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An epic yet personal look at several decades of life, love, and death in the imaginary city of Ambergris—previously chronicled in Jeff VanderMeer's acclaimed City of Saints & Madmen—Shriek: An Afterword relates the scandalous, heartbreaking, and horrifying secret history of two squabbling siblings and their confidantes, protectors, and enemies.

Narrated with flamboyant intensity and under increasingly urgent conditions by ex-society figure Janice Shriek, this afterword presents a vivid gallery of characters and events, emphasizing the adventures of Janice's brother Duncan, a historian obsessed with a doomed love affair and a secret that may kill or transform him; a war between rival publishing houses that will change Ambergris forever; and the gray caps, a marginalized people armed with advanced fungal technologies who have been waiting underground for their chance to mold the future of the city.

Part academic treatise, part tell-all biography, after this introduction to the Family Shriek, you’ll never look at history in quite the same way again

67% - 6 Review(s)

"VanderMeer has woven a truly remarkable novel." -- Inchoatus

"...an unaffecting Nabokovian intellectual exercise with very little beyond its cleverness to recommend it, and a poor introduction to both the Ambergris universe and VanderMeer's otherwise exceptional body of work." -- Abigail Nussbaum, Strange Horizons

"...a well-written and imaginative but flawed work of fantasy." -- Arthur Bangs, SFFWorld

"...not just a great book; it is a great book with a very serious point to make." -- Cheryl Morgan, Emerald City

"It's easy to get swept up into the story, and it's difficult not to appreciate the artistry of the work." -- Neil Walsh, SFSite

"at once inspirational (I want to use words as he does, I want to find startlingly insightful ways to do character and story) and dauntingly off-putting (he has what I simply don't...). The bastard." -- Keith Brooke, Infinity Plus