Finch

Oliver Wyman's narration brings Jeff VanderMeer's eponymous Finch to gritty light in certainly one of the best books of 2009, and one of my picks for top 10 speculative fiction novels of the first decade of the 21st century along with (for taste comparison purposes) American Gods, Perdido Street Station, The Windup Girl, The Magicians, The Darkness That Comes Before, Building Harlequin's Moon, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, The Shadow of the Wind, and Anathem.

Finch's refrain here is "I am not a detective." A survivor both of the gray cap (roughly: mushroom people; "like leaves sewn together over meat") uprising and the preceding years of civil war which split the ancient city of Ambergris. The setting is deep (very deep) as VanderMeer has had two previous books which built it, but Finch stands alone, both as a book and, in the book, as a character. Though he has a wonderful (and often dark) cast of characters to lean on, friend and foe, Finch has his own secret past from which he must hide. Meanwhile, he's pressed into serving the gray caps as a detective.

{"Two dead bodies," Heretic said.}

Thus begins the facts of the case. Finch has love (but to name it so risks too much, as too much can be so easily lost in Ambergris), friendship, and loss, and throughout he clings to survival. Is there hope there? Unsure. The Lady in Blue is the remote voice on the radio of the resistance; other factions from nearby city-states have their agents in the city, looking to profit from the turmoil; human "Partials" voluntarily become infected with gray cap spores to both gain and lose something; strange things happen.

{Never lost.}

The novel remains in Finch's very tight third person throughout, the pace perfect, the dialogue sharp. Wyman's Heretic is amazing, his Finch troubled and authentic. The book is urgent and real, cover to cover, with a memorable closing scene which is thoroughly satisfying.

The first time this book went by, I passed. It didn't really sound all that interesting. Grey caps?? Ok. Pass. But then, I found it again while looking through reader's reviews. (I like to see what kind of books the peeps doing the reviewing like....so I can have some perspective on their reviews of a book, etc. etc.) I found this title with a GREAT recommendation from what sounded like someone of a similiar mind set (re:books). I took a chance. Wow. This baby delivers EXACTLY as promised. Classic sci-fi, fantasy, noir, etc. etc. combined surprisingly pleasantly with a very beautiful style. Succinct yet descriptive in an entirely imaginative way. I would (actually) rate this as one of my top books read, this year, to date. I hope Audible gets some more of this author :) :) :)

Noir-ish. Dark. Disturbing. Different take on an alternative world. A fascinating, gritty place with addicts and decay. Gruesome (Not for the easily-grossed-out). Good Listen. But seriously, it's gory.

I just finished listening to this book, and i would have to say that i highly enjoyed it.

The narration is very good quality with the narrator managing to get a feeling of each of the separate characters across strongly with his accents.

The book itself is a strange mix of sci-fi and noir, and something strange like this is exactly what i look for so needless to say this hit the spot very nicely.

Give it a shot, you might like it.

You knew where the plot was going from the beginning because basically this is a reversioning of Red Harvest. That doesn't mean it wasn't an enjoyable listen. I assume by the ending that it's a series. I'll give the second a listen.
The characterization of the humans (particularly the secondary characters) was very good.
Made me want to go back and re-read Red Harvest.

This may not be for everyone, but I thought it was interesting story-telling. The pacing is not speedy, but the tale haunting and the world that VanderMeer creates was compelling to me. I'm glad I bought it and will look for other works by the author.

An amazingly fortunate combination of text and reader. Intriguing -- mesmerizing -- excellent in all respects.

I found the beginning of this book to be a little slow, but by the end I was really glad I stuck with it.

My favorite thing about this book is the slow, creeping misery, and the lowly protagonist fighting the odds to oppose utter fungal domination. (Really.)

Long after I finished this audiobook, I still think it has the creepiest, most skin-crawling villains, some of whom are largely inanimate objects. (Really!)

The narrator does a great job with squishy fungal parasite speak. (No,seriously!)

An interesting and engaging book. I had no idea where it would take me, which was fun for a change. It was like Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), but with fungus. Lots, and lots of fungus.

Very nicely done - fusion of noir, sci-fi and steampunk (biopunk). The story definitely hits the noir marks perfectly (identity questions, existential questions) and also does a really nice job of establishing an interesting, complex world.