Review: Gogmagog, by Jeff Noon & Steve Beard

Gogmagog tells the story of an epic journey through the sixty-mile long ghost of a dragon.

Travel is by boat, a rickety steam launch captained by veteran taxi pilot Cady Meade, on the river Nysis. In her heyday Cady carried people and goods from the thriving seaports of the estuary into Ludwich, the capital city. Now she’s drunk, holed up in a rundown seaside resort, telling her bawdy tales for shots of rum. 

All that’s about to change, when two strangers seek her out, asking for transport, one of whom – a young girl – is very ill, and in great danger. The other, an artificial being of singular character, has secrets hidden inside his crystal skull. So begins the voyage of the Juniper.

The Nysis is unlike any other river. Mysteries unfold with each port of call. Not many can navigate these channels, not many know of its whirlpools and sandbanks, and of the ravenous creatures that lurk beneath the surface. 

Cady used to have the necessary knowledge, and the powers of spectral navigation. 

But her glory days are well behind her now. This might well be her final journey.

My Review

I was sent a copy of this book in return for an honest review. It’s not part of a blog tour, I just get books from Angry Robot sometimes. This is the fist half of a duology, the Chronicle of Ludwich. I think I’m getting Ludluda, the second book at some point.

I’ve finished reading all my blog tour books for March, and started on April’s already, so I’ve decided to make my way through some of my backlog of books. I have a lot of books on my currently reading list, so I’m obviously working on my TBR pile. Because I’m logical like that. I’ve spent today reading Gogmagog and tomorrow I’m going to read Bluebird by Ciel Pierot, another of my Angry Robot books. I really need to read Invocation, by S.T. Gibson, VURT, by Jeff Noon, and Dragon Rider, by Taran Mtharu, so I can clear that shelf. My shelves of books are multiplying quite worryingly.

Back to the review.

Once, the land was dominated by great dragons, Haakenur the greatest of all. Then the ancestors fell from the sky, in burning rocks. Lud, the king, fought Haakenur to rescue his sister Luda from the womb of Haakenur when her meteor had landed. In the fight, Lud was poisoned y the sting in Haakenur’s tail, and as it ravaged his body, her cut Haakenur open, rescuing Luda. Birthed from Haakenur’s body, her ghost Faynr took possession of the river Nysis. Another ghost, Gogmagog escaped Haakenur’s corpse, made of the poison in her tail, and banished by the priests, forgotten.

From the first ancestors came the Six known Kindreds, and the secret Seventh kindred.

Cady Meade is a retired sailor, 78 and schlepping about the streets of Anglestume, always in a bid for booze and smokes. Unfortunately, it’s Tuesday and Wednesday is pension day. Someone is looking for her. Two someones, in fact. An automaton named Lek and a little girl with magic called Brin. They need to get to Ludwich for a ceremony and they’re being followed by mysterious agents. Cady refuses to take them, not having a boat anymore and having lost too many people to the Nysis, the river she plied for 50+ years. The river spirit is the ghost of a great dragon killed by a mythical king, and she is sick. Sections of the river have been closed off, too dangerous to travel along, killing the river trade Cady had long worked.

Yanish, an orphan Cady took in at 13, and now 18, buys their boat, Juniper, back with the money Lek pays him to take them to Ludwich. Cady isn’t too happy but agrees to go as pilot, since she knows the river better than anyone. On the journey, they discover how sick the river spirit is, a new river dragon ghost, Gogmagog, and Cady finds the first of her kind, the first of the Seventh Kindred. But there’s more going on then a fight between river spirits for power and Brin might just end the world.

Cady is almost 1500 years old, she remembers and took part in many momentous events, rejuvenating each time the never-never flower people (it makes sense in the context of the story) call on her and send her visions. She’s a watchwoman, bound to protect and guide events through history. She’s part human, part plant. Everyone is some sort of fae-creature, but also human. Brin has the stubs of insectile antennae, Yanish has a triangular crystal in his forehead that connects him to memory libraries, other characters have wings. The river is a dragon!

The basic story is travellers make a perilous journey to get to an important event, they’re guided by a wise person and are being chased. During the journey, many frightening things happen, challenges are met and overcome, they arrive at their destination. This is not a new plot, so many stories are told using this archetype, but this is not your usual journey narrative. They only have to travel 60 miles on a highly navigable river. It’s the people doing the journeying and events along the way, as well as the setting that make it interesting and new.

For the setting we have an alternative Thames, the Nysis, and we’re travelling from the Isle of Sheppey to London, Anglestume to Ludwich. Some of the descriptions, especially of flying bombs and gun emplacements, suggest late 1940s, but others the 1920s as inspiration. There’s a distinctly ‘1920s Bright Young Things’ feel to the revelry on the Glad Rag. The descriptions of Ludwich, especially the Pool and walls, are more medieval, while the bridge, which opens in the middle sounds like a Victorian bridge. Lots of different time periods have clearly been drawn on. The name of the river, Nysis, comes, I think, is from the name of the Thames around Oxford, the Isis. The word ‘Thames’ comes from the Brittonic name for the river, Tamesa. This was Latinised to Tamesis, and then in Old English we have Temese. At some point the first e became ha, but the h is never sounded. One hypothesis for why the stretch of Thames around Oxford is called the Isis is that the entire river was called the Tamesis and at some point someone, probably and antiquarian, noticed that one of the tributaries is the Thame, and assumed that Thames must be a contraction of Thame-Isis, meaning the river that the Thame and the Isis are tributaries of. Of course, it makes more sense that the entire river system was called Tamesis and some people shortened parts of it to Thame, some to Isis, and some used the full name, depending on dialect and conversational context. Contractions happen, especially if you need to shout a message across a river from one boat to another. So, the authors developed the name from Isis to Nysis (sound it out). And Ludwich is London. Lud is one of those mythical figures recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth. According to Geoffrey, King Lud was a pre-Roman king of the Trinovantes, who built and fortified Caer Lud, or Lud’s Fortress, London. Considering Monmouth also clamed that Ludgate was named after the burial place of Lud, when in fact it’s from the Old English hlid-geat, meaning swing gate, I think we might have to take it with a grain of salt. London derived from the Latin name Londinium, a major commercial centre in Roman Britain. There are arguments about the word that the Romans latinised to come up with Londinium, although mose generally assume it’s a Brittonic word of some sort.

On to Gogmagog. I first heard of Gogmagog, when I read books about British mythology as a teenager. I’ve been reading mythology and folklore books a long time. If I remember correctly he was one of the giants that inhabited Britain before humans arrived. When the refugees from Troy, led by Brutus, arrived, one of Brututs’ companions Corineus fought Gogmagog, and defeated him to take ownership of the island of Albion, then renamed Britain in Brutus’ honour. Corineus was give a piece of land in the south west, which was named Cornwall after him. Yeah, it doesn’t make much sense written down 25 years after I first read it. It’s another 12th century Geoffrey of Monmouth story. Stories that followed were all based on Monmouth’s work.

There are later stories, from the 16th century, which include the Emperor Diocletian and his wicked daughters. After rebelling against their father and husbands, they’re set adrift, and find an island where they copulate with giants and have children. Gog and Magog are names of two of the giants. Gogmagog is supposed to be the protector of the City of London, and statues of Gogmagog and Corineus, sometimes referred to Gog and Magog, stand outside the Guildhall.

I love mythology, and I love it when authors use existing mythology to build new worlds. Noon and Beard draw on the rich folklore of London and a bit of modern folklore about aliens, to explain their Kindreds and the world they build. The dragons are more like Chinese dragons than wyrms or fire drakes of northern European mythology. That accords more with their riverine nature. They also draw on the genius loci, or spirit of place folklore, that gives a name and character to a place, or in this case a river.

This book is weird! In a very good way. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads for a reason. The writing is like a bizarre waking dream. Events take place over 48 hours, but it feels like a much longer journey, because we’re taken backwards in time as events evolve. It’s slightly hallucinatory. I really enjoyed it. Well-written, great characters that evolve through the story, a mystery, lots of peril and a few fights. Also, Cady has some filthy songs!