I was sent an advance copy of Song of the Death God by the publisher in exchange for a review. The book is to be released late April 2017.
The publisher tells me that “this book is the second book in the Singularity Cycle Lovecraftian Horror series and is the first book in the prequel trilogy.”
I've read a lot of great horror so far this year. Sadly this book doesn't fall into that category.
Song of the Death God is a semi-interesting story written by someone who appears to have bored of it before they ever reached the editing stage. About half way through I was bored too and tempted to give up. The prose is riddled with repetition, clichés and weak qualifiers. Holloway's descriptions of people and places leave everything to the imagination of the reader. We are given caricatures rather than characters. Last but not least much of it is overtly racist – with Africa described as hell and a romani character telling us how untrustworthy and dangerous her people are.
I've enjoyed plenty of other books released by this indie publisher and dark magical horror is my favourite genre, which makes it even more disappointing to write this review. It has one saving grace. Two of the chapters are excellently conceived and written. As a short story this could have been wonderful.
Carsten Ernst is the main protagonist throughout the chapters in part 1. The story starts to unfold through his eyes. The plot holds some points of interest but the style is awkward and the characters are empty and unsympathetic. The action takes us from Munich to Prague, but we know this because the places are named rather than by any description. Carsten, having seen something inexplicable, goes in search of a rare book.
Wilhelm Ernst, Carsten's oldest brother, is the central figure in the second part. He watches hopelessly, while drinking himself into oblivion, as his two brothers Uli and Carsten descend into madness. Uli paints nightmare scenes including one from Wilhelm's own dream. Carsten practises ritual magic including a scene where he seems to be trying to raise their dead grandfather. Characterisation is still lacking, particularly in the case of the sisters who are empty and silly background characters whose purpose in the story is ill defined.
At the start of part 3 we return to Carsten's point of view, who is looking for another book. This time the book bears the same name as the title of this novel. Again Carsten visits a place that is simply named and not described, and again this is frustrating beyond belief. This is what Holloway writes about Carsten's time in Venice -
“Carsten stood on the bow of the Triarri, looking out into the Gulf of Venice. Karl sat on a deckchair in his ever-present bowler hat and dinner jacket, his moustache curled at the tips as was the fashion of the day. He read a German newspaper purchased in Venice.
Carsten hadn’t been to Venice before and enjoyed the chance to see its famous sights while waiting for a ship to Crete.”
That is the entire description, for want of a better word, which makes me wonder why visiting Venice is mentioned at all.
The story starts to get good at this point. The discussions with the bookseller on Crete are fascinating and at times the prose really shines. Chapter 32, in part 3, returns the narrative torch to Wilhelm. It is, in my opinion, the strongest chapter of the book. In it Wilhelm sees Uli's painting as if for the first time and feels on the precipice of a revelation.
For the following chapter we have a number of POVs at play starting with Renaud, the gallery owner who showed Wilhelm his brother's art in the previous chapter. Because of the format of the first two parts, it seems disjointed to now be skipping between different points of view. We jump to Marie, the widow of another painter and back to Wilhelm. It gets the story told, and it is an interesting tale, but at the same time it is jarring that the narrative style should change so dramatically in these chapters. We do, however, get some good writing at this point. I've read other books that were frustratingly slow to start but rewarded the reader's efforts later. If the book had been a novella that revolved around chapters 32 and 33 it would have scored at least 4/5 stars from me. It feels as if everything before is just background and here is where the story gets going. It starts with the unravelling of Wilhelm's sanity and the discovery of deep and fantastic truths through the paintings of two artists who died on the same day.
While the narration continues to skip between characters it works when viewed in isolation. The chapters at the end of part 3 are brilliantly written and sublimely exciting. Unfortunately, the rest feels like padding in comparison.
In Part 4 the novel reverts to the pace and style of the first 31 chapters, while continuing the rapid shifts between points of view of chapters 32 and 33. Karl Kreutz, Carsten's capable servant, provides the point of view for the start of chapter 34. He takes us back to a time before he met Carsten when he witnessed first hand magic and religious cults in Africa. Then we shoot forward in time to the house in Munich and his master. Point of view shifts again, to Wilhelm this time, waking up after a fight in the gallery, covered in his own shit, piecing together newly recovered memories. Next we jump to Ava's perspective, Carsten's servant and lover, and things are explained that have been explained before. We have the point of view of the sisters Greta and Karin next, as if they are one person and they restate parts of the story already developed in chapters 32 and 33. The chapter finishes with Carsten. Chapter 35 introduces another new narrator, Rudolf Haas, a police officer pursuing Wilhelm. The book muddles along in this way for a while with a few moments of action between the flashbacks. It transpires that Carsten has a plan that will culminate the following day, but in the meantime Wilhelm, attacked by mysterious alien forces, begs him to go no further. Listing the shifts like this in one paragraph seems confusing, and most of the time Holloway makes it clear whose head we are inside, but none of it seems to go anywhere or add anything to the central action.
The end is disappointing, both for the protagonists and the reader, but worse than that it finishes with the threat “To be continued”.
Summary
It's not a task to be taken lightly to write a negative review of someone's work. An author will spend years working on an idea and sculpting it into something worth reading. At the centre of this story is a beautiful gem, but to fully appreciate its beauty much chipping away of crude rock is still needed. Had I been the editor for this story I think the author would have sobbed when I asked him to trim 80% of his words.
2/5 stars for the prologue and chapters 1 to 31
4.5/5 stars for chapter 32 to the end of part 3.
2.5/5 stars for chapters 34 onwards.
Overall 3/5 stars.