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I can't recommend this guy highly enough. Surreal, but in a realistic and grounded way you don't always see in surrealistic literature. Funny, gr... (show more)
City of Saints and Madmen
In City of Saints and Madmen, Jeff VanderMeer has reinvented the literature of the fantastic. You hold in your hands an invitation to a place unlike any you’ve ever visited–an invitation delivered by one of our most audacious and astonishing literary magicians.
City of elegance and squalor. Of religious fervor and wanton lusts. And everywhere, on the walls of courtyards and churches, an incandescent fungus of mysterious and ominous origin. In Ambergris, a would-be suitor disc... (show more)
In City of Saints and Madmen, Jeff VanderMeer has reinvented the literature of the fantastic. You hold in your hands an invitation to a place unlike any you’ve ever visited–an invitation delivered by one of our most audacious and astonishing literary magicians.
City of elegance and squalor. Of religious fervor and wanton lusts. And everywhere, on the walls of courtyards and churches, an incandescent fungus of mysterious and ominous origin. In Ambergris, a would-be suitor discovers that a sunlit street can become a killing ground in the blink of an eye. An artist receives an invitation to a beheading–and finds himself enchanted. And a patient in a mental institution is convinced he’s made up a city called Ambergris, imagined its every last detail, and that he’s really from a place called Chicago.…
By turns sensuous and terrifying, filled with exotica and eroticism, this interwoven collection of stories, histories, and “eyewitness” reports invokes a universe within a puzzlebox where you can lose–and find–yourself again. (show less)
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I finished the short stores, but could not get through the appendix. I just felt like they didn't really add much more to Ambergris or make the sho... (show more)
I finished the short stores, but could not get through the appendix. I just felt like they didn't really add much more to Ambergris or make the short stories better. (show less)
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I have a lot of admiration for Vandermeer's imagination and skill at bringing Ambergris so fully and completely to life. Many small details have stuck with me long after I finished reading. My favorite story was "The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris." I was completely intrigued by the conflict between the Truffidians and the Graycaps and amused by the narrative voice of the "historian."
"Dradin in Love" and "The Transformation of Martin... (show more)
I have a lot of admiration for Vandermeer's imagination and skill at bringing Ambergris so fully and completely to life. Many small details have stuck with me long after I finished reading. My favorite story was "The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris." I was completely intrigued by the conflict between the Truffidians and the Graycaps and amused by the narrative voice of the "historian."
"Dradin in Love" and "The Transformation of Martin Lake" were both very good, but I found "The Strange Case of X"-- about the "author" from New York becoming trapped in Ambergris, the city he created-- a bit too meta for my tastes, and stopped reading at the appendices (which also hit my meta button, and made up more than half of the book.)
I was also struck by the similarity between Vandermeer's Ambergris and China Mieville's Crozuban and am now curious about each author's influence upon the other. (show less)
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This book was.... weird. Sort of.
Imagine a city, the city of Ambergris. An old city, with a strange and bloody history. Imagine the people who populate that city - an idolized composer, a dilettante politician, a mad writer, a steadfast merchant and so forth. Imagine a city built on genocide and violence. And squid.
Such a city would have a thousand, no, ten thousand stories to tell. It's as rich a fantasy city as Iest, or Tar Valon or Ankh-Morpork, and any writer could spend his life... (show more)
This book was.... weird. Sort of.
Imagine a city, the city of Ambergris. An old city, with a strange and bloody history. Imagine the people who populate that city - an idolized composer, a dilettante politician, a mad writer, a steadfast merchant and so forth. Imagine a city built on genocide and violence. And squid.
Such a city would have a thousand, no, ten thousand stories to tell. It's as rich a fantasy city as Iest, or Tar Valon or Ankh-Morpork, and any writer could spend his life writing stories in it.
That's not... exactly what Vandermeer does.
Reading this book is kind of like going into the Ambergris main library and picking books at random off the shelves. Through them - texts on history, art criticism, and squidology, vanity press literary magazines, letters and typed notes, we learn - second-hand - all about the city of Ambergris and its secrets.
We learn about the horrible fungus and the silent retribution of the Gray Caps whose nation was violated to build the city. We learn about the King Squid, the top of the food chain in the River Moth, who may be trying to kill us all. We learn a lot of things, but very rarely through the standard style of narrative.
Vandermeer has put together a very odd collection of fiction here, and has chosen a startlingly interesting way of presenting the city that he obviously loves. Or hates. I don't think even he is sure.... (show less)
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