The Wilding

Ian McDonald has been busy quietly becoming one of our best writers over the past couple of decades, and while a departure into horror isn't likely to suddenly win him fawning accolades from the broadsheets, I'm happy to report that his prose is as good as ever here. There's a little aside early on to tell you that isn't folk horror - but it's not exactly not folk horror either, with its parade of ancient forces rising out of the landscape (and what a landscape - the descriptions of the bog and the surrounding terrain are transportingly vivid). It doesn't have the stately pace and low key weirdness of a lot of popular recent FH though - once everything kicks in here it goes like a train all the way to a climatic battle that is begging to be filmed. A lot of fun. Also worth noting that this is the second novel with a gerund for a title that I've read in the last few months. Horror's back, baby!