Hollow

By: Brian Catling

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

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

©2021 Brian Catling (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Peckinpah riders on a Breugel trail, things walled-up or things in reliquaries, and language as close to the splintering bone as it can get. In Hollow, yet again, B. Catlin retools the fantastic for beyond-fantastic times. Unmissable." (Alan Moore, author of Jerusalem)

“[Hollow] achieves an ungainly beauty and a crooked wisdom.... Each chapter offers the stunned reader a new marvel. But Hollow also offers reflections on the relationship between art and life, and, perhaps more pressingly, between death and art. It’s a tribute to long-dead geniuses that will also thrill readers entirely ignorant of European painting.... Hollow is the strangest, most original, and most satisfying fantasy I’ve read in ages.” (Matthew Keely, Tor)

“A sheer, shuddering delight.... The whole novel is not just fun, but very clever fun.... Catling is a rare kind of writer.” (Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman)

Excellent story, audio troubles

This is Brian Catlings best work to date in my opinion. The narrator was very talented and diverse with their voices, but I think they were too loud at times and it must have interfered with the microphone picking the sound up correctly. There were multiple times, especially near the end, where the sound cut out like this. Otherwise I would recommend this story if you read his trilogy and found there to be no solid conclusions. The Hollow has all of the great writing from the Vorrh, but has solid and enjoyable conclusions that I felt the trilogy lacked overall.

Great story, okay narration

The story is great and beautifully crafted. The narrator is mostly great, but some their voices for the characters are difficult to understand

It’s just fine

Just kind of boring and I zoned out a lot. Narrator was pretty lame. Story was mid. Christopher Buehlman is better.

Surprisingly great story

I’m bought this on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. Original storyline, interesting characters, and fast paced. Good 8 hour story.

Great book! Grabs you in quickly to it's strange world.

Intriguing characters that keep you wanting to listen built in an odd and mysterious world.

I would definitely recommend this book, it reminds me of early Stephen King

Different and Enjoyable

I thoroughly enjoyed the Vorhh so tried Hollow. It has a tighter storyline than Vorhh which makes following slightly easier and each storyline comes to a close which is likeable. Voices work well. I don’t have a favorite reader yet but this one was good.

odd

peculiar story that twists itself together in the oddest of ways
I can't wait to read this again

Sure, it's weird but ...

Honestly, I could listen to Catling's writing forever. I listened to The Vorrh trilogy (and I swear it's not anything like my typical listens) and I didn't think I would love Catling without being read by Alan Corrunder (who is still my favorite narrator of all time). But now I think anything Catling writes I will love. He can bring to life the most bizarre, gross, unthinkable things and somehow make them beautiful, familiar, and funny.


This narrator also makes a perfect fit for the characters. I still miss Alan Corrunder, but that's my only complaint!

Very odd story

I enjoyed listening to this immensely, probably even more so due to how very odd certain aspects seem to me. Left me feeling very strange

Creative, yet boring

There's a lot of creativity here, but the stories (plural since the book follow 3 separate characters/locations and their storylines) themselves are just mostly boring. The bits with the mercenaries and the Oracle were okay, but that's only a fraction of the book. I made it halfway through and couldn't be bothered to finish, which is rare for me. I only came to find it after reading Between Two Fires and wanted something else to scratch that grimdark historical fantasy fiction during the dark/middle ages. So if you, too, came to find this book after that fantastic story, I'm sorry to say that this doesn't even hold a candle to that and they're not very similar regardless.