I read Gogmagog (The chronicles of Ludwich #1) by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard as part of my Water theme for 2025.
I was so excited when the audio came off hold at the library. I had seen this book on social media and it seemed like it was going to be amazing. I mean: a river journey with a 1600 yr old woman, a thrall (mechanical AI type being, a girl made of seeds, and more. A river that is sort of a dragon? The journey promises to encompass old folk tales and present them in strange and alien ways.
SIGN ME UP.
(in my imagination, this is the River....)Hall, Sidney, Etcher. Draco and Ursa Minor / Sidy. Hall, sculpt. Ursa Minor, 1825. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002695394/.
Sadly, I'm going to have to say.... take me off this sign up list. Especially in the audio book form.
Things I really liked:
-Cady's character is refreshing and super enjoyable.
-The river itself is like it's own character
- the mystery of it all.
-the writing is solid and makes reading it to be fairly easy.
Now... for me there was a lot I just didn't love. The narrative is kind of jumpy which didn't prove to be an issue with me, but i didn't really love that particular choice. I felt like I understood what was going on , but I also felt like all the characters were trying to be the main character, and thus in the end, no one was really the main character and the overall story was lost... was it about the dragon, the child?, the Gogmagog?, Cady's body changes? Lek finding robotic love? I would have DNF this book, but I had this sort of tingle that said it would eventually sort itself out. For me, it did not- I felt it was "Almost there" . Noon did a nice job of showing and not telling, but I did want a bit of telling so I could connect the dots a little bit more. Perhaps that happens in the second book, but, friends, I'm not going to give this series another 12 hours of my listening time. The narration was not to my liking, as whomever was "doing the voices" just managed to make me feel that tinge of aggravation that one feels sometimes.
The best way for me to describe this is that the reader is the audience for a Dungeon's and Dragons type role playing game in someone's parent's refinished basement and each player is taking a turn at advancing their character's story. They are paying attention to the other's stories but they aren't incorporating them in any meaningful way so it ends up being a very surface type experience overall.
Did I miss the point? Maybe - I have also had some trouble with James Joyce's works... and even some lesser esteemed novels. Is this a book for someone? SURE. The writing itself is very good, and the premise is great. Let me know if you've read this one and what you thought? Enlighten me to what I missed! I may try to read more from these authors just to get further into the weird, because I mean, perhaps it's a me problem.
STATS
First Published : February 13, 2024
Pages: 368
Available as an Audio Book : YES
Trigger Warnings: pandemic, death, profanity, alcohol, parental death
As always - this is not a complete list, read responsibly!
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