16 thrilling science fiction and fantasy books to enchant you this June
By Lacy Baugher
June 2021 release: Hollow – Brian Catling
From the author of the Vorrh Trilogy comes an epic odyssey following a group of mercenaries hired to deliver a church’s ultimate power–a sacred oracle–as the decadence of Carnival gives way to the gravity of Lent and the mystic landscape grows ravenous.
Set in a fantasy version of the early 16th-century Netherlands, Barry Follett leads a ragtag group of mercenaries over a mountain said to be the collapsed Tower of Babel, transporting a deformed oracle to a new home. Elsewhere, a monk named Dominic and his mentor investigate the existence of small demonic creatures and a village woman named Meg fights back against the Inquisition’s oppression in an attempt to save her son. How these seemingly disparate story threads come together is one of the journeys at the heart of Brian Catling’s Hollow, but it’s hardly the only one.
Rich with action and fantastic creatures, Hollow ushers the reader through a world of ruin where holy secrets are unearthed, art mirrors life through a glass darkly, and death looms over everything.
The official synopsis describes the series in more detail.
"Sheltering beneath Das Kagel, the cloud-scraping structure rumored to be the Tower of Babel, the sacred Monastery of the Eastern Gate descends into bedlam. Their ancient oracle, Quite Testiyont–whose prophesies helped protect the church–has died, leaving the monks vulnerable to the war raging between the living and the dead. Tasked by the High Church to deliver a new oracle, Barry Follett and his group of hired mercenaries are forced to confront wicked giants and dangerous sirens on their mission, keeping the divine creature alive by feeding it marrow and confessing their darkest sins. But as Follett and his men carve their way through the treacherous landscape, the world around them spirals deeper into chaos. Dominic, a young monk who has mysteriously lost his voice, makes a pilgrimage to see surreal paintings, believing they reveal the empire’s fate; a local woman called Mad Meg hopes to free and vindicate her jailed son and becomes the leader of the most unexpected revolution; and the abbott of the monastery, influential as he is, seeks to gain even more power in this world and the next."
Hollow is available on June 1.