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Finch

(Ambergris #3)

Jeff VanderMeer (Goodreads Author)

3.98 · Rating details · 3,006 ratings · 317 reviews

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 ...more

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Paperback, 320 pages

Published November 3rd 2009 by Underland Press

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Jul 01, 2009 Dan Schwent rated it it was amazing

Shelves: new-weird

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. Shriek, the seco 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. Shriek, the second book, changed my mind and brought me around. This one, damn! is about all I can say.

Finch is a new weird detective story set in Ambergris, VanderMeer's city of choice. After the events of Shriek, the fungal alien Gray Caps have risen up and taken over the city. Partials, humans entered into unholy pacts with the Gray Caps, serve as a spy ring, keeping the populace under control with the aid of their fungal "enhancements." Finch is a cop working under the Gray Caps. Paranoia and distrust permeates every page. Finch reminds me a lot of Dekkard from Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, cynical, bitter, and just doing his job.

While Finch is a good character, I think it's the supporting characters that carry the story. Wyte, Finch's fungus-infected partner, The Partial that keeps messing with him, Heretic, Finch's Gray Cap boss, Sintra, Rathven, the list just keeps going.

I'm trying not to give too much away but it's hard. There are so many things I want to mention, like the living fungal guns and the memory bulbs, mushrooms that grow on corpses that give the person who eats them a glimpse at the memories of the person they grow on. Finch's case is bizarre and manages to answer many of the questions posed by the previous two volumes. The paranoid feel reminds me of Blade Runner at times and the plot-oriented episodes of the X-Files in others. VanderMeer uses a noir style reminding me of Richard Stark at some points and James Ellroy in others. It's one hell of a ride.

VanderMeer hit the ball out of the park with this one. All of the plot threads and hints about the Gray Caps in the first two Ambergris books come to a head in this one, the best Ambergris book yet. If I read a better book than this one in 2010, I'll be surprised. ...more

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Jan 31, 2010 Amanda rated it it was amazing

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 Cycle', a vast ...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Richard Derus rated it liked it

Pearl Ruled

Rating: 3* of five (p139)

The Book Description: 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 labor to build two strange towers. Against this backdrop, John Fin ...more

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Jul 23, 2015 Gabrielle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: weird, noir, urban-fantasy, read-in-2020, reviewed, fantasy, own-a-copy

After a couple of “meh” books, I needed something I knew I’d enjoy, and a visit to Jeff VanderMeer’s fungus-haunted city never fails to delight. I had read “Finch” many years ago, and it seemed like a good time to revisit it.

The magnificent, byzantine city of Ambergris that we step into when we crack open “Finch” is not the same one we visited with “City of Saints and Madmen” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... after thirty years of bitter civil war between the two mercantile empires of Ho After a couple of “meh” books, I needed something I knew I’d enjoy, and a visit to Jeff VanderMeer’s fungus-haunted city never fails to delight. I had read “Finch” many years ago, and it seemed like a good time to revisit it.

The magnificent, byzantine city of Ambergris that we step into when we crack open “Finch” is not the same one we visited with “City of Saints and Madmen” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... after thirty years of bitter civil war between the two mercantile empires of Hoegbotton & Sons and Frankwrithe & Lewden, the Gray Caps have taken over – an event now known as the Rising, and the citizens of Ambergris have been living like prisoners in their own occupied city ever since. In this corrupted version of the once-thriving metropolis, Finch works as a detective. It wasn’t always his job, but he’s been coerced into it by the new regime. He is assigned a strange case: a man and a Gray Cap have been found dead in an abandoned apartment. Meanwhile, a resistance movement is active in Ambergris, led by the elusive Lady in Blue. Is she a real person or merely a symbol of resistance? And what are the Gray Caps planning to do with the two strange towers they are building in Ambergris?

VanderMeer shifted his usual baroque prose style in order to make “Finch” a noir novel in the most classical style: short, almost choppy sentences that describe a city in ruins, people who are sick and/or can’t be trusted, organic technology so alien it threatens to drive everyone insane. The paranoia, deadly secrets and shifty characters of a Raymond Chandler novel are beautifully rendered on the page, while still preserving the richness of VanderMeer’s style. You can feel the stickiness, smell the squalor: it’s awesome! I’m not the first reviewer to notice a similarity between “Finch” and “Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep”, but this second read definitely made the parallels inescapable as the question of humanity, freedom, choice and morality come up as the investigation unravels. There is a certainly a commentary on surveillance state in here, with frequent references to spore spies and the introduction of the Partials, humans “corrupted” with Gray Cap characteristics; but this is VanderMeer’s stroke of genius, as mushrooms truly are connected via what is known as the “wood wide web” (see “Entangled Life”: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).

John Finch is a great character, perfectly tortured and navigating the complex and ever-shifting landscape of his world on tip toes: he doesn’t feel he can trust anyone, but his partner Wyte, his lover Sintra and his neighbor Rathven obviously feel the same way about him. Or are they just trying to keep him safe? The supporting characters are just as richly built as Finch himself, and you feel just as he does about them: you want to love them but you don’t know if you can.

While it is not made immediately clear, “Finch” is actually the sequel to “Shriek: An Afterword” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), and it makes a stunning conclusion to VanderMeer’s Ambergris Cycle (which means don’t even try to read this if you haven’t read the other two books, you won’t understand anything). A dark and hallucinatory novel of the finest kind for brave readers: 4 and half stars, rounded up because this book makes the Ambergris Cycle one of the most unique and awe-inspiring piece of fantasy literature I have ever read. ...more

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Dec 04, 2009 Zach rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

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 figured I'd give Finch a shot.

It ...more

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Mar 12, 2011 Jason rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2011, current-favorite-5-stars

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 amazing how diffe 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 amazing how different these three books are written.

Second, this is a character novel. Chalked full of a fabulous supporting cast that give life and dimension to this detective noir narrative. Finch is a good protagonist whom I identified with, and empathized with. We get enough of his backstory to allow us to want him to be the one that pulls all the plot threads together. Of course the most important character in this novel is the city of Ambergis itself. Fungus laden streets, spores a popping in the air, mold crawling and covering just about everything, and top it all off with fruiting body fun. A truly amazing fictional city that gives life to Vandermeers creations.

Thirdly, Vandermeer is a master at descriptive weird and it makes you want to read more. One of my favorite passages: "Remembering Duncan's words " They found me and infiltrated me-I could feel their tendrils, their fleshy-dry-cold-warm pseudopods and cilia and strands slowly sliding up my skin, like a hundred any hands. They tried to make me in their image.""

Finally, Jeff Vandermeer used three very unique styles of writing to compose a 1700 page story that is about the incredible city of Ambergis. This is the "New Weird" told by a master of the genre. The countless plots are deftly brought together in this final chapter of this story arc. The difficulty of making sense of the first two novels is paid off in this marvelous masterpiece. If you are a fan of the new weird genre or like fantasy that is demanding on the reader, than be sure to not miss out on Jeff Vandermeer. ...more

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Jul 01, 2009 Rick rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror

World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer, in the anthology New Weird , defined the 21st century’s first major literary movement.

“New Weird is a type of urban … fiction that subverts the romanticized ideas about place found in traditional fantasy, largely by choosing … complex real-world models … that may combine elements of science fiction and fantasy. [It:] has a visceral, in-the-moment quality that often uses elements of surreal or transgressive horror for its tone, style, and effects.”

As ...more

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Jun 16, 2016 Brad rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: lovers of Ambergris

Shelves: paused, read-in-2015, a-floating-bar-of-ivory, about-lies, kept-me-up-at-night, forty-for-2013-personal-challenge, detective, read-in-2016, about-imagination, fantasy-urban-fantasy

It took me nearly three years to get through Finch.

I picked it up the first time, got started and found myself stopping for what, at the time, was an inexplicable reason. I had already read and loved both City of Saints and Madmen & Shriek: An Afterword. The former for its insane originality and the latter for the way it appealed to my post-modern academic self. But I couldn't break ground in Finch, so I put it down and thought I'd take another crack later.

I don't know how much later I started ...more

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Jun 01, 2018 Lukasz rated it liked it

Shelves: new-weird

Actual rating: 3.5/5

Time for a confession: I haven't read first two books of Ambergris series (City of Saints & Madmen and Shriek: An Afterword). As a result, some of the story's nuances are lost on me. On the other hand, each of the books in the series is supposed to work as a standalone.

Meet John Finch, a reluctant detective working for the Gray Caps, a humanoid-fungal lifeform which rules Ambergris - a crumbling place of decay and despair. John likes whiskey and women. He doesn't like Gray C ...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Toby rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: black-as-night, fantastical

Finch is a detective. Finch has a secret in his past. Finch isn't really a detective. Finch isn't even his real name. Finch by Jeff VanderMeer is a book. It promised so much. It delivered so little. Much like the irritating and unnecessary form that his sentences took.

There are so many problems with this novel, but the biggest one is a question of likability. At no point did I find myself caring about this 5th rate Marlowe (and not to spoil the surprise but the name Marlowe is actually used in t Finch is a detective. Finch has a secret in his past. Finch isn't really a detective. Finch isn't even his real name. Finch by Jeff VanderMeer is a book. It promised so much. It delivered so little. Much like the irritating and unnecessary form that his sentences took.

There are so many problems with this novel, but the biggest one is a question of likability. At no point did I find myself caring about this 5th rate Marlowe (and not to spoil the surprise but the name Marlowe is actually used in this tired cliche of the detective genre) or any of the 'hardy, plucky souls' who inhabit this city occupied by an enemy force. He goes to great lengths telling us that he isn't really a detective as if it's some excuse for challenging for the accolade of the worst detective ever written. This man is actually stupid, never asking the right questions, always too self absorbed to pay attention to what's actually happening and expecting the reader to believe in his ability because he adopts a hard-boiled approach towards narration.

And I'm not one of these readers who needs his characters to be nice or good natured or warm hearted, I regularly root for the bastard and enjoy reading about the adventures of not very nice people, it's just that in this case he was such a nonentity and bland voice that the novel could have been based in a vibrant, exciting world and still been terribly yawnworthy.

The motif of decadence and decay was over accentuated by the constant references to moldy, lichen, mildew etc that I suspect the author spent more time researching synonyms for this than he did writing the rest of the book. In doing this he recalls, to obvious effect, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? another dystopian detective novel of sorts but one that it could never hope to emulate in terms of quality and style.

I don't generally read through an entire book hating it, I usually just give up, but I seemed to be punishing myself for buying it in the first place, for believing in the awesome artwork and the hyperbolic quotes and so without any shadow of a doubt this is the worst book I have finished in a long time. ...more

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Nov 16, 2009 Corey rated it it was amazing

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 prototypical ...more

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Jan 31, 2021 Andrea McDowell rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, good-fantasy, 2021, groundhog-day

I've been a fan of VanderMeer since the Area X series, and was disappointed for years that his first series, Ambergris, was out or print. When a single-volume bound edition was released last fall (and such a pretty one too--I love the cover) I was super happy to get a copy for Christmas.

VanderMeer writes in the New Weird genre, and these books are plenty weird. I was surprised to see how many themes present in his most recent work were there in Ambergris as well: tunnel/towers infested with stra I've been a fan of VanderMeer since the Area X series, and was disappointed for years that his first series, Ambergris, was out or print. When a single-volume bound edition was released last fall (and such a pretty one too--I love the cover) I was super happy to get a copy for Christmas.

VanderMeer writes in the New Weird genre, and these books are plenty weird. I was surprised to see how many themes present in his most recent work were there in Ambergris as well: tunnel/towers infested with strange writing and odd creatures and fungi, alien invasions, involuntary transformations between human/Other, stylistic and formal switches. The first book, for example, is more properly a collection of five novellas, all set in Ambergris, and some more interesting than others. You have to commit to reading the entire series to see how the threads first introduced in City of Saints and Madmen even have relevance to the story, let alone how they all contribute to the conclusion in Finch. Formally, the structures range from travel guides to noir/detective fiction.

That said, these stories are more straightforward in narrative terms than his more recent work, and if you loved Area X but find that subsequent books are too weird for you, you might enjoy Ambergris. (I like the weird, but I know it's not to everyone's taste.)

One difference I was surprised by was the relatively lower profile of women characters in his earlier books; I appreciate VanderMeer in part because, in my opinion, he really 'gets' gender equity and approaches women characters in a way I find compelling and real. This was less the case in Ambergris. I suppose it's not strange that this is a characteristic that would develop over time, and the women in Ambergris weren't bad by any stretch--certainly there are a lot of writers releasing novels in 2021 with women characters far worse--but they are more sidelined.

Overall I recommend the trilogy, particularly to fantasy readers who like New Weird that is still formally and stylistically relatively conventional. ...more

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Feb 02, 2015 Tomislav rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy

21 March 2010 - ****. Book checked out according to local library catalog. Hold placed. Patience required. But dw visited library and through consequences of interlibrary loan unexpectedly the book is in my hands. New book; 10 day checkout. However, through consequences of interlibrary loan I only get 7 days. Must be read immediately. No earlier Ambergris to read. No earlier Ambergris exists at the library anyway. Must be read immediately. Shortage of verbs. Verbs for sale! Verbs for sale!

So thi 21 March 2010 - ****. Book checked out according to local library catalog. Hold placed. Patience required. But dw visited library and through consequences of interlibrary loan unexpectedly the book is in my hands. New book; 10 day checkout. However, through consequences of interlibrary loan I only get 7 days. Must be read immediately. No earlier Ambergris to read. No earlier Ambergris exists at the library anyway. Must be read immediately. Shortage of verbs. Verbs for sale! Verbs for sale!

So this is steampunk? It says so right on the cover. Well, the "punk" part is right; this is a gritty story that operates above and below the law, or what passes for it in Ambergris. But the "steam" part is wrong. My understanding is the name implies a setting with a steam-powered level of technology. That would mean no radios, no motorized vehicles, and Victorian era culture. This book, I would classify as New Weird. Finch is lot more along the lines of the definitively New Weird Perdido Street Station than it is The Difference Engine. On the other hand, it's possible that the definition of steampunk is now drifting and enlarging; as a category name it's better marketing than New Weird.

As I mentioned, I did not have the opportunity to read the earlier two Ambergris books. Finch does stand on its own, except for about 50 pages in which the book Shriek: An Afterword is an actual artifact in this story. That's ok for this book, except that it probably does spoil those earlier books that I have not read.

The book begins as a murder investigation by detective John Finch, a murder investigation in a world that is itself nightmarish with fungal infections, and alien overlord Gray Caps. The gripping plot unveils layer after layer of reality and character motivation, leading to mysteries of an ever-widening scope. Even John Finch is not who he at first appears. I enjoyed this book almost as much as Perdido Street Station, and for much the same reasons, but due to the spoilers I've now seen, will probably not seek out the earlier Ambergris books. ...more

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Jan 19, 2010 Eric Orchard rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: fantasy

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 books. For ...more

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May 28, 2011 Gary rated it really liked it

I found this to be a curious book. Interesting and undoubtably imaginative and definitely more readable than his first Ambergris book, which while commendable for being experimental and pushing the boundaries of fiction and writing styles, was too 'bitty' for me and hard work to be honest. Maybe I'm a lazy reader but it took me a lot of concerted effort to finish his first book, but Finch was much more readable and enjoyable. A mix of SF and Noir that had a lead character who engaged me and made ...more

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Oct 03, 2014 Thomas Edmund rated it liked it

Finch exists in a world where fungus rules, (or at least fights to) a typical subversive investigator, the main character must choose what side he is on in the battle between relatively unintelligible forces.

The story was OK, my main problem being unsure how seriously to take it. The fungus setting was equal parts sinister then grossly humorous.

The prose was mostly easy to read, although jumping through tenses tended to pull one out of the story.

In the end I wouldn't rate Finch the highest, but ...more

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Aug 09, 2020 Dávid Novotný rated it really liked it

Very strange but also catchy story. Although it reminded other books from the author, it's still pretty unique. Finch is not hero, he is just some guy truing to get by, getting beaten on each end every step. Setting is very intriguing, world occupied by some strange race, slavering citizens, using mushrooms and spores to recreate and control the whole city. Although last piece in trilogy, works as self standing book. Some things you wont understand from the start, some you won't understand at al ...more

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Jul 02, 2020 Drew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: rereads

5+ out of 5.
I don't know why I only gave this four stars the first time I read it. It is a tremendous novel, a fitting capstone to the Ambergris trilogy -- although, just like I did ten years ago, I long for more. FINCH is a demented noir, a shakey-cam first-person look at the city that we've so far only seen from various distances. I felt the same flutter in my chest as I did when I first visited Ambergris, the same sorrow to leave it as I did too.
This one's terrific, particularly if you've re ...more

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Oct 18, 2020 Tasha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Using up my Australian Amazon gift cards I treated myself to this new book.

This was a dark and brutal murder mystery set it a brilliant world of dominant species fighting for supremacy. I didn't realise at the time this was part of a trilogy however it stands alone nicely as I didn't feel like I was missing much from not having the read the other two. The writing is blunt and how I imagine old detective movies would have seemed written down, it did take a little while to get into the swing of re ...more

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Mar 14, 2017 Timothy Moore rated it it was amazing

A perfect blend of science fiction and mystery - a real joy to read! I hope that this book gets republished so I can sell it at the bookstore!

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Apr 30, 2010 Alan rated it liked 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, literally or metaphori 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, literally or metaphorically. Alex Proyas could do its cinematography; there are bits (like the "memory holes") that are purely David Cronenberg. Ambergris is a conquered city, its fungal overlords (underlords, really) the "gray caps" having Risen from beneath to divide the city's great Houses (Hoegbotton, and Frankwrithe & Lewden) and enslave its inhabitants. There is a rebel faction, of course, led by the Lady in Blue, but no one's heard much from her lately. And the towers that the gray caps' slave labor are building out in the bay seem to be getting closer to completion.

John Finch himself is a man of Ambergris. He's a detective in the city's police force, more or less, and while he's much better off than the laborers in the camps, he's still very much in thrall to his supervisor, the gray cap that Finch calls "Heretic." Finch is tasked with solving a double murder; two bodies, one human and one a gray cap (they're "fanaarcensitii" to themselves, by the way) who have been found in an empty apartment with no obvious way to have acquired the injuries that killed them. It's a mystery, and while Finch doesn't really, or doesn't always, consider himself much of a detective, he does try to solve the case.

Of course, that leads Finch to places no one wants him to go... not Finch, nor his lover Sintra. Not Heretic, nor the Partials (turncoat humans who have willingly taken on some of the fungal characteristics of their masters). Not Finch's basement-dwelling librarian and bantering partner Rathven, nor his casually brutal nemesis Stark. Not even the mysterious Ethan Bliss.

I found myself thinking, about two-thirds of the way through the book, what is it exactly that keeps so many of us looking desperately, savagely, continually for something it's okay to kill? Is it our predator genes? A mandate from on high? Sheer obnoxious perversity? Just why are we human beings so bloody-minded?

Finch does not answer that question; bloody-mindedness is simply the default condition for the denizens of Ambergris. It does answer many other questions, eventually and satisfyingly; this is not the kind of book that leaves you hanging at the end. But the destination is not obvious, and the journey there is as dark and twisted as any you might hope for. ...more

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Feb 29, 2012 Simon rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, crime

Quite different from the other Ambergrisian novel I read (Shriek: An Afterword) in that this is some kind of fusion of dark urban fantasy with hard boiled detective genres although the underlying themes examined are the same. Consequently, while the story stands on its own, much will be lost on the reader unfamiliar with the either of the previous two books written in strange city.

Detective Finch, whilst investigating a peculiar murder, unwittingly finds himself at the focal point of a much larg ...more

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Nov 22, 2009 William Gerke rated it really liked it

I should warn readers that "Finch" is the last book of Vandermeer's Ambergris cycle. While the three books are completely different genres and modes, they share a common geography and (as I learned late in "Finch"), this one answers questions raised in the first two. That said, I enjoyed reading it on its own, and I don't think I'll be put off reading the others.

"Finch" felt very much like Graham Greene's "The Third Man" if the Allies occupying Vienna were fungal creatures and their half-human s ...more

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Aug 23, 2009 Gio Clairval rated it it was amazing

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

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Sep 22, 2010 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks

Like a cross between Dashiell Hammett, China Mieville, and Philip K. Dick, stirred up with a sauce of disgusting fungus covering everything.

Sparse language, creeping paranoia, and a twisted plot make this one you don't want to miss.

It's a standalone novel, but based in the same world as Shriek: An Afterword, and the collection City of Saints & Madmen. There were some aspects of the ending I don't think I "got" fully because I hadn't read the previous two, but nothing that impaired my enjoymen ...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Caroline Mersey rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, book-club

The first time I read Finch it made me quite cross. I was in love with Ambergris. It had a rich history and vitality that few fictional worlds seem to have. And here the author was, trampling over his elaborate creation, like a small child gleefully stomping on a sandcastle in an orgy of destruction. But this is a fantastic novel. And a fitting end to the Ambergris sequence of books. The noir style blends incredibly well with this story of occupation and rebellion, reminiscent of Eastern Europe ...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Mark Tallen rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is a good novel by Jeff Vandermeer. I highly recommend that before reading this though, the reader Should read 'City of Saints and Madmen'. ...more

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Jun 27, 2020 Stuart Coombe rated it liked it · review of another edition

Not what it should have been. Certain characters (the skery for example) and situations - and the grey caps themselves - should have made up more of the book. Perfectly fine but Finch was slightly caricature: a detective who drinks whisky, very tough, aloof..

Fine but not Jeff’s best work by some distance.

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Jan 02, 2021 Adam Fendrych rated it it was amazing

Don't get discouraged if you - like me - don't like crime books. As the hero notes, he is not a detective, and he investigates very little indeed. Instead, you get an astonishing load of weirdness, organic transitions, time and space distortions, and very few precise descriptions. Your fantasy will run like crazy. ...more

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Dec 01, 2018 Matthew Rettino rated it it was amazing

A thrilling book of outrageous creativity that keeps the focus claustrophobically tight around Finch's point of view as he investigates an impossible murder for his mushroom-people overlords. As crazy as this sounds, Jeff VanderMeer makes it work. The grey caps function as a fungal metaphor that could stand for any occupying group of colonizers. You'll never look at a shroom the same way again.

Recommended reading especially for people who have read VanderMeer's Wonderbook, in which he goes into ...more

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On Paths Unknown: Convening thread for Finch by Jeff Vandermeer	6	13	Dec 21, 2015 01:14AM
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About Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer

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NYT bestselling writer Jeff VanderMeer has been called “the weird Thoreau” by the New Yorker for his engagement with ecological issues. His most recent novel, the national bestseller Borne, received wide-spread critical acclaim and his prior novels include the Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance). Annihilation won the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards, has been translat ...more