Declare Books To City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris #1)
| Original Title: | City of Saints & Madmen: The Book of Ambergris |
| ISBN: | 0553383574 (ISBN13: 9780553383577) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Ambergris #1 |
| Literary Awards: | World Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Collection (2003), Tähtifantasia Award (2007) |
Jeff VanderMeer
Paperback | Pages: 704 pages Rating: 3.86 | 5123 Users | 455 Reviews
Present Regarding Books City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris #1)
| Title | : | City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris #1) |
| Author | : | Jeff VanderMeer |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 704 pages |
| Published | : | December 18th 2007 by Bantam (first published 2001) |
| Categories | : | Fantasy. Fiction. Short Stories. Horror. Weird Fiction. New Weird. Science Fiction. Steampunk |
Narration Supposing Books City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris #1)
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.Rating Regarding Books City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris #1)
Ratings: 3.86 From 5123 Users | 455 ReviewsNotice Regarding Books City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris #1)
I once read that a group of mystery writers including Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, and G.K. Chesterton formed a detection club and swore to abide by a code of authorial ethics to ensure fair play for their readers. This seems like such a good idea that I wish writers in other genres would consider forming a similar club and that Jeff VanderMeer, in particular, would be a member.Many reviews of this book mention its "puzzle-like" quality, but if this book is a puzzle, it is one in whichJeff VanderMeer's first book of Ambergris is a complex, humorous, awesome, inspired, boring, redundant, over-foot-notey, groundbreaking, self-absorbed and very pretty book. I can't quite call it a novel, nor a book of short stories: it's more of a patchwork, novellas and fake historical pamphlets and short stories and other bizarro little experiments that succeed at times with flying colors. At other times, they crash and burn. City of Saints and Madmen is a collection of tales set in Ambergris,
This one is very strange, like most of VanderMeer's work, but I really enjoyed it. More detailed review to come.
If you want metafictional/autobiographical dark fantasy, read "Lanark" by Alasdair Gray instead. (I know you could probably read both, but don't.)After I finished the first novella in this collection, I was so excited by the prospect of a full book of novellas like it. Even though I thought this was one big novel in its own rightit's actually a loosely linked collection of novellas in the city of Ambergris. Okay fine, so I couldn't lose myself in the world like I thought I'd be able to, but a
You know Mary Bennett in Pride & Prejudice, who tries too hard to come up with profound or abstract things to say? I was reminded of her while reading VanderMeer's writing style in City of Saints and Madmen. I didn't read the whole book - I have to admit I was too lazy to read the massive appendix.My favorite story within CoSaM was the Early History of Ambergris. The historian who writes/narrates the pamphlet (Duncan Shriek) added footnotes almost every other line; the footnotes take up
This book is an adventure in the house of mirrors where stories and people touch and slightly distort and echo back.I struggled a bit with parts of it (mainly the rather boring religious elements) but the rest of it was just so interesting. I especially loved the last story about the copywriter in search of the perfect sentence while being haunted by dwarfs.Oh I hear there is another Ambergris book too!
*WARNING: This is not really a review, but City of Saints and Madmen requires something else entirely, and there may be a spoiler or two, but considering the book's form I doubt that will matter.*Dradin, In LoveAs Dradin experiences the rain, I am straining with the brightness of our first sunny day reflecting off the silky pages of City of Saints and Madmen, and I am struck by the sensuality of the experience a mere forty pages into VanderMeers opus. The weight of the book is comfortable in my
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