by Jeff VanderMeer
Sometimes it doesn't matter what you hear about a book, all the promise described in glowing reviews--it doesn't matter who suggests it, on what authority or with what arguments. Sometimes, you're still going to come out the other side disappointed, confused how this could possibly be the book you h...
The Tombstone Guide to City of Saints & MadmenThe book lay on the weathered coffee table, pages spilling loosely from its tattered, well-worn binding, a suggestion of mould dotting the cardboard of the inside jacket, close to the spine. The following elements were (barely) contained within:• A beaut...
I ordered this book purely on the basis of reviews. I'd never heard of Jeff VanderMeer, but the book sounded quirky, unconventional, and interesting. On two out of three, I definitely got my money's worth.This is essentially a fully immersive, highly self-referential collection of stories about the ...
Disclaimer: The rating for this book is based on the first four stories: "Dradin, In Love" "An Early History of Ambergris" "The Transformation of Martin Lake" and "The Strange Case of X" ; all of which appear in the first edition of the book. Following are my impressions as I read the stories:"Dra...
A compilation of four novellas and an appendices of short stories written over several years by Vandermeer centered on his city of Ambergris. At times, experimental and engaging; other times, tedious. Though all the stories orbit Ambergris, my interest in each ranged widely.The four main novella’s...
Very 'ok' world-building dark fantasy. Though the stories share the common setting, and sometimes refer to the same characters, they feel very uneven, disconnected. The more violent passages I felt were somewhat overdone, bland, and the 'what a twist!' endings just a little too obvious. The appendix...
I was in a New Weird mood about a month ago and this is one of the books I read. I liked most of the stories in it and enjoyed the use of framed narration. I'd rank it somewhere between Perdido Street Station and The Scar.
This book is a bit like a movie where the cinematographer and the set designers locked the director in the basement and took over the set. Its very atmospheric, its filled with all sorts of wonderfully intricate and particular detail, and yet it rambles all over the place without ever gelling into ...
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