Much of the discussion of the early history ties in with the colonists’ dealings with gray caps, mushroom-like inhabitants that end up being ignored and built around as soon as the humans decide they’re no threat. The story alternates between Lake’s experiences at the party, and the years-later retrospective on his work by art critic Janice Shriek.Īnother story, the Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris, follows Janice’s brother Duncan, a brilliant academic historian who can no longer get work writing historical theses, and instead has to take what is supposed to be a promotional pamphlet for the city of Ambergris, and expands on it until it’s ludicrously long and filled with digressions. It follows a young artist, technically talented but without a sense of real artistic purpose, who gets an invitation to a strange party. The Transformation of Martin Lake, the third novella, is my favorite, and by far my favorite story VanderMeer has ever written. The omnibus has gotten rid of several of the short stories from the 2004 edition for the sake of space (even as is, the book is 867 pages.) This is unfortunate, because many of those short stories are fantastic, and while none are essential, they help each give a sense of the mundanities of the world meeting the surrealism of Ambergris. The first book, City of Saints and Madmen, is a collection of short stories and novellas loosely intertwined in the City of Ambergris. The Ambergris omnibus consists of three books- City of Saints and Madmen (2001) Shriek: An Afterword (2006) and Finch (2009) Bishop hasn’t written a novel since, Mieville is currently working on nonfiction, and VanderMeer’s had far more success with his Southern Reach trilogy and subsequent work.īut perhaps the launch of the Ambergris omnibus can bring it back, if only for a moment.

The subversive elements turned into grimdark and the aesthetics turned into steampunk. Perdido Street Station created it, but City of Saints and Madmen, as well as KJ Bishop’s The Etched City, showed off even more of its possibilities. It’s because reading an Ambergris book means reading from the perspective of people who view this place as home, and enjoy its oddities as a citizen, rather than a tourist.Ĭity of Saints and Madmen, the first Ambergris book, was one of the original books of the New Weird subgenre. This isn’t just because the setting is richly described, bursting with life. Ambergris is a wild, anarchic city unlike any other one in fantasy.

Ambergris jeff vandermeer