Friday Friyay: 'Hollow' by Brian Catling

 Happy Friday everyone! My Christmas holiday starts today so I'm going to try and be a little better at the blogging the next few weeks as I've been pretty MIA. I will also be contrasting the holiday cheer with the book below: Hollow by Brian Catling.

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.

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. It is B. Catling's most accomplished and gripping tale yet.

Book Beginnings is at home on Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. I'll also be joining the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

BB:

'"Saint Christopher is a dog-headed man."
The Oracle, bound in wet blankets, spoke for the first time with a voice to silence the angels.' p.3

Ok, I'm entirely in. What and why are dog-headed men? And I love me an Oracle, especially one that is creepy enough to silence the angels!

F56:

'Meg looked very glum at the truth of her friend's tirade, until an inch of a giggle unzipped part of her mouth.' p.56

This description of a giggle utterly got to me. It's such an odd, uncanny way of describing the way in which a laugh or smile will open up your face and expression. I can't wait to get into the weirdness that seems to be Hollow!

BBH:

This week's question was suggested by Elizabeth over at Silver's Reviews:

How many books have you read this year?

Oooh that's the question, isn't it? I started a few years ago with setting myself the challenge of reading 100 books in a year, and tracking it on Goodreads. Until now each year I either ended up in the high 80s or in the low 90s, but this year may be the year! I still have two weeks left and am at ... *drum roll* ... 95 books!

I'm actually pretty proud of myself for this one, I'll be doing a mini-celebration dance when I do hit the 100. While I set 100 as a target the past few years, I was never really mad about not hitting it. In the end it is about the quality of the reading, not the quantity I think. The lovely thing about 2021 is that the quality and quantity were both there. I'm prepping my Top 10 post of the year and it's honestly an embarrassment of riches this year! Below is a little screenshot of my Goodreads challenge, you can see some of the books I've been reading.

So that is it for me today! How much have you read this year? And what are you currently reading?