City of Saints and Madmen

City of Saints and Madmen | Jeff VanderMeer

Day 4: Flashback to summer 2002. I'm aimlessly browsing my local B&N when I spot a book with an eye-catching title: City of Saints & Madmen. I pick it up & read the blurb on the front. Intriguing, but who is this China MiĆ©ville praising this author I've never heard of before? Read the back description & immediately thought of Borges who I had been reading at the time. But Borges at a party dropping acid with Philip K Dick. I had never heardš‘‡

vivastory of speculative fiction, but I was immediately intrigued by the idea of fiction that expands & plays with genre expectations & boundaries. I walked up to the register & made one of the wisest book purchases of my life. Not only did I become a fan of Vandermeer's, but I was introduced to the wonderful & weird world of other speculative fiction authors (including MiĆ©ville). I just noticed that an omnibus of the Ambergris trilogy is scheduled (cont) 5y

vivastory be published this December. I am expecting the second book ā€Shriekā€ to arrive in the mail in a few days. #Top20Series #20Series20Days @andrew65 5y

Ruthiella Nice origin story! Browsing for a book...picking it up in a whim...heaven! š 5y

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vivastory @Ruthiella It was meant to be š€ 5y

GatheringBooks The only vandermeer i‘ve read was tagged book and it‘s a lovely illustrated treatise on the creative process. I really should read more of his titles.

Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction

batsy Nice! I really need to read more of his books beyond the Southern Reach trilogy, which I loved. 5y

Andrew65 Sounds good. 5y

readordierachel I would go to that party š† 5y

aprilpohren This sounds marvelous and I adore the cover!!!! 5y

Nute Love this post! Wonderful and weird is the best descriptive phrases for Jeff Vandermeer‘s creative genius! 5y

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broughtyoubooks

City of Saints and Madmen | Jeff VanderMeer

First three books of the year.
[COSAM] As a work of world-building, this book was awesome. The interactions and written histories, itineraries and other pieces of writing that build off the first three stories made it worth pushing through the first tale.

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twohectobooks

City of Saints and Madmen | Jeff VanderMeer

Ever since I read the tagged book, I think of it every time I see a mushroom. Normally I don‘t get mushrooms in my lawn, but this June my city went from historic drought conditions to double the average monthly precipitation. My very neglected lawn is jumping for joy. Or just growing mushrooms for joy š¨„

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Rthvn

City of Saints and Madmen | Jeff VanderMeer

pick

Aaaaaand finished! Took me long enough, but I certainly was in no hurry.
A really tangled, complicated book, City is in exercise in how much fun VanderMeer can have writing.
Ambergris is both a believable and an incredible setting, the world has been so solidly built that I find myself confusing Ambergrisian history with real history.
Overall, excellent.

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Rthvn

City of Saints and Madmen | Jeff VanderMeer

The idea of a book so rigidly formatted is just....so mystifying to me. I want to read it. What‘s that like.

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Rthvn

City of Saints and Madmen | Jeff VanderMeer

I‘m reeeally enjoying the format of fake history book, complete with rambling footnotes. Brings me back to when I would read Terry Pratchett novels in high school...

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Rthvn

City of Saints and Madmen | Jeff VanderMeer

Aaaaand with that I move onto this book which I‘ve been meaning to read for a while. I have another shipment of books coming in so I‘m hoping I can make a dent in this before they arrive.

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ohyeahthatgirl

City of Saints and Madmen | Jeff VanderMeer

I have to admit, I started my #freakyfriday stack early. I'm a slooow reader and there are so many good books on @kait.corum 's list. And this one is 700 tree-book pages!

But, I'm 75% done with this and I just love how Jeff VanderMeer's mind works. There are so many layers.
@monalyisha @Clwojick

kait.corum Glad you're enjoying it! I've never read another author who makes fungi so menacing, but there he is. The squid stuff is one of my favorite parts, if I recall correctly. 7y

vivastory I love this book. I've been meaning to read the rest of the series. 7y

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Avanders

City of Saints and Madmen | Jeff VanderMeer

3 genres: speculative; sci-fi; fantasy
3 authors: Matt Ruff, JK Rowling, Robert Jackson Bennett (++!)
3 books: tagged; Night Film; Hyperbole & a Half (++!))
2 Littens (how to pick?!): @Kalalalatja .. @MrBook for bringing news from elsewhere in the Litsyverse
2 bookstores: Page One (local) & Amazon
2 bookish places: Beeps (local) & OwlCrate š
1 bookish thing: hollow book š³
1 place: recliner in front of fireplace
1 season: fall
#Litsy321Favorites

owlcrate, Jess7, OwlCrateJr

Jess7 Thanks for participating. š¤— I've never heard of The Owl Crate. I'll have to check that out. 8y

MrBook Awww āŗļø¸, I'm blushing over here š. You're an incredible Litten beyond a doubt!!! š‘¸š¸»š‘¸š¸»š‘¸š¸»š‘š¸»š™š¸» 8y

Kalalalatja Thank you so much! I am blushing a bit too āŗļø¸āŗļø¸ and great answers! 8y

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SilversReviews Is there a way to copy the questions? I keep forgetting what they are and when I go back everything I wrote disappears. :) 8y

Avanders @jess7 it's a fun YA subscription box.. š 8y

Avanders @MrBook @Kalalalatja Happy to provide blushes all around.. happier to read your bookish posts! š„š‘¸š¸½š‘¸š¸½š„ 8y

Avanders @SilversReviews yep if you screen shot the picture, then add a picture before you start typing the blurb, you can see the pic with the questions āŗļø¸ 8y

SilversReviews @Avanders thank you. 8y

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CallMeIshmael

City of Saints and Madmen | Jeff VanderMeer

pick

It took a few restarts and my head in the right place and focused but I finally go to enjoy it. This book is complicated but deep and it's a rabbit hole that I surely enjoyed

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