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A review by matthewcpeck
The Third Bear by Jeff VanderMeer
3.0
3 1/2 stars. Highly eclectic, highly uneven story collection from acclaimed fantasist VanderMeer.
VanderMeer seems to actively fight against producing any story that could be described as "typical", but he returns to pet themes: elegies for past worlds or civilizations, grotesque biological experiments, a knack for mordant workplace satire.
My favorites include:
-"The Situation", which is like an episode of the office written by Ben Marcus & William Burroughs & guest-directed by David Cronenberg
-"The Goat Variations": a stunningly original approach to September 11th
-"Appoggiatura": a fragmentary, alphabetically arranged ode to a mythical Central Asian kingdom
-"The Magician": a haunting, perfectly crafted single-page afterword story.
Less perfect, in my view, are stories like "Finding Sonoria" - a private-eye version of "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" brought down by some sloppy prose - or "The Surgeon's Tale", an overlong collaboration with the awesomely named Cat Rambo, which tends towards sentimentality and unintentional comedy.
In the world of Jeff VanderMeer, it seems the rule is as follows: the more bizarre and challenging, the better.
VanderMeer seems to actively fight against producing any story that could be described as "typical", but he returns to pet themes: elegies for past worlds or civilizations, grotesque biological experiments, a knack for mordant workplace satire.
My favorites include:
-"The Situation", which is like an episode of the office written by Ben Marcus & William Burroughs & guest-directed by David Cronenberg
-"The Goat Variations": a stunningly original approach to September 11th
-"Appoggiatura": a fragmentary, alphabetically arranged ode to a mythical Central Asian kingdom
-"The Magician": a haunting, perfectly crafted single-page afterword story.
Less perfect, in my view, are stories like "Finding Sonoria" - a private-eye version of "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" brought down by some sloppy prose - or "The Surgeon's Tale", an overlong collaboration with the awesomely named Cat Rambo, which tends towards sentimentality and unintentional comedy.
In the world of Jeff VanderMeer, it seems the rule is as follows: the more bizarre and challenging, the better.