The second in the Vorrh series, an incredible complex and creative world-creation, taking place most in between the first and second world war. There are several interweaving stories, spanning Germany, England, Essenwald (a colonial city in Africa) and the Vorrh itself - the ancient forest of Eden, home to the Erstwhile, the guardian angels who had failed in their task of guarding the tree, who had been forgotten, and who are now walking up, leaving the great forest, and formulating plans. The writing and plotting is superb and bizarre, and is leading to a third and final book whose plot I cannot even imagine. Excellent stuff.