I was intrigued by the concept on the back cover but early on it was evident this was not the book for me. Too much casual racism, sexism, and misogyny. It would be one thing if those themes were mentioned and then there was something done about them, but they were just there and did absolutely nothing to advance the plot. Just seemed that they were there for shock value if anything. I wanted to like this books but I couldn't get past the firsg five chapters.

Didn't finish, beautifully written but author treats female characters horrendously and seems confused about how female sexuality and anatomy works . Summarized as follows: the salt water douche book. 

I am still extremely confused and intrigued by this book. I was not expecting....well I don't know what I was expecting, but it was not magical realism in the sense of literal magical creatures, and maybe the Garden of Eden, and colonialism, and myth all rolled into one. To be honest this in no way reads like a first novel, and I think I kinda loved the way it reads? The language is smooth and sharp and intense and aloof. This is not going to be for everyone, but if you like fantasy, and want fantasy to push the boundaries of the genre, maybe it's for you. 

Undoubtedly original. This is the first time I’m reading some out-there-Fantasy - out of the mainstream, non-household name type sh*t (Hobbit, Harry Potter etc.), and mature too. There is imagination running wild amongst the living pages of ‘The Vorrh.’ Maybe it is original because of all the picking and choosing Catling has done with the world’s available technologies and science, but also the supernatural and magic that exist alongside each other chapter to chapter quite seamlessly.

In my first two attempts at reading this beast I couldn’t get past the first two chapters. It was so bizarre and foreign a thing to be reading that I couldn’t comprehend what I read. I have had an attempt at another such fantasy in the past, ‘Chung Kuo: Middle Kingdom.’ ‘The Vorrh’ has a poetic, and sometimes hard to understand quality about it’s style, whereas ‘Chung Kuo’ was very straightforward - when you’ve taken in the landscape. For more than the first half of ‘The Vorrh’ the tale manifested in a hazy fever-dream vision which was hardly stimulating in the long term, only some sequences sticking easily, but in this last couple hundred pages from the past week or two have moulded into a normal lens view of the dramas of a fantasy narrative - I understand! Most notably vivid and fun was a sequence between a character named Sidrus and a character named Nebsuel that felt like something right out of the film version of ‘The Princess Bride.’

With my newfound comprehension of “The Fantasy” I just re read a couple chapters worth of stuff and fixed some loose connections and man, this is a good book. Totally interesting stuff going on - the least interesting being the stuff with the babies and Maclish. I have the plot, pray it sticks. On to the next one.