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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
my fifth vandermeer book, one with really cool premise and themes, but i didn’t love it. the first two parts were great but i found it slogged a bit in part 3. i did enjoy the ending. i wish the main character had more of an arc and found her to hard to empathize with.
Iconic sci-fi writer Jeff Vandermeer straddles multiple genre with this mind-bending work of... speculative historical fiction? Is that a thing? Either way, a bit more laboured than his earlier works such as [b:Borne|31451186|Borne (Borne #1)|Jeff VanderMeer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1477487850l/31451186._SX50_.jpg|48253660]Borne, which addresses this from a more simplified angle.
Just a continual punch in the face, but in a good way.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Unlike Annihilation, VanderMeer's writing often stands in the book's way. Stripped of most of its descriptions to feel "timeless", this book instead features a bland and unpleasant protagonist and a depressing, apocalyptic vision that will leave the reader feeling dirty.
This book was so stupid. I greatly disliked reading it, but by the time I admitted that to myself I was too far along and wanted to finish. I wish I hadn’t.
I'm giving this book 3 stars because I love the idea (A crime thriller where essentially the crimes are those we commit against our own planet and other species) and because the ending is amazing.
At the same time this book is kind of a hot mess, all over the place
At the same time this book is kind of a hot mess, all over the place
The plot is extremely intricate, until the end you do not understand who are the dead and if they are dead, and especially what are the living doing and who are they looking for. Apart from that it was my first book by this author, I probably just have to get used to his style, because then at the end everything somehow falls back into place, even if the ending cannot be called such. I also didn't like the main character, but I guess that was expected.
La trama é estremamente intricata, fino alla fine non si capisce chi sono i morti e se sono morti, e soprattutto quali sono i vivi e chi stanno cercando. A parte questo é stato il mio primo libro di questo autore, probabilmente mi ci devo solo abituare, perché poi alla fine tutto in qualche modo, torna al suo posto, anche se il finale non si puó certo chiamare tale. Inoltre non mi piaceva il personaggio principale, ma immagino fosse previsto.
La trama é estremamente intricata, fino alla fine non si capisce chi sono i morti e se sono morti, e soprattutto quali sono i vivi e chi stanno cercando. A parte questo é stato il mio primo libro di questo autore, probabilmente mi ci devo solo abituare, perché poi alla fine tutto in qualche modo, torna al suo posto, anche se il finale non si puó certo chiamare tale. Inoltre non mi piaceva il personaggio principale, ma immagino fosse previsto.
i read this for the anarchist eco-comrade vibes. i just couldn’t care enough for the main character “Jane Smith”. the lack of actual names for the characters was alienating. but Vandermeer does that in “Annihilation” and i really enjoyed that book. i just couldn’t get over the fact that “Jane” just drops everything in her life to try and find a stranger. the one character i was interested in was the enigmatic Silvina.
i did really enjoy the more educational/philosophical parts of this; salamander anatomy (“the intimacy that salamanders have with their environment forces them to be sentinels of environmental change” p. 303), hummingbird migration, evolutionary adaptation, things that prop you up emotionally, and inquiries like: if we save parts of the world can we save all of the world?
i did really enjoy the more educational/philosophical parts of this; salamander anatomy (“the intimacy that salamanders have with their environment forces them to be sentinels of environmental change” p. 303), hummingbird migration, evolutionary adaptation, things that prop you up emotionally, and inquiries like: if we save parts of the world can we save all of the world?
3.45/5 rounded down
Jeff Vandermeer is one of my favourite writers and Hummingbird Salamander is one of my least favourite of his books. A strange, confusing, frightening vision of today and, eventually, tomorrow, presented from the perspective of a woman whose life is unravelling. Why is it unravelling? Well, for confusing reasons, starting with an unhappy childhood and ending with a taxidermied hummingbird. Our protagonist is on a vision quest, dangling from one clue to the next, in search for a woman and, eventually, a fate that might destroy or save the world. "A restauration of hte health of the world".
I really like Vandermeer's prose here. It's chaotic, obsessive, with an inner poetry of madness and survival. Repetitions give it a hypnotic quality at times. I like the narrative less, it feels like a lot of the story is hybris, some parts seem to be, not filler, as they are well written, but superfluous.
But hey, my man can write and that's why you are reading a book.
Jeff Vandermeer is one of my favourite writers and Hummingbird Salamander is one of my least favourite of his books. A strange, confusing, frightening vision of today and, eventually, tomorrow, presented from the perspective of a woman whose life is unravelling. Why is it unravelling? Well, for confusing reasons, starting with an unhappy childhood and ending with a taxidermied hummingbird. Our protagonist is on a vision quest, dangling from one clue to the next, in search for a woman and, eventually, a fate that might destroy or save the world. "A restauration of hte health of the world".
I really like Vandermeer's prose here. It's chaotic, obsessive, with an inner poetry of madness and survival. Repetitions give it a hypnotic quality at times. I like the narrative less, it feels like a lot of the story is hybris, some parts seem to be, not filler, as they are well written, but superfluous.
But hey, my man can write and that's why you are reading a book.
This is a page-turner of an ecological thriller! When a book begins by saying "I'm going to tell you how the world ends," it is difficult to know whether to close it right up or be compelled to devour it for the message it holds within. The fact that I was listening to "Migrations" by Charlotte McConaghy in tandem with the hardcover version of "Hummingbird Salamander" meant that I was overwhelmed with the agony of what humans have done to the natural world around us. I found McConaghy's writing more beautiful and her message more somberly hopeful. But VanderMeer knows how to spin a great tale and keep the reader guessing and engaged. This is a mystery filled with violence, sadness, human connections, and human faults. People, we have a huge job ahead of us to right the ship!