What a glorious conclusion to this baffling trilogy. Catling’s surreal, nightmarish fantasy is brought to a stunning and shocking close in rapturous fashion. The Cloven moves more quickly than its predecessors, but Catling keeps his poet’s eye firmly affixed on the path, pulling the reader deeper and deeper into his dark and wondrous world of strangeness. The Cloven never does what you expect, but then again, no part of this trilogy ever did. Fans of the first two books will be delighted. Those who chose to wait until the trilogy was complete to start have a fantastic journey ahead of them. I will be reading them all again and again, trying to pierce the heart of darkness that underscores this tale.