Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
I generally like VanderMeer a lot, but this didn't quite click with me. Felt like an older attempt, not quite as polished as his other works. Some good ideas but it didn't come together.
Heavy on mood, short on plot, character development and detail. It felt like a long prologue for the next book.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This story is masterfully written. It's paced to climb higher and faster over time, and so many wildly clever details are woven through the whole length. The themes of climate and political crisis on a global scale happening out of view keeps the mood serious. I'm not surprised this was published in '21 - it would have been written largely during the worst of lockdown. The terror and insecurity and unprecedented feeling of life at the time colors this novel and makes it uncomfortably relatable. Setting aside, the way this approaches the human condition and familial strife spins an even more intense angle. I feel hopeless yet inspired, saddened yet determined....I feel like this one really spoke to me personally and am shaken over how powerful Hummingbird Salamander feels.
Read it.
Read it.
I'm a fan of Jeff and first person but not this novel sadly. I just can't take one more uncomfortable commentary on the female protagonist's tall (she isn't even that tall!) and muscular size and how it's an issue with everyone she interacts with.
what just happened? (note: profanity, violence, homicide)
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A little bit disappointed after reading this. I was confused for a lot of it, the order of events didn’t really make a lot of sense to me, especially the beginning where she receives the package from a stranger and then suddenly everything starts. The ending was really un-climatic. I had a hard time figuring out what the stakes were and all of these random characters that wanted to kill her/didnt wanna kill her… I do appreciate Jeff Vandermeer’s writing and the way he uses his imagination, I just think this needed to be fleshed out more or something.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought I would give this book four stars for being extremely well-written and engaging but maybe a little inconclusive. And then the whirlwind of the last 50ish pages happened and everything came together. A solid 5 stars and a favorite VanderMeer book (second only to Borne).
A security consultant calling herself only "Jane Doe" is given a lead by a barista, and finds herself drawn into a web of animal trafficking, environmental activism, and eco-terrorism set against the backdrop of a world facing a looming pandemic and crossing the tipping point of climate change.
This reads as a noir detective story, and one that doesn't even really feel like SF until about the last 10%. Once it crosses into that final stretch though, the tone of the entire work begins to take on the feeling of spiraling toward the beginning of a post-apocalypse (though whether its outcome is actually apocalyptic is ambiguous), which I guess makes it a Pre-Apocalyptic Eco-Noir, which is a strange genre designation. Regardless, I think I wound up liking it more as a result of that than I did during the process of reading it.