I am a total sucker for 20th century retellings of ancient myths, so the moment I read the description I knew I had to read this book. It's a kind-of-somewhat retelling of the myth of Orpheus, set in London during the Blitz. Told in a combination of verse, prose, and illustrations, Voyages is primarily the story of two brothers: Harry and Ellis Black. Harry, the younger, created a rift between himself and his family when he registered as a conscientious objector - instead of putting on a uniform to fight the Germans, he fights fires during the Blitz (why being a goddamn firefighter who risks life and limb to protect civilians on the home front is not considered as honorable as throwing yourself into the meat-grinder that was the European theater in 1944, I have no idea. People are illogical and weird). Harry wants desperately to repair his relationship with Ellis, but Ellis is still stuck on the whole conscientious objector thing. They meet up one night at a pub to talk, but Harry leaves, and Ellis stays. The pub is hit by a German bomb - Harry is badly injured, and the pub is destroyed.

If this sounds like a regular story to you, don't worry, it's already pretty weird and at this point, it gets weirder. I do love it when things get weird.

While in the hospital with a very, very bad head wound, Harry meets a little German refugee girl named Agatha, who calls Harry "Orpheus." Then Harry becomes convinced that Ellis is still alive, trapped in the underground network cellars beneath the pub. Agatha wants to go underground to find her parents. So she and Harry do the smartest thing a little girl and a man with a traumatic brain injury could do: they run off into war-torn London to try and find a way into the underworld.

Also, Orpheus himself is there, filling in bits of the story with poetry. And Harry is an aspiring sci-fi writer/illustrator who has a bunch of glass eyes he stole from a burning factory that he puts in various places and gives to people.

I loved this book - it has a peculiar, fever-dream like quality to it that can be a bit confusing at first, but you get used to fairly quickly. This is a Greek myth retelling set in WWII, after all, it's not going to be your average straightforward tale. I loved the story of Harry and Ellis - it will definitely strike a cord with anyone who has siblings that they love but also fight and disagree with. And yeah, I cried. This book made me cry my own tears. I can't wait for the final copy with the finished illustrations.

Really my only complaints was that it was far too short and it made me cry. How dare you make me feel things, Sedgwicks!

2.5 stars, I haven’t decided whether to round that up or down yet.
ARC provided by publisher.

”Hell is different for everyone.
And everyone finds their own way in.
This was another thing I learned as the years turned,
as the leaves burned, as water dries up,
as the ground roasted, as trees died,
as time and time again, I made my way to the
Underworld.”

Part poetry, part graphic novel, centered around a retelling of the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, featuring brothers instead of lovers, all set against the backdrop of World War II.

When I heard that description, I was already sold. Greek myth retellings are my kryptonite and seeing one transported to a second world-war setting sounded like a story I could not pass up. Many thanks again to Candlewick Press for providing me with the ARC, in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, as much as I loved what the authors were trying to do with this novel, I was left with mixed feelings in the end.

Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black is takes place mostly from the perspective of Harry, a man who wakes up, wounded and disoriented, in a hospital after surviving a bombing, only to receive the news that his brother has been killed in action. Maddened with grief and posttraumatic delirium, he embarks on a fever dream-like journey, to retrieve his brother from the Underworld.

The style of the novel (for better or for worse) resembles the protagonists muddled state of mind, as throughout most of it I had not a single clue what was going on. Although it matches the story conceptually, I don’t think it does much favor to the reading experience in this case. Throughout the entire book I had to work quite hard to remain engaged and understand what I was reading, which I don’t mind as long as there is a good payoff in the end. That pay-off was missing a little for me.
It needs to be said that this had some brilliant passages and stunning art work. The cover illustration represents the art style quite well, and I can only tip my head to the illustrator for their beautiful work. Some of the panels by themselves were at a 4 to 5 star level, even if not all of them were finished in the ARC version yet.
In the end however, as a whole, I felt like this book may have been the victim of its own ambition. Both we as readers, as well as the authors seemingly had to put in very hard work to make this work. I loved what Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black sets out to do, and I think in parts it even succeeds, but it lacks the fluency and flow of a novel that is seemingly written with ease (and will therefore read as such).

This has been my third novel by Markus Sedgwick that has disappointed me recently. I always love his concepts, but I always feel his stories get lost in their ambition somewhere along the way. Maybe it’s just his writing and my taste that don’t align to well.
If you enjoyed his other works, I can see how this might be a great read for you. For me, it ended up somewhere in the middle with on a 2.5 star rating.

I admire what the authors were trying to do with this novel. It was super ambitious and sadly, I think it got the better of them.

Told in poetry, prose, and illustrations, this is a re-telling of Orpheus set in London during WWII. It confuses reality with fantasy, which I usually love, but it didn’t work for me here.

Because this book was trying to do so much, it ended up just feeling messy and left me frustrated.

This lovely book is a sort of retelling of the legend of Orpheus set in London during World War II. Harry Black is a conscientious objector, and he's doing his war service by putting out fires from the German bombs that fall on London every night. Because Harry isn't a soldier, his father disowned him and his relationship with his brother Ellis is strained.

After a bombing raid, Harry is injured and hospitalized and his brother is apparently killed. In his concussed state, Harry is convinced that his brother is alive, so he escapes the hospital with a young girl named Anna in tow, and they begin a bizarre journey into the underworld of London.

The journey is weird and wonderful and moving. Orpheus himself is a character in the book commenting on the action. The fraught relationship between the brothers was very well done, and Harry's journey is quite moving. I enjoyed never quite knowing what was going on; it's sort of the way a head injury or a near-death experience might feel. London during the Blitz is evoked quite vividly.

I was honored with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
"All Opinions are my own"

We all are Orpheus
We all have a song to sing
We all look back
It's so human to look back
We look back because we care.
We do care about humanity we try to shelter it from bombs
With a fiddle
With a song
With a pen

Storyline:
The story is about two brothers; well, being brothers, in the time of second world war. Harry and Ellis had a fight now they are trying to fill the void that is between them but war happens and who knows when is the last time we say goodbye?

Characters:
the character development was everything.

Why a 4-stars rating?
The story was perfect but near the end it lost its grab on me. The ending made up for it.

Harry and Ellis are brothers; one a conscious objector, the other a soldier fighting the Germans. When bombs fall on the pub they both recently reconciled in, Harry is determined to stop at nothing to locate his brother, dead or alive.

This book is written from Harry and fictional character, Orpheus Black’s, point of view. Harry, in a state of confusion, journals his day and uses his artistic skill to sketch images, while Orpheus brings life to Harry’s disillusion by providing poetic verses not unlike brother, Ellis’, poetic talents. But, will Harry ever find his brother? Is Ellis even alive? This twisted tale of uncertainty will keep you confused until the very last note.

Julian and Marcus Sedgwick team up to transplant the reader directly into Harry’s delusional state, and, while Harry never strays far from the bomb site, the reader is captivated by his tales of the underworld. But, prepare to be just as confused as Harry throughout this read as one works to decipher reality from fiction.

This one was a letdown for me. Part verse, part prose, this reimagined story of Orpheus, narrated in part by Orpheus, came across as muddled and got dragged down in its storytelling. The illustrations were beautiful, but just couldn't save the story for me. I loved the concept, but the execution fell short.