens the adventure.
I would recommend the novel to fans of dark fantasy. If nothing else, it'll scratch an itch for spooky, horror-inspired fantasy with elements of reality. But it's a shame the plot started off strong and never truly concludes, as though someone truncated the last quarter of the novel proper and what we're left with is someone quickly tying off loose ends.
June 21, 2025
Such an interesting and unique book - yet I feel like I'm going to forget all of it in a few days.
June 1, 2022
Catling has imagination in spades, but his plotting is dismal, to the point of hardly being there. This starts promising, plot-wise, as the quest and its details are laid out rather simply in the first few chapters. I was excited and hopeful. Then things just drag and drag and drag. The three PsOV are never really developed, though it is easy to see how they are connected, which was decent enough. Still, we get all these fabulous descriptions - seems Catling is also a visual artist? - but not a whole lot is happening. Or maybe what is happening feels repetitive and dull after the fourth or fifth POV change? Either way, I was bored, beautiful adjectives aside. I love great writing - and Catling has those chops! - but I read books for stories and this one feels simultaneously bloated and shallow. A great idea that never gets fleshed out adequately, visceral language, imagery, and fascinating concepts notwithstanding. I would contrast Catling with Cisco. While they both engage the reader with unbelievable language and otherworldly ideas, Cisco gives you a narrative trajectory and keeps it at least accessible amidst his craziness, while Catling just can’t seemed to connect all his bits and bobs into a story with enough depth to justify the page count. An undeniable talent that needs to find more definable tales to tell.
January 11, 2023
Dark semi-historical surreal fantasy at it's best. I picked up this book not realizing one of my favorite authors, Alan Moore, had wrote the blurb on the cover. Noticing his adoration for this book made me want to read it even more.
I was NOT disappointed. The violence, non-concrete way reality and time function in the book and the parade of grotesqueries directly from the mind and art of Hieronymus Bosch make this an utterly unique work while still drawing from real world history.
Hollow takes place in the 16th century where a demi-human oracle must be brought on a long journey to an abbey of monks by a team of violent and murderous mercenaries. It also follows some of the monks from the abbey itself, and the rising frustrations and simmering rebellion of an ill-treated domestic housewife living in the town near the abbey who is at first baffled by, then finds allies in the strange creatures who are appearing in the land. All elements collide eventually, but are utterly fascinating in their own realms. There is horror, nightmares, comedy and humanism in this book.
If you like strange creatures, dark fantasy and stories of aberrant or twisted religious faith, do not miss this book. It has an intense vibe that reminded me more than once of the Dark Souls series.
I was NOT disappointed. The violence, non-concrete way reality and time function in the book and the parade of grotesqueries directly from the mind and art of Hieronymus Bosch make this an utterly unique work while still drawing from real world history.
Hollow takes place in the 16th century where a demi-human oracle must be brought on a long journey to an abbey of monks by a team of violent and murderous mercenaries. It also follows some of the monks from the abbey itself, and the rising frustrations and simmering rebellion of an ill-treated domestic housewife living in the town near the abbey who is at first baffled by, then finds allies in the strange creatures who are appearing in the land. All elements collide eventually, but are utterly fascinating in their own realms. There is horror, nightmares, comedy and humanism in this book.
If you like strange creatures, dark fantasy and stories of aberrant or twisted religious faith, do not miss this book. It has an intense vibe that reminded me more than once of the Dark Souls series.
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June 8, 2021At this point, I would read B. Catling's grocery list.
One of the first reviews I did was of Brian Catling’s “Vorrh” trilogy. Those three books have had a profound impact on me. His new book “Hollow” was released. And it is amazing. Classic Catling. Surreal yet literal with followable intertwined plots. Incredible imagery. Strange and beautiful characters. And a good dose of graphic violence coated with a surrealist hue. The setting is 16th Century Holland. A group of mercenaries have been employed to deliver a holy oracle to a monastery at the base of the ruins of the Tower of Babel. Meanwhile a woman of meager means grows into a powerful witch accompanied by an army of familiars while forces collide on all sides. I am about to reread it. I HIGHLY recommend this book!
One of the first reviews I did was of Brian Catling’s “Vorrh” trilogy. Those three books have had a profound impact on me. His new book “Hollow” was released. And it is amazing. Classic Catling. Surreal yet literal with followable intertwined plots. Incredible imagery. Strange and beautiful characters. And a good dose of graphic violence coated with a surrealist hue. The setting is 16th Century Holland. A group of mercenaries have been employed to deliver a holy oracle to a monastery at the base of the ruins of the Tower of Babel. Meanwhile a woman of meager means grows into a powerful witch accompanied by an army of familiars while forces collide on all sides. I am about to reread it. I HIGHLY recommend this book!
May 29, 2023
Pretty stumped on how to review this. A book full of intrigue, absurdity, weirdness and delusion. On the face of it the main arc is straightforward - a group go on an adventure - but that’s so far off the mark. At times it felt like Kafka writing something whilst in the grip of a hallucinatory fever.
I definitely need to revisit it and try and pull some of the pieces together and to check my understanding!
I definitely need to revisit it and try and pull some of the pieces together and to check my understanding!
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