City of Saints and Madmen (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Michael Moorcock (Author)
Key Phrases: freshwater squid, insect catcher, motored vehicle, Voss Bender, Janice Shriek, River Moth (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A master of postmodern game playing, VanderMeer (The Exchange) here gathers all the fiction published in his earlier trade paper collection (also titled, in a typically Borgesian maneuver, City of Saints and Madmen), plus an equal amount of new material. Set in the haunted city of Ambergris, with its Borges Bookstore, these stories feature bizarre recurring characters and intensely self-referential plots. Among the highlights are the World Fantasy Award¤winning Transformation of Martin Lake, the tale of a talented painter who's obsessed with a great composer; The Strange Case of X, which concerns an incarcerated lunatic found wandering the streets of Ambergris carrying the very book being discussed in this review; the wonderful new story The Cage, in which an antiques dealer becomes infected with a fungus that's slowly taking over much of the city; and, oddest of all perhaps, an untitled short story, which fills the entire dust jacket and concerns an unnamed traveler who has a close encounter with a giant squid in the river that runs through Ambergris. Other pieces take many forms, including a history of the city complete with footnotes, psychiatric records from a local hospital, an amazingly funny work of pseudo-biology entitled King Squid and entirely bogus bibliographies and glossaries. This beautifully written, virtually hallucinatory work isn't for every taste, but connoisseurs of the finest in postmodern fantasy will find it enormously rewarding.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

a masterful novel...complex and textured, decadent and decaying...a beautiful work of art, both as physical object and text. -- Locus Online, 2002

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 452 pages
• Publisher: Prime Books; First edition edition (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966896882
• ISBN-13: 978-0966896886
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,265,547 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Magical, April 10, 2002

By	Fosky Bob "human" (Vacaville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City of Saints and Madmen: The Book of Ambergris (Paperback)

'The City of Saints and Madmen' is easily my favorite collection of 2001. Comprised of four stories, each more deliciously exotic and fascinating than the one before, this attractively priced trade paperback is sure to entrance all readers willing to immerse themselves in VanderMeer's brilliantly conceived world.

VanderMeer's Ambergris is easily the most lavish and enticing fantastic world that I've yet to encounter. Articulating the brilliance of this book would require writing skills on a par with VanderMeer himself. I can only point to the book and insist that it is excellent. Truly excellent.

Taken by themselves, the stories are small gems...but when looked at as a whole, as part of the wonderful Ambergrisian tapestry, they become more than the sum of their parts. I anguished with the title character in 'Dradin in Love' as he realizes that his passionate longing for a mysterious woman is unlikely to be consummated. The fascinating history of Ambergris as told in 'The Hoegbotton Guide to Ambergris by Duncan Shriek' is surely one of the most complete histories of a fictional world ever conceived. The World Fantasy Award Winning 'The Transformation of Martin Lake' tells the amazing story of a humble artist who is transformed into a master through a harrowing and bizarre experience. Finally, 'The Strange Case of X' blurs the lines between fantasy and reality as an author whose life appears analogous to VanderMeer's undergoes rigorous questioning concerning the substance of reality.

Under VanderMeer's watchful eye, Ambergris is a thriving and exotic landscape. I devoured this collection in a matter of hours. Hungry for more I jumped onto the internet and searched out more VanderMeer. Ambergris is so fascinating and richly exotic that I could see VanderMeer writing about its Living Saints and Graycaps for decades without running out of stories to tell.

Immerse yourself in Ambergris. The land is hauntingly beautiful and terrifyingly real. I can see myself re-reading this brilliant collection several times a year. This masterful collection belongs on the bookshelf of every fan of speculative fiction. I'm eagerly looking forward to the Deluxe edition which supposedly contains 30,000 more words about this wonderful place and is supposed to be released Real Soon Now.

This volume, exciting and beautiful, is easily one of my all-time favorite books. Try it yourself. You won't be disappointed. Highly Recommended.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolutely beautiful book!, July 25, 2002

By	John Klima (Bettendorf, IA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Do you love books? I mean, really love them? Then this is a book that should be on your shelf. The writing is top-notch. Modernist fantasy as powerful as anything from Tim Powers, Charles de Lint, or China Mieville. The best realized fictional world since Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast.
In addition, the book is gorgeous! It is filled with wonderful illustrations, great design, and interesting typography.
What else do you get? How about a story on the dust jacket? How about a story written in code? Cool stuff.
In short, stunning.
Did I mention this is a print-on-demand title? This means the book is printed as it's ordered (well, maybe not every time, maybe every 50 or so) but it's a totally different printing process than standard books. No plates. That makes the layout of the book staggering!
Did I mention that the writing is amazing?
Buy this book. Buy several copies of this book and give it to friends.
Don't miss out.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Extraordinary Book, August 20, 2002

By	Fosky Bob "human" (Vacaville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Beautiful and lush imagery highlight this collection; sure to be one of th best genre books of 2002. This edition of the VanderMeer collection contains each of the four novellas from the 2001 paperback (including the World Fantasy Award winning 'The Transformation of Martin Lake') and augments them with two major new novellas and assorted other Ambergris material, including an expanded Ambergris glossary.

The collection begins with the fantastic 'Dradin in Love'; the story of a former missionary who moves to the city of Ambergris and immediately falls hopelessly in love. The story details Dradin's exploration of Ambergris and his growing infatuation with a woman he has not met. His correspondence with his love is facilitated by a dwarf who has a map of the world tattoed on his head. 'Dradin..' is beautiful and exciting and serves as an excellent introduction to the city of Ambergris.

Second is 'The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris'; a fascinating historical study of the origins of Ambergris. An excellent piece.

Next up is 'The Transformation of Martin Lake' which tells the story of a painter Martin Lake's transformation from an obscure artist to a master. The story is told against the background of a turbulent time in Ambergris. The death of famous composer Voss Bender has polarized the city, dividing the citizens into Reds (Bender supporters) and the Greens (Anti-Bender). This is a beautiful story that justly won the World Fantasy award.

'The Strange Case of X' features a best-selling author named Jeff VanderMeer who is apparently under the delusion that Ambergris actually exists. Nicely done.

The material original to this volume is equally compelling. Most notable is the lengthy biography of the King Squid, a creature native to Ambergris. Both brilliant and hilarious, this piece presents more background to Ambergris.

Also notable is 'The Cage', the story of a strange cage that may have belonged to the mysterious gray caps. The cage is purchased by a pawnbroker (a member of the famous Hoegbotton family) who slowly begins to question his sanity as he spends time around the cage.

The collection is rounded out with a piece 'by' Ambergrisian author Nicholas Sporlender (under which name VanderMeer also wrote 'The Exchange' which is worth tracking down), an expanded Ambergris glossary (which is well worth the 30-40 minutes of reading time. Excellent) and an encrypted story that the reader must decipher word by word. Be forewarned, it will drive you mad.

But the fun doesn't stop there. There is a complete story on the front and back dustjacket, as well as an entertaining fictional biography of VanderMeer inside the DJ.

I have fallen in love with Ambergris. This collection is in a category all its own. I've never seen its like before and don't expect to find another in the near future. This book will be my 2002 Christmas gift to the readers on my list. Make sure you don't miss it. Highly recommended.