Veniss Underground {expanded edition}

What a strange, sad, dreamy, interesting novel. It takes place at the sunset of humanity, when genetic engineering is done at the whim of a creator. The people who populate this book are desperate, in this weird dream-like, scary world. It feels very real, as if the author caught a glimpse of the end of the world and wrote it down.

There are elements of ancient stories in here - such as Orpheus saving his beloved from Hades. Or even hints of Dante's Inferno. At times, this book heartbreaking and lovely, all at the same time.

A wonderful, scary book that reminds me of Philip K. Dick mixed with Gibson with more than a dash of Lovecraft thrown it.

VanderMeer is an author whose name seems to be pretty universally revered, when recognized, amongst SFF fans. For what feels like months, I've been looking for A City of Saints and Madmen. After having my search thwarted by every bookstore in Long Island, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, I finally found Veniss Underground in a college bookstore just before giving up hope. I had never heard of it, but by then I was willing to try anything with VanderMeer's name, or a close approximation of it, on the spine.

The book was, as can be inferred by the first sentence, stunning. It's set far in the future, in a time when earth's various cities have become high tech city states. For a time, Veniss enjoyed a golden age, but, for causes unspecified, show more the city's government came crashing down. In its absence, the various districts of the city have become independent in their own right, and the city's underground is spilling into daylight. Though he is only visible for a brief time, Quin is the catalyst of the entire book. It is his influence that sets every one of the characters on their path.

The glory of the book doesn't come from the plot. It's in the prose and characters that the magic is truly found. Experimental techniques such as second person and its kind are viewed with - not undeserved - hesitation by most readers. It takes a book like this to remind us that it isn't the techniques that are bad, just their continual misapplication. The writing here is filled with great phrases, yet remains clear throughout. Allusions to other literary works fill the story, Dante's Inferno and countless other classics and myths prominent among them.

The book is structured in three parts of increasing length, one from each of the character's perspectives. Different parts are each written in a totally different viewpoint style and vary considerably in atmosphere. The first of these is told by Nicholas. Despite being the reason that the rest of the characters are dragged down into the underworld, Nicholas's screen time is quite brief. His chapters are written from a selfish first person perspective, and, as a failed artist and "slang jockey" are littered with turns of phrase that vary from insightful ("The city is sharp, the city is a cliché performed with cardboard and painted sparkly colors to disguise the empty center - the hole"), to amusing (replacing IE with Eye E, for instance), to downright pretentious ("wait, listen: 'the end of the world is night;' that's mine, a single-cell haiku").

The second part of the book is told from Nicola's perspective. Prose here is written in a second person, present tense style. This not only sucks you in beautifully, after a few seconds of adjustment, but also provides some of the best writing:

"You. Were. Always. Two. As one: Nicola and Nicholas, merging into the collective memory together, so that in the beginning of a sentence spoken by your brother you knew the shadow of its end and mouthed the words before he said them."

The third part of the book is told from Shadrach, Nicola's former lover. His style is told in a more detached third person perspective. Here, the eye grabbing writing is pushed farther back, to allow the outside world to shine through more clearly. For a few instants this transition seems like a shame, but the prodigal strangeness of the underworld makes up for it with ease. Shadrach's section forms the largest portion of the book and from him we learn the most about Veniss, and about all of the characters. Prior misconceptions are set to rights, and there are two moments of brilliance that can best be described as the structural equivalent of a plot twist.

The underworld is strange in a way that few other fantasies have ever managed to be. It can, perhaps be compared to Mieville for sheer inventiveness, but the comparison comes more from the authors' titanic imaginations than any true similarity. As the quest continues, and Shadrach descends from level to level, the strangeness becomes ever more profound. There are scenes of horror here, and scenes of wonder, and all of them are perfectly envisioned and conveyed.

Also contained in the volume are three short stories and a novella, all set within the Veniss milieu. The short stories are all interesting, but none approach the level of the preceding novel. The greatest of them is the third, A Heart For Lucretia. Its interesting structure, and bizarre chain of events, is captivating, yet the entire thing felt like it was perpetually on the edge of greatness, unable to cross over within its limited length.

The novella, Balzac's War, is the best of the extra content. Like the shorts, it takes place far after the main story, and is centered on a war between humanity and the flesh dogs. The story begins with a brief scene, then jumps a large number of years. The reasons for that never become wholly apparent, but the story has strong characters and is highly unsettling nonetheless.

Veniss Underground is a story that draws you in and does not let you go, filled with memorable characters and troubling themes, evocative images and unforgettable action. It is not something that should be allowed to pass by. If you don't have it, you have done a grievous disservice to yourself. Remedy that at once. show less

This was my first non-Ambergris VanderMeer, and I’ll admit, I was a little worried. I shouldn’t have been. Veniss is amazing, a science fantasy of depth and wonder with a wealth of detail. It’s a dark Orpheus tale where the hero descends into the underworld and comes away with both more and less than he (or I) expected. VanderMeer uses some incredibly beautiful prose to describe some incredibly horrific things, but there’s an underlying sense of wonder here, too.

Three characters find themselves drawn into their home city's underground regions.

This is most definitely a New Weird novel, and it's weird-ass sh*t at its best. The atmosphere is remarkable. The themes are subtle but accessible. The science is bizarre. The darkness is thick and dangerous. The whole thing is completely over the top, but the characters keep it grounded. If you're interested in the changing face of speculative fiction, it is most definitely worth your time

VanderMeer does a couple of very simple technical things that are still pretty durned clever. The novel's structure is the most prominent of these. We open with Nicholas's first person account of the events that got the ball rolling. Next up is Nicola's second person show more look at the aftermath. We end off with Shadrdach's third person journey through Veniss Underground. First, second, third. It's so simple that it borders on corny, but it works. It draws us into the story, slowly but surely. We identify with Nicholas, prat that he is, because he's speaking directly to us. We actually become Nicola. By the time Shadrach comes to the forefront, we've gotten to know him through the other two and are in a position to connect with him.

VanderMeer also draws on a couple of older stories, including that of Orpheus and Euridice, but he updates them considerably. Other critics have also compared the story to Dante's Inferno, and I think that's fair. Veniss Underground is not a nice place, and its many levels have some clear parallels to the nine circles of hell.

And on top of all that, VanderMeer has done some truly gorgeous things with the atmosphere. He manages to make this distinctly uncomfortable world comfortable enough that we want to know more about it. We want to understand all the enigmatic little details he throws out there. It's beautifully done.

My copy, (the Bantam Spectra edition), also includes some short stories and a novella set in the Veniss universe. These pieces build off of Shadrach's actions at the end of VENISS UNDERGROUND. I can't say for sure, but the reviews I've read lead me to believe that the other edition contains different material.

I most definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a good, dark read with lots of depth. It's not a comfortable book, but it's a worthwhile one.

(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). show less

This book was written just for me, or so it seems, combining a mystical, philosophical cyberpunk world with a touch of the sapience question and what it means when genetic manipulation removes humanity. These are all elements that have spoken to me a time or two, or three or four. The tone of the novel is surreal, the information offered through a mist where the POV characters can only see as far as they can stretch their hands and yet still strike out as best they can to change what they don’t want to admit is true. Powerful writing that’s very evocative. I don’t think this book is everyone’s cup of tea, and there are many moods when it wouldn’t have called so strongly, but if you’re interested in the test of human psyche, show more in the way people react when thrust into extreme conditions of civilization, this is a solid contender. The novel itself becomes Living Art, something you’ll understand when you read it. show less

"Okay," not great - more aesthetic concept than narrative.

Dystopian novel about a guy who genetically modifies people and animals into entirely new organic creations, and a few characters connected to him. It comes across as more of a writer's exercise in worldbuilding than a novel in the classic sense, as there wasn't a lot of plot or depth of character to it, but it was interesting all the same to watch the unfolding of VanderMeer's crafted universe. It feels very much like the building blocks upon which his much more successful Southern Reach trilogy was built.

Veniss Underground is full of the weirdness, sense of wonder, world building, and just general quality that I have come to expect from a Vandermeer book. Comparable to the stories of Cordwainer Smith and Jack Vance, this far future novel about a Living Artist and the quest for his missing twin sister is an adventure that only Jeff Vandermeer could conceive.