Shriek: An Afterword
by Jeff VanderMeer
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jeff VanderMeerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-07-10
ISBN: 0765314665
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Tor Books
Book Reviews of Shriek: An Afterword
Book Review: A Personal Memoir from Ambergris
Summary: 5 Stars
Amazing. Hallucinatory, surreal, frightening, yet also packed with complex characterization and genuine emotion. Readers who enjoyed visiting the fungus-shrouded city of Ambergris in _City of Saints and Madmen_ will be spellbound by this engaging story of love and loss and the impermanence of all human endeavor.
Initially conceived as an afterword to the "The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris" by Duncan Shriek (which is reprinted in _City of Saints and Madmen_) the story becomes a personal memoir told in a rambling, almost stream-of-consciousness manner by Janice Shriek, Duncan's older sister. With casual disregard for chronological order, she tells of their childhood, Duncan's education and the beginning of his career as a historian as well as her own tumultuous life as an art-gallery owner and notorious libertine - as well as her bouts of depression, the spectacle of her brother being gradually changed (in strange ways) by his obsession with the mysterious "gray caps" and his unreasoning love for rival historian Mary Sabond. She recounts the gruesome war between two merchant clans vying for control of the city, and its horrifying climax on the night of the annual Festival of the Freshwater Squid. The story is interrupted and commented upon throughout by Duncan himself in parenthetical asides (he having apparently found the manuscript sometime after Janice finished writing it) so the siblings end up telling the story together.
The "gray caps" (a race of mushroom-people who originally inhabited Ambergris but were driven underground by the first human settlers) are a sinister presence in the background, discussed more than actually seen. They seem to be up to no good, planning something perhaps ... having read _Finch_ first, I already know what it is, but I don't think this foreknowledge really diminished my enjoyment of _Shriek_. Each book adds something to the Ambergris mythos, and they all refer to each other, so I don't think they must necessarily be read in any specific order.
Even as disjointed as it is, this book is more coherent than _City of Saints and Madmen_ but less so than _Finch_. It has some action and a bit of suspense but it is definitely the least viscerally exciting of the three. But so much more emotional! I don't usually like books that dwell overmuch on "feelings" but this one had enough weirdness in it to keep me fascinated. I also jumped out of my seat at the mention of an event I recall from the strange case of X in _City of Saints and Madmen_ and which, based on evidence in that book AND this one, must be a recursive time-paradox. Just another of VanderMeer's devious tricks??
Anyway, GREAT book; I highly recommend it for fans of dark fantasy and the "New Weird." I think HP Lovecraft would have been very, very impressed.
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