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Finch (Ambergris #3)
by
Jeff VanderMeer (Goodreads Author)
In Finch, mysterious underground inhabitants known as the gray caps have reconquered the failed fantasy state Ambergris and put it under martial law. They have disbanded House Hoegbotton and are controlling the human inhabitants with strange addictive drugs, internment in camps, and random acts of terror. The rebel resistance is scattered, and the gray caps are using human
...morePaperback, 320 pages
Published
November 3rd 2009
by Underland Press
(first published November 1st 2009)
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Amanda
rated it
Recommends it for:
people sick of kitschy, mediocrity
Shelves:
best-of-the-best,
steampunk
If anyone tells you it's fine to read Finch if you haven't read the other 2 books set in Ambergris, don't believe them, they most likely haven't read both of the other books and don't understand how essential they are for a complete understanding of Finch
This book would have been decidedly less impressive if i hadn't read the whole Ambergis Cycle. In the back of the Finch novel it says "Although each of the Ambergris novels stands alone, together they form the complete 'Ambergris Cyc...more
This book would have been decidedly less impressive if i hadn't read the whole Ambergis Cycle. In the back of the Finch novel it says "Although each of the Ambergris novels stands alone, together they form the complete 'Ambergris Cyc...more
Detective John Finch gets assigned to an impossible murder case, one of the victims being a man thought dead for a hundred years. Finch's case takes him all over Ambergris and up against a crime lord, his Gray Cap superiors, The Partials, and makes him question everything he believes. Can Finch solve the case before he becomes another victim?
After City of Saints and Madmen, I was leaning toward passing on the rest of VanderMeer's work and dismissing him as a pretentious bastard. S...more
After City of Saints and Madmen, I was leaning toward passing on the rest of VanderMeer's work and dismissing him as a pretentious bastard. S...more
Less then halfway through this book it easily became one of my favorite books and definitely my favorite Jeff VanderMeer book. Ambergris comes alive here in a totally new way, revealing hidden depths and strange new Burroughs. It has the sense of richness of the previous Ambergris books but with an added sense of immediacy and truancy as it's a detective novel. A very hard boiled detective novel that reads more authentic and original then many contemporary "straight" noirish detective ...more
From ISawLightningFall.com
I wouldn't go so far as to call it a theory, just a simple observation: When it comes to trilogies, second installments tend to be the best. Why? Perhaps it has something to do with finding a compositional safe place. Initial entries need to lay a sound foundation, and conclusions have to pound in all the stray nails and make sure the trim gets painted. But the middle falls into the sweet spot, with all the initial exposition out of the way and plenty of roo...more
I wouldn't go so far as to call it a theory, just a simple observation: When it comes to trilogies, second installments tend to be the best. Why? Perhaps it has something to do with finding a compositional safe place. Initial entries need to lay a sound foundation, and conclusions have to pound in all the stray nails and make sure the trim gets painted. But the middle falls into the sweet spot, with all the initial exposition out of the way and plenty of roo...more
A couple weeks ago my roommate Julia brought home some books from a convention and left a stack of some she thought I'd like on my dresser. About a week ago I started reading Finch and mentioned to Julia multiple times "well, I'm reading that book you gave me about fungal terrorism" and she's said, "I gave you a book about FUNGAL TERRORISM? I did not" and I'd say "yeah, yeah, you did, it was in the stack on my dresser."
Halfway through reading Finch, I thou...more
Halfway through reading Finch, I thou...more
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer is the third book in his Ambergris Cycle. VanderMeer returns to fungus-laden Ambergris with Finch, a dark, atmospheric noir. And while it is a gritty police procedural, it's also a genre-bending fantasy/science fiction novel. John Finch has a double murder to solve, but the real danger is in dealing with the living, including the fungus.
I don't want to say too much more about Finch because I don't want to give away any of the plot twists and turns. There i...more
5 really big stars...
First, this book would not nearly be as good to a reader if you have not first read the previous two stand alone Ambergis novels. It is quite a literary achievement that one writer, Vandermeer could sculpt three totally uniquely stylized stories(actually many more than that as City od Saints and Madmen is a collection of many stories.) and put them together in a way that works. The payout of these style changes is immense and totally satisfying. It is quite amazi...more
First, this book would not nearly be as good to a reader if you have not first read the previous two stand alone Ambergis novels. It is quite a literary achievement that one writer, Vandermeer could sculpt three totally uniquely stylized stories(actually many more than that as City od Saints and Madmen is a collection of many stories.) and put them together in a way that works. The payout of these style changes is immense and totally satisfying. It is quite amazi...more
It speaks to the fondness that I had for 'City of Saints and Madmen' that I ran out and purchased this immediately afterwards.
What a triumphant sequel. Rather than returning to the characters and streets rendered in 'City of Saints and Madmen' we find ourselves dumped several centuries into the future of Ambergris... into a city occupied and transformed by the mysterious Grey Caps.
Although 'City' flirted with the horror genre at times, it pulled back from gore and terro...more
What a triumphant sequel. Rather than returning to the characters and streets rendered in 'City of Saints and Madmen' we find ourselves dumped several centuries into the future of Ambergris... into a city occupied and transformed by the mysterious Grey Caps.
Although 'City' flirted with the horror genre at times, it pulled back from gore and terro...more
The city of Ambergris that Jeff VanderMeer brought to life in CITY OF SAINTS AND MADMEN and SHRIEK: AN AFTERWORD was on the forefront of the “New Weird” movement that popped up some time back right around the time China Miéville’s PERDIDO STREET STATION showed up. It was a strange place, divided by warring clan/company/corporations that faced a threat from an intelligent race of fungi that threatened the city from below.
FINCH is set in an occupied Ambergris, with the fungal gray inva...more
FINCH is set in an occupied Ambergris, with the fungal gray inva...more
Finch by Jeff Vandermeer
Finch is the third book in a trilogy. The reader does not have to read the trilogy to understand the story. Each book stands alone. The books in the series are all avant garde in their writing style. Each book does make references to the other books in the series.
In this book Ambergris, also called the City of Saints and Madmen from an earlier title in the series has been taken over by the gray caps, a strange m...more
Finch is the third book in a trilogy. The reader does not have to read the trilogy to understand the story. Each book stands alone. The books in the series are all avant garde in their writing style. Each book does make references to the other books in the series.
In this book Ambergris, also called the City of Saints and Madmen from an earlier title in the series has been taken over by the gray caps, a strange m...more
In Finch, Jeff VanderMeer, one of the most underrated fantasy/SF writers working today, offers another accomplished novel, the third in the Ambergris cycle. It is worth reading this novel simply for the gritty appeal of the title character. However, VanderMeer's complex and intriguing world-creation (City of Saints and Madmen and Shriek, the previous Ambergris novels, are both must-reads), the "big picture" vision for the sociopolitical structure of his dystopian world and the author's...more
Bought on a whim, Finch turned out to be a singular experience. I didn't realize until after I'd finished reading it that it was the third book set in its particular world, which says something really good about it. At first the setting didn't make much sense, but everything was explained throughout the story. VanderMeer has created a crazy, stunning world with a lot of possibilities. It's intriguing to know where he's going to go next, if anywhere.
I have to admit I'm a sucker fo...more
I have to admit I'm a sucker fo...more
In his latest novel, Jeff VanderMeer brings us a mystery in which Detective John Finch — whose name is not John Finch, and who isn’t a detective (or so he keeps telling himself) — investigates a double murder. One of the victims is a man who can’t possibly be a murder victim, whilst the other is a gray cap—
If the term ‘gray cap’ is unfamiliar (and even if it’s not!), welcome to Ambergris, the setting of VanderMeer’s City of Saints and Madmen (2003) and Shriek: an Afterword (2006), wh...more
If the term ‘gray cap’ is unfamiliar (and even if it’s not!), welcome to Ambergris, the setting of VanderMeer’s City of Saints and Madmen (2003) and Shriek: an Afterword (2006), wh...more
NB: I received an ARC of this book via the Amazon Vine Program
Jeff Vandermeer is the Hierophant of the the "New Weird", an avant-garde branch of modern fantasy that uses phantasmagorical imagery and horror in an often urban secondary fantasy world. China Mieville's Perdido Street Station may be the most commercially successful of this branch of fantasy, but Vandermeer has done more than any author (and editor) in forming the New Weird style of fantasy.
He started...more
Jeff Vandermeer is the Hierophant of the the "New Weird", an avant-garde branch of modern fantasy that uses phantasmagorical imagery and horror in an often urban secondary fantasy world. China Mieville's Perdido Street Station may be the most commercially successful of this branch of fantasy, but Vandermeer has done more than any author (and editor) in forming the New Weird style of fantasy.
He started...more
This third volume of Vandermeer's Ambergris Cycle was probably my second favorite of the three. I loved City of Saints and.... but found Shriek a little lacking in some ways. This third volume was compelling to me in how it tied up loose ends of Ambergris history from the first two books but a little lackluster in the way it did it.
The setting, as always with Ambergris, is stunning. This third book really brings us full circle. We've now gotten to see Ambergris over the course of i...more
The setting, as always with Ambergris, is stunning. This third book really brings us full circle. We've now gotten to see Ambergris over the course of i...more
Arcimboldo painted portraits of human heads made up of vegetables, fruit, sea creatures and tree roots. In the third novel set in the universe of Ambergris, Jeff VanderMeer depicts characters infected with fungal alterations that make them hybrids between humans and gray caps, a race that holds the dying city, erecting mushroom buildings and wiping out all resistance. Ambergris has her collaborators, the Partials, halfway in their metamorphosis. The citizens worship a hero, the Lady in Blue, but...more
As VanderMeer goes on with his Ambergris trilogy, he has consistently moved from trickery with typeface and presentation to genuine literary wizardry, and with the finale, Finch, he tops himself yet again. Dropping the whimsy of the first book entirely, he presents a New Weird noir that's mostly about life during occupation, as the alien Gray Caps that lurked in the corners of the first two books ascend to center stage and take over the metropolis of Ambergris for their own sinister and alien p...more
Najlepsza, najbardziej tradycyjna w formie i bezwzględnie angażująca czytelnika powieść z osadzonych w uniwersum Ambergis. Genialnym posunięciem autora jest tu "przesączenie" wydarzeń znanych z wcześniejszych książek z cyklu przez filtr czarnego kryminału.
Elementy tej układanki, niejako "rozrzucone" w książkach poprzedzających "Fincha", VanderMeer poskładał w spójną i ciekawą intrygę, przy okazji odkrywając przed nami wiele zagadek, jakie pojawiły się wcz...more
Elementy tej układanki, niejako "rozrzucone" w książkach poprzedzających "Fincha", VanderMeer poskładał w spójną i ciekawą intrygę, przy okazji odkrywając przed nami wiele zagadek, jakie pojawiły się wcz...more
I had some initial hesitation when I first read about this book-a blend of fantasy and noir? I don't know about that. Then I read some of VanderMeer's comments about this being rooted in the post-9/11 post-invasion of Iraq landscape, and I just got more worried. "Great," I thought. "An urban fantasy detective novel full of heavy-handed political messages."
But still, I've loved (most of) what I've read of VanderMeer's work, especially the Ambergris stuff, and so I ...more
But still, I've loved (most of) what I've read of VanderMeer's work, especially the Ambergris stuff, and so I ...more
This is the only hard-boiled noir book in the world set in a war torn city under occupation by mysterious mushroom people who live beneath the earth. The premise sounds kind of goofy, but the book plays it totally straight and it works perfectly. And it is a gritty brutal exciting detective book. All the usual noir tropes are in exhibition, but the setting gives them all a nice twist: his partner is literally being eaten alive from the inside, the memories of the dead can be extracted into bulbs...more
When I walked into my local, small, privately owned book/comic store; I asked the owner, who I had known since I was small, for something gritty and dark. He always gives me wondrous suggestions with very little to go on. When he handed me FINCH, I was somewhat skeptical, but he knows what I like. He said it was something like a Lovecraftian Fungalpunk Noir, and I daresay he was correct.
I devoured this book once I had the time to actually sit and read it. I could picture giant fungal...more
I devoured this book once I had the time to actually sit and read it. I could picture giant fungal...more
“Fungal noir. Steampunk delirium”
The description on the front cover made me curious. And Vandermeer delivers. At least the fungal noir part. Though the novel could very well be suited for it, I didn’t see any elements that struck me as particularly steampunk.
Finch follows a detective that “is not a detective” throughout the city of Ambergris after its occupation by a fungal species colloquially known as greycaps. I have not read Vandermeer’s prior two non-serial ...more
The description on the front cover made me curious. And Vandermeer delivers. At least the fungal noir part. Though the novel could very well be suited for it, I didn’t see any elements that struck me as particularly steampunk.
Finch follows a detective that “is not a detective” throughout the city of Ambergris after its occupation by a fungal species colloquially known as greycaps. I have not read Vandermeer’s prior two non-serial ...more
Full disclosure: obviously I owe Jeff a great deal for his help and friendship, but that, just as obviously to people who know my taste in books and film, has nothing to do with why I'm posting a positive review of his newest novel, Finch. The reason I'm posting a review is that this is a absolutely fucking brilliant piece of work and everyone should at least give it a go and see if it butters their biscuit. What Jeff and I do are wildly different but reading something like this I'm again struck...more
Alan
rated it
Recommends it for:
Steampunkficfans still hard-boiled but gone a little moldy
Recommended to Alan by:
Cover blurbs and several pages of quotes inside
Curt. Clipped. Laconic. Short phrases, clenched jaw delivery. Sentence fragments, building up a mosaic, stone by stone. Beyond hard-boiled. Crusted over, and shot through with mold. That's Finch.
If this style bothers you, beware of Finch--the entire book is that way, by intent. But the staccato delivery suits the subject, and I did find myself liking this novel more than I thought I would.
VanderMeer's musty, bedraggled city of Ambergris seems perpetually to be in twilight...more
If this style bothers you, beware of Finch--the entire book is that way, by intent. But the staccato delivery suits the subject, and I did find myself liking this novel more than I thought I would.
VanderMeer's musty, bedraggled city of Ambergris seems perpetually to be in twilight...more
Love the cover art the story has some good writing skill and the writer creates a world of fungus and rebellion.The story did not hold my interest all the way. Some things were hard to understand i did not know about the two previous books i think thats what was holding me from enjoying it more.
“ At dusk each day the gray caps lead a work force from the camps south of the city. All night, the sounds of hammering and construction. Emerald lights moving like slow stars. Screams of injury or ...more
“ At dusk each day the gray caps lead a work force from the camps south of the city. All night, the sounds of hammering and construction. Emerald lights moving like slow stars. Screams of injury or ...more
Ciekawy pomysł na świat, w którym istoty-grzyby podbiły państwo-miasto. Do tego kontrolują grzyby. I wynajdują nowe grzybowe wynalazki. Brzmi durnie, ale jest naprawdę fajnie jeśli chodzi o pomysły co można z takich pieczarek wyciągnać.
Klimat kryminału noir utrzymywany konstrukcją protagonisty i budową zdań (bardzo dużo bezokoliczników). Do tego ponury świat walącego się miasta pod okupacją. Do tego męska przyjaźń wystawiona na ostateczną próbę, no i femme fatal.
Brzmi int...more
Klimat kryminału noir utrzymywany konstrukcją protagonisty i budową zdań (bardzo dużo bezokoliczników). Do tego ponury świat walącego się miasta pod okupacją. Do tego męska przyjaźń wystawiona na ostateczną próbę, no i femme fatal.
Brzmi int...more
Not since Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, with its oppressive depiction of a world overrun by decay and kipple, have I felt the walls of a fictional world close about and suffocate me so effectively. It's perverse, but Ambergris is a a beautifully ugly city, and Vandermeer is a loving tour guide who does not shy away from the seedy back alleyways.
Despite its fantastical trappings, Finch is hard-boiled noir through to its infected heart. John Finch is the ...more
Despite its fantastical trappings, Finch is hard-boiled noir through to its infected heart. John Finch is the ...more
Wow! Now that I've finished the final book (so claimed by Vandermeer) in the Ambergris cycle I'm looking forward to waiting a while and then going back and re-reading all three books at once (this one, City of Saints and Madmen, and Shriek). I'm really all over the place on Finch and have a feeling that I need to jam all three of these mind-altering shrooms into my brain at once now that I know how it ends... If 'ends' is the right word to use. Anyways here are some preliminary notes...
...more
...more
A fungal fantasy noir. VanderMeer has a gift for visceral description, and the city-state of Ambergris comes squelchingly alive on the page. An occupied territory, a place traumatized in the past by schisms, conflict, and the meddling of foreign influences, a city currently in the midst of disturbing transformations. The protagonist John Finch is a familiar sketch - a survivor, a pragmatist, a man on the run from his past reluctantly drawn into the troubles of others - but a richly rendered one ...more
Well, I loved City of Saints and Madmen and I thought this book was going to be like that...but it isn't. It is still set in the same weird city of Ambergris but now the gray caps have taken over. The thing that surprised me the most was how VanderMeer completely changed his style of writing from a kind-of literary fantasy to a detective-type fantasy. Unlike City, which was a long, slow read but well worth the effort, Finch is a fast-paced page-turner so full of (weird) action that you can't put...more
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Jeffrey Scott VanderMeer is an American writer, editor and publisher. He was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, but spent much of his childhood in the Fiji Islands, where his parents worked for the Peace Corps. This experience, and the resulting trip back to the United States through Asia, Africa, and Europe, deeply influenced him.
In 2003, VanderMeer married Ann Kennedy, then editor for...more
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In 2003, VanderMeer married Ann Kennedy, then editor for...more
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