City of Saints and Madmen

Vandermeer's take on "The City" as urban fantasy is full of writers and fungi, and is supremely satisfying for the intrepid prose explorer; each story enhances and informs the rest.

Interesting looking book about a man who might be imagining the entire world in which the novel takes place (if that makes sense...). The city is covered in this hallucinogenic mold thingy that glimmers in the moonlight. Waaa! (I'll let you know if it sucks when I'm done reading it.)

one of the best

I heard Dante skipped this Circle of Hell because he mistook it for Paradise. 'Ware the Graycaps and the King Squid.

this "book" has the most awesomely, epically, insanely detailed fictional setting of any book ever. thumbs up.

imagine the hand, tickling out renoir flowery brushstrokes as written word. with the heart of a sweeping grand and yet restrained romaticism of a victorian gentlemen explorer. but the mind of a raving mad cthulu worshiper with insanity points into triple digits... oh yes. if expressed in a word? 'Wibble'

The four main stories are all referenced in Shriek: an Afterword. Like beginning at the end and moving towards the beginning.Dradin is obviously mad, Duncan is seen by the general populace as mad in Shriek, and Martin's brush with madness is what propels him from obscurity to success. And then there's the nameless author based on, no wait, IS Vandermeer himself, trapped in Ambergris who is...more

The four main stories are all referenced in Shriek: an Afterword. Like beginning at the end and moving towards the beginning.Dradin is obviously mad, Duncan is seen by the general populace as mad in Shriek, and Martin's brush with madness is what propels him from obscurity to success. And then there's the nameless author based on, no wait, IS Vandermeer himself, trapped in Ambergris who is convinced he was the one who created Ambergris.... I mean, what the hell?! The conceit to insert yourself into a story only seems distasteful to me. It does have Vandermeer's style of pondering fiction / reality line, the construction and writing of fiction, and lots of references to Vandermeer's related Ambergris work but it irritates me! This writer god-complex deal with author insertation is irrationally irritating to me. Though one of the non-traditional stories in the appendix, King Squid, the angry scientist's research and bibliography suddenly parting to reveal the disquieting biography of madness took me aback. Good god, even About the Author is a mix of fiction and reality. Vandermeer's audacity is amusing, charming, puzzling, and thematically suiting. But it's primarily art.   hide

To put it simply, I am madly in love with this book.

This is one weird book. Kind of like that Alice in Wonderland feel you get when you play certain video games, like Little Big Planet. Pure escapism.