Reviews

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

broshades's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

thlwright's review against another edition

3.0

Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy blended sci-fi, ecology and suspense to often thrilling effect. His latest novel takes these same three events, but almost completely ditches the sci-fi aspects. Hummingbird Salamander takes place in a 5-minutes into the future USA in which there are some pointers to a looming national crisis (unspecified pandemics, increased surveillance) but the technology is only the next upgrade of what’s around us today. The protagonist, Jane Smith, is an anonymous cybersecurity consultant who happens on a message delivered in a coffee shop, and linked to a stuffed hummingbird. Cue a mounting obsession with decoding the message, which she discovers from a dead heiress linked to animal trafficking and ecoterrorism. Jane follows the breadcrumbs, an odyssey which takes her far from the drone-patrolled suburbs and into an ultimate confrontation with the natural world as humans have shaped and exploited it.
Like The Maltese Falcon the stuffed hummingbird and partner the also-extinct salamander, are mcguffins to set the characters in motion, but also symbols of their ultimate destination: an earth which appears to have run out of time. His short chapters keep the action moving along briskly, Jane is an engaging narrator, and this is an absorbing novel that perhaps only lacks the tang of weirdness that powered Annihilation so brilliantly.

chelsl's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

nadiatetra's review against another edition

1.0

DNF - found this book on the street in Seven Dials. Will probably return it to the street for someone else to find. Made it a few chapters in but just wasn't hooked.

lunaseline's review against another edition

2.0

Ja, det är hemskt att vi håller på att förstöra miljön oåterkalleligt, och ja, det behövs säkert fiktiv litteratur på temat.
Men det här är ju faktiskt... helt poänglöst.
Jag försöker engagera mig, det gör jag verkligen. VanderMeers språk är skarpt och komplext och sånt vill jag ju generellt hylla ... men sakta men säkert smyger sig känslan på; det här är pretentiöst ... babbel.
Det börjar lite kul; en kvinnlig f.d. bodybuilder får en uppstoppad fågel - originellt, absolut! Och när vi - låååångt senare - får lite tillbakablickar på denna underliga huvudpersonens barndom blir det lite småintressant här och var. Men tyvärr aldrig tillräckligt för att väga upp de genomtråkiga "thriller"-stråken, som jag varken förstår eller bryr mig om.
Och slutet...? Meh.
Boken tickar in på under 400 sidor, men känns dubbelt så lång, minst; mot mitten börjar jag önska att världen ska gå under.
Knappast tanken med klimatthrillers, eller...?

alkbass's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

wickedmitch's review against another edition

5.0

There’s a lot going on in here and after a little bit it grips into you. There’s times where the book will confuse you. There will be times when it unsettles you. But it will always fascinate you.

aalbright0's review against another edition

Nothing was happening 🤷🏻‍♀️

dialhforhgai's review against another edition

4.0

“We must love what has been damaged, because everything has been damaged. And to love the damage is to know you care about that world. That you’re still alive. That the world is alive.”

kathrynnnnnn's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

I don't understand why Jane went running after Silvina (sp? I read the audiobook) or why Jane's identity is 'obsessed with being different' or why I bothered to get to the end. Groan.