What a disappointment. Whereas The Vorrh was enchanting and mysterious, The Erstwhile was pedestrian and clumsy. Each page of The Vorrh dripped with fantastic imagery brought to life by the beautiful prose, while The Erstwhile settles for brisk exposition, as if Catling suddenly decided that he wanted to write some genre fiction instead of a poetic fever dream.

I didn't realize it until I was halfway through The Erstwhile, but I guess I didn't want a sequel to The Vorrh. I wanted it to end vague and inconclusive. I guess when I saw that Catling was releasing another book in the series, I was hoping/expecting it to be only loosely related to the first one, not a direct follow-up about the same characters (each of whom, after The Erstwhile, I despise). Instead, we got something that I don't think we really needed. I will still probably read the third book in the planned trilogy, but now my expectations are much, much lower.