-
Ambergris
- City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek, Finch
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Cassandra Campbell, Oliver Wyman
- Series: The Ambergris Series
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thriller & Suspense
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $52.47
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Hummingbird Salamander
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Security consultant “Jane Smith” receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the dead woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of an Argentine industrialist. By taking the hummingbird from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control.
-
-
If this is how the world ends, bring a gameboy.
- By interlinKED Media on 04-11-21
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
A Peculiar Peril
- The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Lambshead stands to inherit his deceased grandfather's overstuffed mansion - a veritable cabinet of curiosities - once he and two schoolmates catalog its contents. But the three soon discover that the house is filled with far more than just oddities: It holds clues linking to an alt-Earth called Aurora, where the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley has stormed back to life on a magic-fueled rampage across a surreal, through-the-looking-glass version of Europe replete with talking animals (and vegetables).
-
-
A book with "all the things in it"
- By Bruce on 01-25-21
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Borne
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Borne, a young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Company - a biotech firm now derelict - and punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. Rachel ekes out an existence in the shelter of a run-down sanctuary she shares with her partner, Wick, who deals his own homegrown psychoactive biotech.
-
-
Bizarre and Bracing!
- By Books, Vertigo and Tea on 02-08-18
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
This World Is Full of Monsters
- A Tor.com Original
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 1 hr and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An alien invasion comes to one man’s doorstep in the form of a story-creature, followed by death and rebirth in a transformed Earth, in this Tor.com Original science fiction tale from Jeff VanderMeer, the New York Times best-selling author of the Southern Reach trilogy.
-
-
weird weird weird... so good
- By Ryan on 09-18-19
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Dead Astronauts
- A Novel
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A messianic blue fox who slips through warrens of time and space on a mysterious mission. A homeless woman haunted by a demon who finds the key to all things in a strange journal. A giant leviathan of a fish, centuries old, who hides a secret, remembering a past that may not be its own. Three ragtag rebels waging an endless war for the fate of the world against an all-powerful corporation. A raving madman who wanders the desert lost in the past, haunted by his own creation: an invisible monster whose name he has forgotten and whose purpose remains hidden.
-
-
Edgar Allen Poe + Angela Carter = VanderMeer’s World
- By Woody Robinson on 01-01-20
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Area X
- The Southern Reach Trilogy - Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick, Bronson Pinchot, Xe Sands
- Length: 26 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dive into the mysteries of Area X, a remote and lush terrain that has inexplicably sequestered itself from civilization. Twelve expeditions have gone in, and not a single member of any of them has remained unchanged by the experience - for better or worse.
-
-
a trilogy that gets worse as you go
- By Travis on 12-22-17
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Hummingbird Salamander
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Security consultant “Jane Smith” receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the dead woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of an Argentine industrialist. By taking the hummingbird from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control.
-
-
If this is how the world ends, bring a gameboy.
- By interlinKED Media on 04-11-21
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
A Peculiar Peril
- The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Lambshead stands to inherit his deceased grandfather's overstuffed mansion - a veritable cabinet of curiosities - once he and two schoolmates catalog its contents. But the three soon discover that the house is filled with far more than just oddities: It holds clues linking to an alt-Earth called Aurora, where the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley has stormed back to life on a magic-fueled rampage across a surreal, through-the-looking-glass version of Europe replete with talking animals (and vegetables).
-
-
A book with "all the things in it"
- By Bruce on 01-25-21
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Borne
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Borne, a young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Company - a biotech firm now derelict - and punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. Rachel ekes out an existence in the shelter of a run-down sanctuary she shares with her partner, Wick, who deals his own homegrown psychoactive biotech.
-
-
Bizarre and Bracing!
- By Books, Vertigo and Tea on 02-08-18
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
This World Is Full of Monsters
- A Tor.com Original
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 1 hr and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An alien invasion comes to one man’s doorstep in the form of a story-creature, followed by death and rebirth in a transformed Earth, in this Tor.com Original science fiction tale from Jeff VanderMeer, the New York Times best-selling author of the Southern Reach trilogy.
-
-
weird weird weird... so good
- By Ryan on 09-18-19
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Dead Astronauts
- A Novel
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A messianic blue fox who slips through warrens of time and space on a mysterious mission. A homeless woman haunted by a demon who finds the key to all things in a strange journal. A giant leviathan of a fish, centuries old, who hides a secret, remembering a past that may not be its own. Three ragtag rebels waging an endless war for the fate of the world against an all-powerful corporation. A raving madman who wanders the desert lost in the past, haunted by his own creation: an invisible monster whose name he has forgotten and whose purpose remains hidden.
-
-
Edgar Allen Poe + Angela Carter = VanderMeer’s World
- By Woody Robinson on 01-01-20
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Area X
- The Southern Reach Trilogy - Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick, Bronson Pinchot, Xe Sands
- Length: 26 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dive into the mysteries of Area X, a remote and lush terrain that has inexplicably sequestered itself from civilization. Twelve expeditions have gone in, and not a single member of any of them has remained unchanged by the experience - for better or worse.
-
-
a trilogy that gets worse as you go
- By Travis on 12-22-17
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Two Worlds and In Between
- The Best of Caitlin R. Kiernan, Vol. 1
- By: Caitlín R. Kiernan
- Narrated by: various narrators, Jayme Mattler, Helen Lloyd, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan presents a stunning retrospective of the first 10 years of the author’s work. It is a compilation of more than 200,000 words of short fiction, including many of her most acclaimed stories as well as some of the author’s personal favorites; several previously uncollected, hard-to-find pieces; her sci-fi novella, The Dry Salvages; and a rare collaboration with Poppy Z. Brite.
-
-
Amazing collection!
- By Ross on 08-24-20
-
The Strange Bird
- A Borne Story
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 3 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Strange Bird is a new kind of creature, built in a laboratory - she is part bird, part human, part many other things. But now the lab in which she was created is under siege, and the scientists have turned on their animal creations. Flying through tunnels, dodging bullets, and changing her colors and patterning to avoid capture, the Strange Bird manages to escape. But she cannot just soar in peace above the earth.
-
-
Beautiful but depressing
- By Nessa Rae on 01-06-21
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Acceptance
- The Southern Reach Trilogy, Book 3
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick, Bronson Pinchot, Xe Sands
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is winter in Area X. A new team embarks across the border on a mission to find a member of a previous expedition who may have been left behind. As they press deeper into the unknown - navigating new terrain and new challenges - the threat to the outside world becomes only more daunting. In the final installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may have been solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound - or terrifying.
-
-
A confusing and disappointing hot mess
- By Zachary on 07-04-18
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Authority
- Southern Reach Trilogy, Book 2
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For 30 years, a secret agency called the Southern Reach has monitored expeditions into Area X - a remote and lush terrain mysteriously sequestered from civilization. After the 12th expedition, the Southern Reach is in disarray, and John Rodriguez (a.k.a. "Control") is the team's newly appointed head. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and more than two hundred hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets of Area X begin to reveal themselves - and what they expose pushes Control to confront disturbing truths about both himself and the agency he's promised to serve.
-
-
Bogged Down By Dystopian Bureaucracy
- By Katherine on 05-09-14
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Embassytown
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
China Miéville doesn’t follow trends, he sets them. Relentlessly pushing his own boundaries as a writer - and in the process expanding the boundaries of the entire field - with Embassytown, Miéville has crafted an extraordinary novel that is not only a moving personal drama but a gripping adventure of alien contact and war. In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak....
-
-
must hear to fully appreciate.
- By Don Gilbert on 01-05-12
By: China Mieville
-
Semiosis
- A Novel
- By: Sue Burke
- Narrated by: Caitlin Davies, Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forced to land on a planet they aren't prepared for, human colonists rely on their limited resources to survive. The planet provides a lush but inexplicable landscape - trees offer edible, addictive fruit one day and poison the next, while the ruins of an alien race are found entwined in the roots of a strange plant. Conflicts between generations arise as they struggle to understand one another and grapple with an unknowable alien intellect.
-
-
Weird. But good. But weird.
- By Lilyn G. on 03-20-18
By: Sue Burke
-
Roadside Picnic
- By: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Olena Bormashenko - translator
- Narrated by: Robert Forster
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a "full empty", something goes wrong.
-
-
Gritty, resonant sci-fi classic
- By Ryan on 02-14-13
By: Arkady Strugatsky, and others
-
Agents of Dreamland
- Tinfoil Dossier, Book 1
- By: Caitlin R. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell, Chelsea Stephens
- Length: 2 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A government special agent known only as the Signalman gets off a train on a stunningly hot morning in Winslow, Arizona. Later that day he meets a woman in a diner to exchange information about an event that happened a week earlier for which neither has an explanation but which haunts the Signalman. In a ranch house near the shore of the Salton Sea, a cult leader gathers up the weak and susceptible - the Children of the Next Level - and offers them something to believe in and a chance for transcendence. The future is coming, and they will help to usher it in.
-
-
I Really Enjoyed It
- By KC Miller on 10-22-20
-
The Book of Koli
- By: M. R. Carey
- Narrated by: Theo Solomon
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable landscape. A place where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don't get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.mKoli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He believes the first rule of survival is that you don't venture too far beyond the walls. He's wrong.
-
-
A Very Special Book
- By Charles Elmore on 04-22-20
By: M. R. Carey
-
Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea
- The Best of Caitlin R. Kiernan, Vol. 2
- By: Caitlín R. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka, Neil Hellegers, Nancy Wu, and others
- Length: 24 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his Locus review of Two Worlds and in Between - the first volume of The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan - Gary K. Wolfe wrote, “...it makes you wish the second volume were here now.” Well, the long wait is over. This second volume completes this ambitious undertaking, collecting the finest of Kiernan’s stories from 2004 to 2012, selected by the author herself. The book includes 25 short stories and one poem, plus the short novel Black Helicopters - more than 200,000 words of fiction, including the World Fantasy Award-winning “The Prayer of 90 Cats”.
-
-
Oh, Ms. Kiernan, how do I love your stories?
- By Ross on 11-28-20
-
Annihilation
- Southern Reach Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.
-
-
Great story, bad narrator
- By Julian P. on 01-26-16
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Wonderbook (Revised and Expanded)
- The Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Ryan Burke, Tanya Eby, Adam Verner
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wonderbook has become the definitive guide to writing science fiction and fantasy by offering an accessible, example-rich approach that emphasizes the importance of playfulness as well as pragmatism. The book features sidebars and essays from some of the biggest names working in the field today, including George R. R. Martin, Lev Grossman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, and Karen Joy Fowler. For the fifth anniversary of the original publication, Jeff VanderMeer has added writing exercises, creating the ultimate volume of inspiring advice.
By: Jeff VanderMeer
Publisher's Summary
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.
More from the same
What listeners say about Ambergris
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous
- 12-04-20
Entrancing “weird” novel
If you’ve read VanderMeer and enjoyed him before you’ll love this book, he is a writer of immense talent and voice. The world of ambergris is pulled out of time and draws on history and literary canon as well as VanderMeer’s towering imagination. Surges with empathy and an utterly unique weirdness. A lovely late night reader.
Some...shall we say, interesting...choices from the narration team here, to varying results. It’s weird fiction so I suppose I should rather expect some weirdness on the part of the narration team, but in certain stories like “Hoegboten’s guide to the history of ambergris” the narrator is very...present within the reading, whether that’s a deliberate choice on the producers’ part or what I’m not sure. That story has lots of footnotes, which I get is difficult to convey in audio format, but I do wish they’d been able to clarify what the footnotes are within the reading a bit more. Sometimes it seems a bit like the narrators are unsure exactly what tone the prose is calling for from beat to beat. Must be hard in a piece like this but still.
Regardless, I’m glad I dropped a credit on this. It’s a good collection and a fun late night read.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gaia
- 12-14-20
Came For Oliver Wyman, Stayed For Oliver Wyman
First off, all three voice actors are amazing. Bronson Pinchot's odd footnote call-outs made me chuckle at times, and I loved the strange way he stressed certain random syllables as well. Cassandra Campbell's performance is a calming, grounding force throughout book 2. Her ability to give great voices to each character definitely helps keep the reader from feeling lost in Ambergris, even while they most definitely are. Last but not least, Oliver Wyman's performance (which is what brought my wallet to this collection to begin with) is top shelf, just as I have come to expect from anything he does. There is a certain level of humanity Wyman is able to bring to every character he embodies. His talent for injecting emotion into every single word is almost otherworldly. As for the books themselves: City of Saints and Madmen- Oh man. I feel like I missed something amazing and settled for just being happy to get through it. I hate that feeling. I mean, I get it: The level of talent in the creation and execution of such a solid, real world is glaringly obvious throughout the trilogy. I just didn't super... enjoy this one? I didn't super not enjoy it either. Shriek- As much as I didn't enjoy the first book, this one is definitely different. It's still a bit disjointed, leaving the reader feeling just as unsteady as in the first book, but the relationship between brother and sister weaves just enough of a path to follow through. Unlike book 1, I wasn't left feeling like Confused Travolta at the end. Finch- Okay. I know this is supposed to just be about the story, but they broke a cardinal rule w this audiobook: Never add music over the voice artist! Sacrilege.
Ignoring the parts they ruined, this is 1000% the best book of the trilogy. That being said, it's very likely the narrator, more than the book, that made it much easier to follow/focus.
Final thought; The writing is impeccable, just not my jam.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Justin
- 12-11-20
The books that made me fall in love revitalized
Years back I bought City Of Saints And Madmen and I fell in love with Jeff VanderMeer instantly. How his stories can be so disconnected yet still so routed in reality simultaneously is a gift that you can’t get from many other writers, if any. This was the series that made me fall in love with one of my favorite authors, and hearing it with new life and new perspectives all these years ago has reinvigorated that love. The performances are great the stories are the strange off kilter kind you might expect if you are familiar with their craftsman. The kind that make you feel joy and despair, awe and confusion, comfort and fear. And the type that make you say “what in the hell did I just read?” A must buy.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- mos
- 12-05-20
Brilliantly executed surreal fiction
Imaginative and gripping to say the least. The history and mystery of Ambergris is intoxicating.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 04-16-21
Another awesome universe from Vandermeer
This would be a 5 star rating like I'd give The Southern Reach trilogy or Borne, but the compilation does suffer a bit from the middle installment, Shriek: An Afterword. Maybe it's the fact that Vandermeer is writing from the perspective of a pretentious art critic, but that one does get a bit bogged down by the character's obsession with her brother's love life. BUT, overall, I loved this universe and the last book Finch is phenomenal and uses all the foundation and world building from the preceding two works to tell a fascinating sort of neo-noir styled detective story. Blade Runner in fungus land essentially. Favorite thing I've read so far this year but does take some patience in some early sections. A must read for fans of Vandermeer.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bruce
- 03-27-21
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!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Summer d
- 03-03-21
u must
I love jeff Vandermeer. he is my favorite thing since sliced bread . I strongly encourage you to read his books. I started with area x trilogy and read it 15 times and counting. this has taken it's place for sleeping audiobooks. bronson pinchot stellar job as well. If you hear anything negative about Vandermeer it's due to lack of imagination and willingness to get out of the box on the reviewers part. Every time I listen to his books it's a new story for me . . . I walk away learning something new about the story and something new in myself. Its a journey within welcomed and darkly delighted.. An ability to leave you with questions that will encompass your daily thought until you can listen more to find the answers, on top of more questions for the next round.