Finch [Paperback]

Jeff VanderMeer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 2009

In Finch, mysterious underground inhabitants known as the gray caps have reconquered the failed fantasy state Ambergris and put it under martial law. They have disbanded House Hoegbotton and are controlling the human inhabitants with strange addictive drugs, internment in camps, and random acts of terror. The rebel resistance is scattered, and the gray caps are using human labor to build two strange towers. Against this backdrop, John Finch, who lives alone with a cat and a lizard, must solve an impossible double murder for his gray cap masters while trying to make contact with the rebels. Nothing is as it seems as Finch and his disintegrating partner Wyte negotiate their way through a landscape of spies, rebels, and deception. Trapped by his job and the city, Finch is about to come face to face with a series of mysteries that will change him and Ambergris forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

VanderMeer's third book set in the fungus-laden city of Ambergris is an engrossing recasting of the hard-boiled detective novel. Traditional tropes—femmes fatales, double-crossing agents, underworld crime lords—mix seamlessly with a world in which humans struggle to undermine the authority of sentient fungi a century after the events of 2006's Shriek: An Afterword. By the time titular detective Finch solves the double murder of a human and a fungus, he's been drawn into a conflict in which he's rarely sure who's manipulating him or why he's so important to their plans. VanderMeer's stark tone is brutally powerful at times, and his deft mix of genre-blurring style with a layered plot make this a joy to read. Though the book stands well on its own, fans of the earlier Ambergris novels will appreciate it even more. (Nov.)
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From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by by Victor LaValle John Finch has been called to a crime scene at 239 Manzikert Ave., Apartment 525. He stands outside the front door, his chest heaving after climbing five flights of stairs. Checks his gun in its holster. The doorknob of Apartment 525 is covered in a light green fungus, but Finch doesn't shudder; he turns it anyway and steps inside, repeating five words to himself: "I am not a detective. I am not a detective." And just that quickly, Jeff VanderMeer's intriguing and highly original novel "Finch" begins. Finch is a detective working in an occupied city decimated by war. The city is Ambergris, a mythical border town occupied by Gray Caps. They're some sort of fungal life, with heads like giant mushrooms -- thus their nickname. These creatures once lived far underground, but they rose to the surface and defeated the human armies. Then the Gray Caps instituted the law of most occupiers: Follow orders or die. Working as a cop in occupied territory, Finch discovers a spectacularly strange double murder in Apartment 525: two bodies -- one human and one Gray Cap. But here's the trick: Both died falling from a great height. Were their bodies dumped? Or could there be another, more complicated explanation? Finch catches the case but doesn't want it. In Ambergris, answers are as dangerous as bullets. "Finch," as should be clear, plays with the conventions of detective novels. Grizzled sleuth? Check. Mysterious woman who brings trouble? At least two. And a plot with more twists than the health-care debate. Despite these trappings, though, "Finch" wriggles from the grip of easy categorization. It's full of fantastical elements and genuinely humane ones, too. VanderMeer can write beautifully, summarizing the deprivations of life in war-torn Ambergris, for instance, with haunting subtlety: "239 Manzikert Avenue was a dark vertical slab of stone and wood with blackened filigree balcony railings crawling up the front. Trees left black leaves and rotting yellow berries on the steps. If the berries had been edible, the steps would've been clean." To a large degree, "Finch" is about life under occupation. VanderMeer writes insightfully about those caught in the middle of war. He makes one think of Baghdad in 2005 or Kabul today. There are rebels, a phantom insurgency more rumor than reality, and there are Gray Caps, but Finch and most other residents of Ambergris shuffle somewhere in between. Early in the novel, Finch recalls something written on the wall of another crime scene: "Everyone's a collaborator. Everyone's a rebel." And this introduces the true concern of the novel: How do you choose sides when both are willing to kill you? In Finch's case, he works as an officer for the Gray Caps. He collaborates with the occupiers. But his past -- and future -- harbors rebellion. Nearly every character teeters along this edge. All the residents jump to whichever side will keep them alive; loyalties may change tomorrow. To complicate matters, there are even old rivalries among the humans: Age-old clan ties that carry the whiff of Sunni vs. Shia, Catholic vs. Protestant. It's a testament to VanderMeer's talent that he suggests such comparisons but never lets them overwhelm the tale. By the end, Finch has chased clues across the city and even across dimensions. His actions are central to the climax, but ultimately he's more witness than participant. The fortunes of Ambergris seem likely to change, but who will really benefit? Civilians caught between warring factions find "victory" a dubious concept. The important questions remain the same: What must I do to survive tomorrow? What will another day of life cost me? The story's final moments may seem triumphant, but this complex novel rejects simple conclusions. [e-mail]
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 339 pages
• Publisher: Underland Press; Original edition (November 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0980226015
• ISBN-13: 978-0980226010
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #567,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I started at the end, as usual..., September 23, 2009

By 

Ulalume Jones "Creative Gal" (Between Nothing and Nowhere) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Finch (Paperback)

(What's this?)

My only exposure to Jeff Vandermeer prior to this, was reading Steampunk, which was this volume of works he edited with his wife. Ann. I really enjoyed that book. I thought the idea of Ambergris intriguing. I didn't know I was beginning at the end, which isn't the author's fault or mine. I dived into it, though, so I will read this first and then go back to the other books.

I was expecting a straight steampunk sort of novel with noir like detective elements, but this is much more than that. The fantasy elements, even the dark or grotesque ones, are beautiful. From page one, I was sucked in, a now fan of those books which are cut into "day" chapters. He has a very good use of vocabulary especially describing color and locations, it reminds me of Romantic Poets, yet this isn't a poem by far. The mixture is fantastic. It's gritty and violent, yet highly lovely in spirt, the only thing I could say even comes close to it that I have read, and I don't read a lot of fiction, is Nick Cave's And the Ass Saw the Angel. The two books are completely different in plot but share the same gorgeous intensity in their gothic imagery and dark joys. It's so rhythmic in nature, I can believe the music cited at the end inspired in and why he would want to make a soundtrack to go along with the book.

The story is a mix of so many things, horror, pulp detective stories, gothic literature, poetry, magic, who-done-its, I could list a bunch of movies and books I have read that would be the fingers and eyelashes of this work. It's good for the detective story read, good for the fantasy reader, hopefully good for the goths and steampunks too, though I am sure there might be debate over that. I am smitten by the lure of Ambergris, so I will be walking backwards and reading the rest. I would tell you my opinion of the plot, but the press that made the book, expresses their opinion that spoilers should be kept to the bare minimum, so I am respecting that. I can say that I don't read a lot of fiction because I rarely get sucked into a world, but this world of Ambergris is unique and gruesomely addictive.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Difficult Beginning, Good After That, November 11, 2009

By 

ephemeral - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Finch (Paperback)

(What's this?)

Jeff Vandermeer's Finch is an interesting mixture of genres, encompassing noir, science fiction, and philosophy. The novel follows detective John Finch as he tries to solve a double murder- one human and one of the fungus-creature graycaps that rule the city of Ambergris are found dead in an otherwise empty apartment. With few resources, a partner who is quickly succumbing to a terrible disease, a lover who may or may not be his enemy, and a boss who is demanding answers immediately, Finch is forced to take actions that could prove deadly.

I didn't immediately like this book. I found the beginning somewhat muddled and had difficulty following what was going on. The author chose to place most of the description of his fantastical city of Ambergris and its history in the middle and end of the book. For me that meant it was a struggle to read the first quarter of the book or so, but after that things became increasingly clear, and I was able to focus more on the characters and their problems. I know that the author has written at least two other books in this world, but since they are supposed to be stand-alones, I thought I'd forge ahead without having read them. It's definitely possible that I would have had a more enjoyable reading experience had I done that.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Return To Ambergris And The City's Strange, Flowering Fungi, November 3, 2009

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Finch (Paperback)

Back to the timeless city of Ambergris, from VanderMeer's 'City Of Saints And Madmen' and 'Shriek: An Afterward'. Ambergris has changed a great deal over the last century. The once mysterious and quiet Gray Caps (Mushroom People) have risen from their Underground to take over the city, overpower the reigning corporate-based rulership, and now runs the city with the help of fungi based weapons, and towering purple mushrooms which disperse addictive drugs to the human population.

John Finch, not his real name, is a detective put on the case of two bodies lying dead in a tenement room. Both he and his partner Wyte, who is contaminated with fungal growth, are puzzled over the mysterious way the deaths occurred, and that one victim is human and the other a Gray Cap. They are watched over by the Partials, humans who have given themselves over to the Gray Caps and allowed fungal and other alterations to their bodies. Finch must eat the "memory bulbs" harvested from the dead, to discover the reason for their murder.

The Gray Caps, while ruling the city, are focused on building two towers, the function of which is unknown and mystifying. It seems the city falls deeper into decay the further along the towers rise. Finch finds himself deep in a complex web of fabrications and suspicion over the murder; a murder that ties in such anomalous characters as the Lady In Blue, Ethan Bliss, the dangerous Stark, Finch's neighbor Rathven, and his Gray Cap boss Heretic. Could there even be a tie to Ambergris historian Duncan Shriek, who disappeared a century ago?

Ambergris has a history: First, The Silence, discussed in VanderMeer's first Ambergris story 'City Of Saints And Madmen'; then The War Of The Houses, discussed in VanderMeer's second Ambergris novel 'Shriek: An Afterward'; and now in 'Finch' comes The Rising. Not only have the Gray Caps risen to take over the city, but the waters have risen too; where there was city and canals now lies a vast bay - Ambergris is shrinking.

There's a lot more, well, fungi, in this third trip through Ambergris. More spores, more infestation, more ruination, more rot, more types of fruiting bodies, and large tree-sized mushrooms that dispense purple spores that people wait for because the spores are the new drug of choice.

There's always been something attractive to me about fungi and fruiting bodies - they're peculiar and rather disgusting. They give me a creepy feeling, and when confronted with one in the wild I cannot stop myself from plucking it and handling it, turning it this way and that to study it, then scrubbing my hands as hard as I can to rid myself of the real (or imaginary)) slime and spores left behind.

I'm a little disappointed in The Rising depicted in 'Finch'. Part of what lured me to Ambergris was the mystery of the Gray Caps; now much of that mystery has been revealed, lessening the tension I felt reading the other Ambergris books. VanderMeer also changed his style a bit, using uncharacteristically short, stilted sentences rather than the flowing prose of the past two Ambergris novels. This works though, because 'Finch' is a rawer Ambergris, an Ambergris in more upset and peril than ever before. Can it be saved?

I highly recommend reading 'City Of Saints And Madmen' and 'Shriek: An Afterward' before 'Finch', even though 'Finch' can stand on it's own. Immerse yourself in the poetic history of Ambergris, and don't miss out on a moment of it. Enjoy!