Customer Reviews

Hollowing (Mythago 4)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ok, so I'm a big fan of Robert Holdstock's books. I believe I own every one now. The Hollowing is my favorite, even more so than Mythago Wood. Even though these are both books in the "Mythago Cycle", you don't really need to read Mythago Wood first, but it helps.

The Hollowing has such a lush, rich fantasy story that it makes me reread it every so often, and I am still amazed. Some of Holdstock's ideas are a little weird, but if you're reading a fantasy novel you obviously are capable of embracing weird ideas.

If you're a fantasy fan like me (or becoming one) pick this up. It's one of my favorite books ever and my fav from Holdstock.

This is a hauntingly beautiful book about a forest where nightmarish folk legends come to life. This book returns to Mythago Wood, a place that spans time and space, where the folk legends and myths buried deep in one's subconscious mind are born into living creatures called mythagos. The Hollowing tells of a father's maddening journey into the nightmarish forest in a desperate search for his missing son. This book was beautifully written and gave me a sense of wonder while scaring the crap outta me. An excellent and very original fantasy.

Robert Holdstock is a brilliant author who uses fantastic imagery combined with an extensive knowledge of mythology. In The Hollowing, he writes of a forest which lies only partially in the relm of modern day earth. Inside are created the mythic heroes and monsters of every culture, brought into existance by the force of mankind's unconcious needs. This novel is a FAR cry from the unimaginative dimestore fantasy novels which cram the shelves of bookstores, and is one of the most absorbing I have ever read

The Hollowing was a much faster paced book than it's predecessor, Lavondyss. Where Lavondyss stagnated after a little over half way thru, The Hollowing kept going onwards.
A father's search for his lost son in the woods of mythago is a tour-de-force read. From primal man to Jason and the argonauts - how could you go wrong here?
If you want a different sort of read than your average fantasy fare - look no further!
Characters grow and adventure bounds in this intensely harrowing adventure the likes of which I'll continue to discover. From dream-like sequences to horror-filled creatures - this was a thrill ride read.
Now, which book is number 4??

I found this book to be incredibly interesting and in some ways insightful. Holdstock has a wonderful imagination and talent for combining what is very close to if not an original myth to the subconscious perspective of his characters. I learned from his mythagos, and his view of the human mind or being. I met soldiers from ancient Rome, the Argonauts and legends I never even knew existed. Even though I was somewhat disappointed with his ending, it left me thinking about the determination of his characters, his wonderful mythagos, and imagination itself.

...well it truely is, I can't really see it in a bigger picture since I have not read all his books that takes place in Ryhope Wood, also known as Mythago Wood, but it takes place in the years after 'Gate of Ivory'...
I really enjoy all the strange things that appears in this book and I haven't been able to find it anywhere else, by any tother writers, which isn't so bad, since it makes Robert Holdstock to stand out in the mass.
Enjoy it!!!!

Robert Holdstock's imaginative fantasy world will change your outlook on the woods, and life itself ,for forevermore. It all begins when a young boy is swept away into the world of Ryhope Wood. The story is the journey of his loving , never-give-up father's desperate struggle to rescue his son from the strange and fascinating creatures of the wood. Rich and amazing, this novel is one to be read over and over again!

Robert Holdstock has come up with a remarkable literary creation with his Mythago Wood. A deceptively small wooded lot next to an English village turns out to be a vast haunted forest where the laws of time and space are twisted beyond comprehension. The wood is inhabited by figures from the mythologies of many different lands and eras, with scenes powered by the imaginations of the mortals that have found themselves enthralled by the forest. This is a great concept that Holdstock has explored in several books, but unfortunately in this one the concept doesn't come to full fruition. The book starts strongly as the protagonist Richard enters the wood to find the spirit of his son Alex, who is believed by everyone else to be dead, but whose haunted imagination has become one with the even more haunted forest, bringing out the worst of mythological horrors. But for some reason this book drastically loses focus in Part Three, where the chapters start to become detached explorations by Holdstock of various old myths with only tangential connections to the main storyline, including one ridiculously long chapter dwelling on a past-their-prime Jason and the Argonauts. More fundamentally, from beneath all this mythological doodling, Holdstock has not adequately explained either the true workings of Mythago Wood, nor Alex's spiritual connection to it. Holdstock's Mythago Wood premise is surely fascinating, but unfortunately this strangely schizophrenic installment fails to make full use of the concept's potential. [~doomsdayer520~]

Alex Bradley is a lost boy, in Ryhope Wood. A primeval wood defending itself against incursions from the outside world.

Even when a body is found and buried as Alex, his father takes to the wood with the help of "experts" who are exploring and studing it's "mythago" effects.

But the wood is using Alex's imagined heros & tricksters and giving them a life of their own, who now defend Alex.

These myths and archetypes can be heroic or nightmarish but almost all are deadly.

Each step the explorers take alters the magical balance within the woods. Ryhope Wood doesn't like change.

As an exploration of the subconscious achtypes this is a clever and imaginative book.

Well written by Holdstock on a theme that he has mastered and used in other "Mythago" novels.

This is a Mythago Wood series book by Robert Holdstock.

If you love old myths and fables you will love the Mythago Wood books.

It's mysterious and character driven and none of the mythic figures

would be recognized in a Disney cartoon.