Book Review: City of Saints and Madmen
City of Saints and Madmen
by Jeff Vandermeer
5 out of 5
In just three short pieces, Jeff Vandermeer has shot to the position of my favorite fantasist. What's more, he may even be my favorite fiction author entirely, overtaking such luminaries as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Anton Wilson, Isaac Asimov, Charles deLint, and Alan Moore.
His prose is unparalleled in any fiction which I have read, modern or otherwise; one cannot escape from a story once begun, for even if the book is closed and dropped the mind is trapped within the confines of Ambergris.
Ambergris, the City of Saints and Madmen, is a setting as rich and textured as any good hero (or villain). It possesses the poetic complexity of the Romantics with the moody subtlety of the best Gothics, instilling the reader with a growing sense of tension and ambiguous dread achieved by such as Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow and the illuminating, odd laughter of Robert Rankin.
I cannot strongly enough urge the immediate absorption of the short works combined within the pages of Jeff Vandermeer's City of Saints and Madmen. The city of Ambergris awaits to ensnare you. Your heart and mind will want to stay always, but your soul will be forever seeking escape. Closing the book is no antidote to this addictive spiritual poison.
by Jeff Vandermeer
5 out of 5
In just three short pieces, Jeff Vandermeer has shot to the position of my favorite fantasist. What's more, he may even be my favorite fiction author entirely, overtaking such luminaries as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Anton Wilson, Isaac Asimov, Charles deLint, and Alan Moore.
His prose is unparalleled in any fiction which I have read, modern or otherwise; one cannot escape from a story once begun, for even if the book is closed and dropped the mind is trapped within the confines of Ambergris.
Ambergris, the City of Saints and Madmen, is a setting as rich and textured as any good hero (or villain). It possesses the poetic complexity of the Romantics with the moody subtlety of the best Gothics, instilling the reader with a growing sense of tension and ambiguous dread achieved by such as Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow and the illuminating, odd laughter of Robert Rankin.
I cannot strongly enough urge the immediate absorption of the short works combined within the pages of Jeff Vandermeer's City of Saints and Madmen. The city of Ambergris awaits to ensnare you. Your heart and mind will want to stay always, but your soul will be forever seeking escape. Closing the book is no antidote to this addictive spiritual poison.