Genre: Fantasy, New Weird Fiction
Published: Angry Robot, February 2024
My Rating: 4/5 stars
This was a weird one, but in the best way possible. Fans of Jeff VanderMeer, Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman, place your pre-orders now, because you don’t want to miss this wild ride! Long review incoming, because I really found a lot to love here.
The Story:
Cady Mead, an elderly woman with an enigmatic past as a river-taxi captain, now lives her retirement days out drunk, holed up in a rundown seaside resort and trading her bawdy tales for shots of rum. All that’s about to change, when two strangers seek her out, asking for transport across the dangerous river Nysis to the city of Ludwig. Intrigued by their story and request, Cady accepts perhaps the most treacherous quest of her career: ferrying a ragtag group of misfits across a murky river possessed by the ghost of a long deceased dragon…
What follows is a journey that is equal parts fantastical and unmooringly strange.
What I loved:
Both Jeff Noon and Steve Beard have made a name for themselves within the field of “New Weird Fiction” and the two of them use their individual strength with great synergy in this collaboration. As you might have been able to guess from the synopsis, Gogmagog’s worldbuilding takes center-stage in its success, and I had a blast exploring it alongside our crew of equally unique characters. The strange ecosystems of a polluted ghost-river, the grimy steampunk-esque cities on its banks and the gritty folks with their own quirks and histories inhabit its ports, all add to the vividness of the world of Ludwig. And by “vivid”, I don’t mean “bright”; the world of Gogmagog is everything but… Noon and Beard paint a landscape rich enough to smell, but the smell is one of rot and decay, and the bodies of inhabitants that have survival on their mind rather than cosmetics… (I’m looking at you here Cady…) I wouldn’t want to visit Ludwig or the river Nysis, but thanks to the skill of these authors, I nonetheless felt like I was right there on the muddy shores.
Similarly unique and vivid are Gogmagog’s characters; a cast of mismatched weirdo’s out of a Becky-Chambers-fever-dream. There’s a robotic body-guard, a resurrected soul, and a young girl with a strange connection to ghost and shadows, including that of the river itself. Last but not least, we have Cady herself, whom Haegra-heritage makes her only partially human herself.
Although it took me a while to get a feeling for their characters, besides their obvious quirks, I found myself invested in their (back-)stories soon enough, and came to care for at least some of them more than I anticipated. Much to the credit of their well-written wit, that might admittedly be hit or miss for some readers…
As befitting of the genre of New Weird: there’s plenty more to explore beneath the surface than first meets the eye. I will let you embark on that treasure-hunt for yourself, but let me say that I appreciated some of the references, motifs and themes explored in here a lot.
What I didn’t love:
The story-structure follows a take on the (unlikely-) hero’s journey up the river, exploring the worlds backstory as we move along. Noon and Beard don’t take the reader by the hand, so don’t be surprised if you feel slightly lost before you gain a footing in the story. Although I was happy to go along with the ride, and felt like it really paid off to do so, I can see how this will bother some readers.
My only major issue with Gogmagog’s plot was its pacing, which felt distinctly unbalanced. Don’t get me wrong: a lot of action happens. Too much in fact to realistically take place in a single day. The same can be said for the character-interactions, their growth and relations. Had the authors not made the timeline so clear (1 single day!), I would’ve guessed the journey took about 2-4 weeks at least… That at least would’ve felt more realistic.
For being só action-packed, there’s a bit of a lull in the middle, where one too many port is called and events begin to feel repetitive. Luckily that was only brief and easily forgivable.
On a final personal note: be aware that there’s plenty of (what I’d call) “potty-humor” in the book. Comedy derived from bodily-grossness and Cady being completely disgusting and uncivilized for the sake of it. If, similar to me, that brand of humor generally doesn’t seem to work for you; approach with caution.
Many thanks to Angry Robot and Dreamscape Media for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I highly recommend the wonderfully narrated and produced audio-version; Matthew Lloyd Davies brings the characters to life in a way that text alone couldn't have conveyed.
You can find this book here on Goodreads.
