-- INTERZONE
This is the sort of thing that reminds us that while publishing modes, genres, literary schools and styles, and even the material matrices in which literature is encoded, come and go, there is a restorative impulse, a literary innocence, that transcends the maya thereof, that has not died yet, that remains eternal...It restoreth the soul. It giveth hope.
-- Norman Spinrad, in ASIMOV'S
Postmodern delights mixed with old-fashioned narrative pleasures...This multilayered mock chronicle detailing the history of VanderMeer's imaginary metropolis conceals an infinite variety of pleasures, both cerebral and visceral.
-- Paul Di Filippo, in ASIMOV'S
If Franz Kafka had a son, and Jorge Luis Borges raised him with Jessica Amanda Salmonson, I imagine the result would look a lot like Jeff VanderMeer -- someone who writes with dark dream-time logic, Escher-like precision, and pure imaginative fire.
-- Lance Olsen, author of TONGUING THE ZEITGEIST
Dear Publisher:
The ignorant hoi polloi can slander me as a graycap and make me eat a raw cababari, but despite all their illwill I shall continue to maintain that it's passing wonderful to have back in print once more that classic volume by Duncan Shriek, The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergis. How I thrilled to this volume as a child! Its eerie magnificence, its blood-and -thunder gusto, its arcane cliometric tidbits -- all delivered in the compulsively readable mordant style for which Shriek was justifiably famous -- filled many a drab youthful day for me, and endowed me with a lifelong attachment to the astounding past of our unique city. From the gruesome solo harrowings endured by Manzikert I to the mass excruciation experienced by the victims of the Silence, I raced with boyish avidity, returning to the start of the book as soon as I reached the finish. And those footnotes, that glossary! No one could fill a footnote or endnote with more vituperation, consternation or exasperation than the haughty, witty Shriek!
But surely Shriek's greatest act of literary ledgerdemain was his creation of the character of "Jeff VanderMeer" as a strawman to hide his publication behind. As the shady demiurge whom we are meant to believe actually "created" the historical personage known as Duncan Shriek, as well as the whole bloody history and complex culture of a complete world, the character of VanderMeer beggars the imagination. How could one fellow, even half-divine, manage to combine the literary qualities of Nabokov, Borges, Barthelme, Cabell, Clark Ashton Smith, Suetonius and Bernal Diaz into one person? It's imposssible to credit! No, Shriek's factual narrative is awesome enough, providing a lifetime's worth of pleasures, without us having to conjure another layer of invention above him. Suffice it to say that anyone who picks up this book will soon be plunged into a world so richly devious and tangled -- so downright entertaining -- that any farcical appeals to meta-authors will soon prove superfluous!
-- Paul Di Filippo
I enjoyed (The Early History of Ambergris) tremendously...a marvelous piece of work, artfully combining humour and horror to excellent effect. Its mosaic format works beautifully...the greatest challenge facing any modern author is to produce a tale quite unlike any that has ever been produced before, but Jeff has met that challenge head on and answered it triumphantly.
-- Brian Stableford
-- Steve Jeffery, VECTOR; the Critical Journal of the BSFA
THE EARLY HISTORY OF AMBERGRIS is a glorious and highly literate put-on. I strongly recommend it.
-- Michael Levy, SFRA REVIEW #244
A delightful blend of humour and horror, cleverly disguised as fantastical history.
-- SF SITE
This book will definitely go down in the annals of history...I'd also compare (Jeff VanderMeer) to Mark Twain, for the brazen sureness and insouciance with which he describes the corrupt and the unlikely...If you have even a smidgeon of a sense of humor, you will want to read this book. In fact, you will want to read it twice, to make sure you didn't dream the whole thing.
-- Verna Safran, TLH.YOURVILLAGE.COM
An amusing and darkly surrealistic juxtaposition of "real" history and the imagined.
-- Paula Guran, DARK ECHO
Intriguing and captivating from the outset...Necropolitan Press is to be praised for bringing out such an excitingly different work.
-- Keith Brooke, INFINITY PLUS
VanderMeer's singular approach, blending mock history, horror and humor in equal doses, makes this a most unusual piece of fiction. For sheer originality, it's in a class all its own.
-- Garrett Peck, HELLNOTES
It's a great vehicle for Jeff VanderMeer's explorative imagination and wicked humour.
-- ALBEDO ONE #21
There is a bow to Jorge Luis Borges, but the characters and events are considerably more grotesque...reading it is a bit like watching Cirque du Soliel.
-- IT GOES ON THE SHELF #21
The science fiction world is absorbing and just realistic enough to be intriguing.
-- Diane Donovan, THE BOOKWATCH
A wonderful literary confection...VanderMeer's touch is light and deft.
-- TANGENT ONLINE
Few works I've read in recent years have given me such pure pleasure.
-- R. M. Berry, author of LEONARDO'S HORSE, a New York Times notable book.
Order it now! Check or money order for $7.99 postpaid, payable to:
JEFFREY THOMAS
15 Cottage Street
Westborough, MA 01581
A Necropolitan Press Chapbook
***SOLD OUT! BUT THIS NOVELLA HAS BEEN REPRINTED IN JEFF VANDERMEER'S COLLECTION "CITY OF SAINTS AND MADMEN", AVAILABLE IN SOFTCOVER FROM COSMOS AND SPECIAL EDITION HARDCOVER FROM PRIME.***
