Shriek: An Afterword

Not to put too fine of a point on this, but "Shriek" is a modern masterwork. Immediate comparisons to Gene Wolfe, China Mieville, and Umberto Eco are unavoidable, and like those authors VanDermeer has done something that I feel is a necessary reinvigoration of literature, irrespective of genre: challenge the reader. Don't expect to be brought up to speed about the world that the characters live in, as 'current events' will be chronicled faster than you can process them, blending with childhood reminiscence. It is highly rewarding, though. This book lives and breathes- or rather, hacks and wheezes with lungs infiltrated by magickal fungi. The layered epistolary conceit- that of an artist's afterword to her brother's fictional history book, with the brother's annotations and their mutual editor's actual fictional afterword, is surprisingly fluid. One more item I must point out- I am very jaded as a reader, and unlikely to be shocked. In the midst of the protagonist's tale of life in war-torn Ambergris, there is a death scene so abrupt and unexpected that it literally jolted me.

Jeff VanderMeer continues the story of Ambergris in brilliant style. This time the story is told through Janice Shriek and her brother Duncan eyes. In A City of Saints and Madmen we were introduced to both of them. In the Afterword the reader is able to follow see there's and the city's decent into madness. It is a fun and completely engrossing book. Jeff VanderMeer once again takes his reader into and through a world were a person who is insane might be the most sane person.

In both setting and character, Jeff VanderMeer's Ambergris is an enigmatic destination. It's just fantastical enough for the reader to suspend their belief in the existence of the murky and unnerving gray caps, while just as believable as an obscure and unstable, equatorial locale reminiscent of perhaps a newly colonized (relatively) New Guinea. Either way, Ambergris is an immersive epicenter of weirdness that's completely engrossing as depicted in VanderMeer's Shriek: An Afterword. The story revolves around the lives of a pair of siblings, Duncan and Janice Shriek, and their absorption into Ambergris, particularly its academic fabric, as told by means of memoir and revision. The stories are of their successes and failures in a time of warring academics set within a warring city known for its tendency to inexplicably implode. On the surface, it is a city possessing a magical element that lends an unnerving flavor to its mystique. When the annual and oft-terrifying Festival of the Freshwater Squid is in repose, the battle for both literal and literary dominance of the city is viciously fought through scholars and their powerful publishing houses. Beneath the surface, the ever elusive, cryptic and unfathomable gray caps are waiting. VanderMeer superbly creates a multidimensional depth for all his characters while clearly delineating the protagonists from the antagonists. The only drawback was his over indulgence with Duncan's relationship with the character Mary Sabon; more time could have been spent on the relatively peripheral but intriguing characters of Sybel and Sirin. Otherwise, his pacing between the emotive narrative and the omniscient description (especially of all things fungal) is flawless. His movements between the mysterious, mundane and the insanely horrific are precisely paced as well. Shriek: An Afterward is a thrilling and frightening work of modern weirdness and quasi-steampunkery.

While 'Shriek: An Afterward' is fully capable of standing on it's own, it is technically a sequel to VanderMeer's fantastic 'City Of Saints And Madmen'. While 'City' was somewhat a documentary of the city of Ambergris (including a section dedicated to a book called 'The Hoegbottom Guide To Ambergris' by Duncan Shriek), 'Shriek' is a biography of historian and writer Duncan Shriek as told by his sister Janice Shriek. I first read this book as soon as it was first published, but for some reason failed to review it. Intending to finally review it, I picked it up and read it again. You know that a book is exceptional when you enjoy it just as much the second time around. I still recommend reading 'City Of Saints And Madmen' first, then dive full on into 'Shriek'. 'Shriek: An Afterward' is a manuscript by Janice Shriek that documents the life and career of historian Duncan Shriek, her brother. Rather than a tale OF the city of Ambergris, Janice tells us what it's like to live in the city; to walk it's streets and be a part of the very pulse of it's inhabitants. Duncan and Janice's father, also a historian, died when they were quite young, affecting both children very deeply. Duncan grows up to become a historian and writer, just like his father, and Janice, like her mother, becomes interested in the arts. Their careers wax and wan repeatedly through this account of their lifetimes. Duncan's fixation with underground Ambergris and the mystical fungal beings called Gray Caps that inhabit those dark spaces. Even when confronted with the Gray Caps during the annual, and extremely violent, Festival Of The Freshwater Squid, inhabitants of Ambergris turn a blind eye to the strange creatures and wallow in denial of them. Duncan refuses to accept their denial, and spends a lifetime attempting to open the eyes of Ambergris. War breaks out in Ambergris, instigated by two powerful publishing companies: Hoegbottom & Sons in Ambergris and Frankwrithe & Lewden in nearby Morrow. At the climax of the war comes not only the Kalif from the northern isles with his soldiers to interfere, but also the Festival to heighten the violence that already shakes the very foundation of the city. Janice makes many references to an ancient tome written by a man named Samuel Tonsure, who not only wrote an account of the underground city but disappeared into it, never to return. (Tonsure's work is also used in 'City Of Saints And Madmen') Duncan explores the underground extensively, but does not come away untouched. He finds a cybernetic machine in the depth of the underground that sends him teetering on the edge of sanity, and develops a "fungal disease" whose purpose seems to be turning him into a fungus or mushroom. Janice's account includes Duncan showing up at her apartment, where she spends an evening scraping mushrooms from her brother's skin. This lifetime account of the Shriek's, written by Janice and liberally sprinkled with notes later added by Dunc

This outstanding novel is set in the fictional town of Ambergris. The narrative is in the form of a typewritten manuscript by Janice Shriek as an afterword to her historian brother Duncan's "Early History of Ambergris". The reader learns that Duncan later finds Janice's manuscript and adds his handwritten reactions and objections within the text. VanderMeer separates the dual narrators by enclosing Duncan's words in brackets: this seems confusing but is ultimately successful, adding another layer to the story. Below Ambergris dwells a mysterious race of mushroom-like "gray cap" beings that were the town's original inhabitants and may be responsible for a later genocidal event. Meanwhile, Ambergris' citizens face two literally warring rival merchant conglomerates and a militaristic foreign invader. After some initial publishing success, Duncan grows increasingly obsessed with the gray caps and their potential threat to Ambergris while a liaison with a student threatens his university teaching career. Meanwhile, Janice opens a highly popular "New Art" gallery but soon succumbs to massive substance abuse. The amazing story is part biography of the Shrieks and part account of Ambergris' troubles. Though it came as a trusted recommendation, I was still inhibited by the book's "fantasy" genre label and did not immediately warm to the opening. I was engrossed after a few dozen pages and powered through the remainder on a relaxing summer vacation. I'm excited to read VanderMeer's other Ambergris works: the 700+ page "City of Saints and Madmen" collection and soon to be published novel "Finch".