Finch

I need to preface this review by saying that I did read the first two parts of the Ambergris trilogy (City of Saints and Madmen and Shriek: An Afterword) and found them both to be overwrought, dry, slow-paced, and disrespectful of readers' time (particularly Shriek, which goes seemingly no-where in 350+ pages). The three books take place in the same universe, but the stories and characters are only tangentially-related to each other, and I believe you could skip the first two and read only the third. That said, I can't say how much my reading of Finch benefitted from the worldbuilding of the first two books. Possibly, Finch isn't as good without that knowledge. Or maybe it's still as good as I thought it was. At any rate, it's a hard-boiled detective story that takes place in a nightmarish fantasy world where mushrooms are the enemy of mankind and are actively-overthrowing the wartorn city of Ambergris. It was a real ride. Tense, exciting, mysterious. Bitter and wry at times, but never boring. Jeff VanderMeer is at his absolute best when he's writing horror-fantasy, although he sort of bottoms out when it comes time to conclude a story--although I think Finch is one of his better books in this regard.

Simply put, this is a brilliant book, one I will not soon forget. I am haunted by it, really. I wanted to point out for readers unfamiliar with VanderMeer's work that this is a standalone novel. It is not a sequel, nor the end of a trilogy, nor part of a "cycle". That said, it does take place in a fictional world, called Ambergris, where the author has set other novels, novellas, short stories. Truly, it is not required at all that you have read any of these other works. Finch stands on its own 100%. There *are* some references backwards to some of VanderMeer's other Ambergris fiction, such as the novel Shriek and the amazing novella The Transformation of Martin Lake (from City of Saints and Madmen), but these references are meant as treasures for Ambergris-lovers; they are not essential to the plot. If you are thinking of checking out Finch, please don't worry about whether or not you have read any of the author's other fiction set in the same world--though I suspect you may want to after reading Finch. Finally, if you are not normally a person who would read fiction set in a fantasy world, I would encourage you to try Finch anyway--particularly if you enjoy the crime/mystery genre. Finch is up there with the best crime fiction. I would put it up there with the best of Lawrence Block's Scudder novels and the best of Charles Willeford. But wait a minute...? Is this a fantasy? Or is this a crime novel? Or is this some kind of "literary" novel? It is all of those things and more. You can't put this book in any kind of box! That's a good thing.

Back to the timeless city of Ambergris, from VanderMeer's 'City Of Saints And Madmen' and 'Shriek: An Afterward'. Ambergris has changed a great deal over the last century. The once mysterious and quiet Gray Caps (Mushroom People) have risen from their Underground to take over the city, overpower the reigning corporate-based rulership, and now runs the city with the help of fungi based weapons, and towering purple mushrooms which disperse addictive drugs to the human population. John Finch, not his real name, is a detective put on the case of two bodies lying dead in a tenement room. Both he and his partner Wyte, who is contaminated with fungal growth, are puzzled over the mysterious way the deaths occurred, and that one victim is human and the other a Gray Cap. They are watched over by the Partials, humans who have given themselves over to the Gray Caps and allowed fungal and other alterations to their bodies. Finch must eat the "memory bulbs" harvested from the dead, to discover the reason for their murder. The Gray Caps, while ruling the city, are focused on building two towers, the function of which is unknown and mystifying. It seems the city falls deeper into decay the further along the towers rise. Finch finds himself deep in a complex web of fabrications and suspicion over the murder; a murder that ties in such anomalous characters as the Lady In Blue, Ethan Bliss, the dangerous Stark, Finch's neighbor Rathven, and his Gray Cap boss Heretic. Could there even be a tie to Ambergris historian Duncan Shriek, who disappeared a century ago? Ambergris has a history: First, The Silence, discussed in VanderMeer's first Ambergris story 'City Of Saints And Madmen'; then The War Of The Houses, discussed in VanderMeer's second Ambergris novel 'Shriek: An Afterward'; and now in 'Finch' comes The Rising. Not only have the Gray Caps risen to take over the city, but the waters have risen too; where there was city and canals now lies a vast bay - Ambergris is shrinking. There's a lot more, well, fungi, in this third trip through Ambergris. More spores, more infestation, more ruination, more rot, more types of fruiting bodies, and large tree-sized mushrooms that dispense purple spores that people wait for because the spores are the new drug of choice. There's always been something attractive to me about fungi and fruiting bodies - they're peculiar and rather disgusting. They give me a creepy feeling, and when confronted with one in the wild I cannot stop myself from plucking it and handling it, turning it this way and that to study it, then scrubbing my hands as hard as I can to rid myself of the real (or imaginary)) slime and spores left behind. I'm a little disappointed in The Rising depicted in 'Finch'. Part of what lured me to Ambergris was the mystery of the Gray Caps; now much of that mystery has been revealed, lessening the tension I felt reading the other Ambergris books. VanderMeer also changed his style a bit, using uncharacteri

Wow. This book was quite different from any other I've read. There are plenty of sci-fi or fantasy books in which the author leaves a frustrating majority of the backstory unexplained, where you're expected to just piece together an understanding of the author's world. Finch is ALMOST that, but not quite. Your understanding grows as the story progresses, and this is what the author intends. 'Finch' is a sort of noir/mystery, only set in a fictional world, so the struggle to understand Finch's world contributes to the overall mood the author wants to convey. Finch's world seems limited to the once-glorious city of Ambergris, which has now fallen into ruin under the rule of the mysterious 'gray caps' -- an inhuman fungus-based race with advanced technology and a disregard for human life. Confined to living underground & in relative obscurity for centuries, the gray caps apparently 'rose' in Ambergris' recent past, overthrowing an establishment already in shambles after decades of civil war and plunging its human denizens into squalor and forced labor. Finch works as a detective for the gray caps, helping them piece together the various crimes -- both petty and heinous -- occuring in his area of Ambergris. He works, then, for the enemy... for the very race that's destroyed his city and way of life. Why? Finch's motivations, as well as his mysterious past, slowly come to light throughout the story. The story itself begins with the discovery of two bodies, victims of a very unlikely and inexplicable 'murder' -- an unknown human and the top half of a gray cap. Finch's gray cap superiors seem strangely eager to solve the case, and Finch himself gets drawn deeper and deeper into Ambergris' underworld; spies from other cities/nations, the anti-gray cap 'rebellion', remnants of the warring houses of F & L and H & S who once battled for control of Ambergris and surrounding territory (but whose conflict has now been rendered moot in the wake of the gray cap takeover), Finch's own mysterious past. All the while, a sense of quiet despair and entropy loom over the city and the people living there. Fungus and spores are constantly devouring the city's architectre, replacing familiar landmarks with horrifying alien structures. Giant mushroom trees disperse nourishment for poor citizens; the sustencance is also hallucinogenic, meaning much of the remaining populace wastes away in a drug-induced alternate reality. Finch's own friend Whyte struggles with a hostile fungal invasion. His body changes from moment to moment as the infection works to transform him into something Other. Everywhere Finch goes there's evidence of the city's ruination and the claustrophobic sense that a way of life is disappearing and being replaced by something totally alien. A little research revealed that this is actually the third stand-alone book in the Ambergris universe. From what I can gather, the stories span centuries of Ambergrisian history. The scope of this story is fa

I enjoyed "City of Saints and Madmen" and "Shriek: An Afterword", but this journey back to Ambergris tops those. VanderMeer gives us a real story that gets under our skin (and may stay there). A caution to those of you who have not read the first two Ambergris books: it's not necessary that you start with them, but is very, very helpful. If you don't you are pretty much on your own, because there is little 'fill-in' in Finch to bring you up to speed. The Product Description above tells you all you need to know about the plot. The publisher has asked that reviews contain no spoilers - and there is little else to tell without giving up too much. (If you don't plan on reading the other two first, you should at least read their descriptions.) Our hero, Finch, reminds us frequently that he is not a detective - but he is one physically if not mentally. VanderMeer's imagination is in full bloom with the characters, the city and the physical world he puts us in. Duplicitous relationships (are tri- or quad- plicitous words?), strange science, and visceral scenes confront us as we try to stay alive with Finch as Ambergris is threatened. This is a page turner, so do not start this late in the evening if you plan on getting some sleep. If noir, fantasy, mystery and weird are your thing, then grab this one. (Do get the others, too.)

My only exposure to Jeff Vandermeer prior to this, was reading Steampunk, which was this volume of works he edited with his wife. Ann. I really enjoyed that book. I thought the idea of Ambergris intriguing. I didn't know I was beginning at the end, which isn't the author's fault or mine. I dived into it, though, so I will read this first and then go back to the other books. I was expecting a straight steampunk sort of novel with noir like detective elements, but this is much more than that. The fantasy elements, even the dark or grotesque ones, are beautiful. From page one, I was sucked in, a now fan of those books which are cut into "day" chapters. He has a very good use of vocabulary especially describing color and locations, it reminds me of Romantic Poets, yet this isn't a poem by far. The mixture is fantastic. It's gritty and violent, yet highly lovely in spirt, the only thing I could say even comes close to it that I have read, and I don't read a lot of fiction, is Nick Cave's And the Ass Saw the Angel. The two books are completely different in plot but share the same gorgeous intensity in their gothic imagery and dark joys. It's so rhythmic in nature, I can believe the music cited at the end inspired in and why he would want to make a soundtrack to go along with the book. The story is a mix of so many things, horror, pulp detective stories, gothic literature, poetry, magic, who-done-its, I could list a bunch of movies and books I have read that would be the fingers and eyelashes of this work. It's good for the detective story read, good for the fantasy reader, hopefully good for the goths and steampunks too, though I am sure there might be debate over that. I am smitten by the lure of Ambergris, so I will be walking backwards and reading the rest. I would tell you my opinion of the plot, but the press that made the book, expresses their opinion that spoilers should be kept to the bare minimum, so I am respecting that. I can say that I don't read a lot of fiction because I rarely get sucked into a world, but this world of Ambergris is unique and gruesomely addictive.