Vandermeer’s prose is reminiscent of China Mieville at his absolute worst.

Shriek: An Afterword sprawls across 345 large format pages, following Janice and Duncan’s childhood, Duncan’s early work as a historian, his ventures into the undeground below Ambergris, a war that comes to the city, and – excruciatingly – a drawn-out love affair with one of his students. It’s ironic that a work of meta-fiction which deals so heavily with writers, publishing houses and editing is so badly in need of editing itself. Duncan himself has discovered her notes and adds his own comments and remarks throughout the text. It takes the form of an “afterword” written by Janice Shriek to a historical work by her brother Duncan, detailing their long, sad and sorry lives. Shriek: An Afterword is terribly tedious, one of those books in which I found it almost impossible to keep my attention on the page. I can tell why there were so many unread piles sitting around in the store even as workmen were stripping the fixtures. Then, during the agonising collapse of REDGroup, when Borders and Angus & Robertson stores were ejecting themselves of their contents like the dying animals they were, I begrudgingly picked up Shriek: An Afterword for five bucks during a clearance sale. While working at my bookstore I was entranced by the cover of Finch, which is the third book in Vandermeer’s Ambergris series, and I figured I could probably skip the second one. Three years ago I read City of Saints and Madmen, and added Vandermeer to the pile of authors who have a great imagination and some degree of talent, but who have a tendency to ramble on about boring crap and sorely need an editor (see also: China Mieville, late Stephen King). Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff Vandermeer (2006) 345 p.

Jeff vandermeer shriek