Ambergris Audiobook By Jeff VanderMeer cover art

Ambergris

City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek, Finch

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Ambergris

By: Jeff VanderMeer
Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Cassandra Campbell, Oliver Wyman
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About this listen

From the author of Borne and Annihilation comes the one-volume reissue of his cult classic Ambergris Trilogy.

Before Area X, there was Ambergris. Jeff VanderMeer conceived what would become his first cult classic series of speculative works: the Ambergris trilogy. Now, for the first time ever, the story of the sprawling metropolis of Ambergris is collected into a single volume, including City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch.

©2020 VanderMeer Creative, Inc. (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
Anthologies & Short Stories Crime Thrillers Fantasy Fiction Paranormal Science Fiction Supernatural Thriller Thriller & Suspense City Mind-Bending

What listeners say about Ambergris

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Can’t recommend enough!

It’s a long listen but it’s worth it, as you discover the amazing city of Ambergris and the strange and thrilling stories that bring it to life.

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Wonderful & Imaginative

The whole Ambergris trilogy was fantastic. Each book is distinct and unique but the over-arching plot and story of the city is always present.
Ambergris is a beautifully crafted world with a very deep history. I couldn’t put the books down and wanted more stories from Ambergris when I was finished.

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Hits different

This book just hits different. It’s format is different. I didn’t feel like things got bows as much as they got more questions. So much is left for us to decide after the fact. But I loved every minute of it.

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Excellent Series

The first few novels were good, but a bit scattered and seemed to be loosely connected. But the final novel Finch was a subtle weaving of the previous books with the character John Finch and all the mysteries of Ambergis and his own life together. I especially loved the ending, which was uplifting and let the reader's mind reeling with possibilities.

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Deus ex mushrooma

Imagistic, vivid, vulgar, and artistic, this author's weak narrative is partially hidden by the spectacle of the imagery. I could not like or empathize with a single character, mostly because the reader isn't given any real reason for the loves or resentments, they are just dramatically and vividly displayed; kind of splatted there like... well, I am not the author. Extremely good and detailed imagery and feel, but what's described is rarely important to the narrative. If you enjoy looking through an extremely detailed kaleidoscope for hours, then you might like this series. It's not to my taste.

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Epic

The series starts out slow giving a history of Ambergris and I started to get a bit bored, but stuck to it. So glad I did. The history build a base to this crazy city and each story after builds and builds. Loved it. Ends with a noir style story to cap it off.

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Unexpected and Excellent

Unexpected and quite excellent, Ambergris is a a fabulous fever dream of a book; a wild ride that I enjoyed immensely.

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interesting point of view story telling

I really enjoyed the way the story was written, detailed and intricate world created. Switching point of views and times, the story truly comes to a head at the end, but despite the glory that should be there, I felt ultimately unsatisfied, which perhaps was the intention of the author.

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An epic read/listen with fungus and footnotes

Absolutely brilliant! I wish Bronson Pinchot had also read some of the dialog in "Finch." I think it would have been a better mental journey if he had done so. Even so... 5 stars!

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Fascinating

And I’m not saying that lightly. I mean, this is really a surprising, inventive, wild, and: well-written adventure, to listen to.

I had read China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station years ago, which was published 8 years before the Ambergris cycle, and clearly was a precursor in some ways, but that doesn’t diminish this book and it’s author’s achievements.

And the super special award for the best-read footnote numbers in the history of audio books goes to…. (opening the envelope) … “The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris, by Duncan Shriek” (applause!)

“Shriek : An afterword” was also great, but it did seem to wear on for just a little too long.

And: great to see more titles with chapter titles on audible!

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