Veniss Underground

From the New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer’s first novel, Veniss Underground, takes readers on a journey to a labyrinthine city of tunnels, and the dangers lurking behind each turn. This paperback edition features the bonus novella “Balzac’s War.” In a dark and decadent far future, the city of Veniss persists beside a dead ocean. Earth has become a desert wasteland ravaged by climate change. Veniss endures on the strength of its innovative tech of almost Boschian intensity, but at what cost? Where does the line between “made creature” and “person” lie? Against this backdrop, Veniss Underground spins the tale of Nicholas, an aspiring, struggling Artist; his twin sister, Nicola; and Shadrach, Nicola’s former lover. A fateful trip by Nicholas to the maverick biotech Quin will have far-reaching consequences for all three—and for the fate of Veniss itself, as insurrection stirs and the oppressed begin to revolt. Veniss Underground is Jeff VanderMeer’s first novel, a spectacular surreal foray into a world as influenced by Alejandro Jodorowsky as by Ursula K. Le Guin. Readers of VanderMeer’s later work will be enchanted and horrified by the marvels within, including the author’s signature fascination with the nonhuman and the environment. By turns beautiful and powerful, Veniss Underground explores the limits of love, memory, and obsession against a backdrop of betrayal and biological mutation. This reissue includes a new introduction by the National Book Award–winning author Charles Yu and a bonus story from Jeff VanderMeer.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer's first novel, Veniss Underground, takes readers on a journey to a labyrinthine city of tunnels, and the dangers lurking behind each turn. Set in the mysterious and magical city of Veniss, a surreal metropolis that sits over an underground labyrinth of tunnels and mines. In this tale, epic and mythological in scope, VanderMeer takes the reader below the surface of the earth to the dark and decadent future. It's a world where Living Artists craft works out of biological material, and humans are either tossed out or recycled into something wholly unrecognizable. Told from three distinct viewpoints—Nicholas, a not-quite-talented-enough Artist; his twin sister, Nicola; and Nicola's former lover, Shadrach—Veniss Underground follows these characters as they embark on a journey to hell and back, replete with the blend of horrors (biological, environmental, and ethical) that also animate VanderMeer's subsequent blockbuster novels. Veniss Underground explores the limits of love, memory, and obsession in a landscape that defies the boundaries of imagination. This reissue will include a new introduction by the National Book Award–winning author Charles Yu and more new material from Jeff VanderMeer.

From Jeff VanderMeer, the author of Borne and Annihilation, comes the paperback reissue of his cult classic City of Saints and Madmen. In this reinvention of the literature of the fantastic, you hold in your hands an invitation to a place unlike any you’ve ever visited—an invitation delivered by one of our most audacious and astonishing literary magicians. City of elegance and squalor. Of religious fervor and wanton lusts. And everywhere, on the walls of courtyards and churches, an incandescent fungus of mysterious and ominous origin. In Ambergris, a would-be suitor discovers that a sunlit street can become a killing ground in the blink of an eye. An artist receives an invitation to a beheading—and finds himself enchanted. And a patient in a mental institution is convinced that he’s made up a city called Ambergris, imagined its every last detail, and that he’s really from a place called Chicago . . . By turns sensuous and terrifying, filled with exotica and eroticism, this interwoven collection of stories, histories, and “eyewitness” reports invokes a universe within a puzzle box where you can lose—and find—yourself again.

On a far-future Earth, where vast deserts - ecological disaster areas - surround walled city-states slowly losing their grip on advanced technology, the mysterious Quin manipulates biological engineering to create sentient species as both toys and manual labour. When Nicholas, a failed holo artist, decides to visit Quin, he - along with his programmer sister Nicola and her former lover, Shadrach - will discover just how dangerous it is to know Quin -- in the place known as Veniss Underground. 'Visionary episodes come thicker and faster, and at times the author only barely controls his own invention ... The denouement is as powerful as any I have read' MICHAEL MOORCOCK, Guardian 'An outstanding first novel brimming with startling ideas' Scotsman 'A dark, phantasmagoric tale that echoes Dante's Divine Comedy, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and the landscapes of Hieronymus Bosch' Publishers Weekly In this debut novel, literary alchemist Jeff VanderMeer has produced a triumph of the imagination, revealing the mysterious city of Veniss through three intertwined voices. First, Nicholas, a would-be Living Artist, seeks to escape his demons in Veniss’ shadowy underground – but in doing so makes a deal with the devil himself. In her fevered search for him, his twin sister, Nicola, spins her own unusual and hypnotic tale as she discovers the hidden secrets of the city. And finally, haunted by Nicola’s sudden, mysterious disappearance and gripped by despair, Shadrach, Nicola’s lover, embarks on a mythic journey. He must steel himself to visit the nightmarish levels deep beneath the surface of the city, to bring his love back to light. For on a far-distant earth, these depths hold perils that are both complex and chilling. There, he will find wonders beyond imagining ... and horrors greater than the heart can bear. Veniss Underground is a critically acclaimed masterpiece, where dreams and nightmares entwine as three fellow travellers strive to achieve their deepest desires.

In a world where mysterious underground dwellers rule the state of Ambergris and control its residents with addictive drugs, internment camps and random acts of terror, John Finch and his partner, Wyte, must solve a double murder for their oppressive masters, all while trying to make contact with the scattered rebel resistance.

A Peculiar Peril is a head-spinning epic about three friends on a quest to protect the world from a threat as unknowable as it is terrifying, from the Nebula Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer. 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). Swept into encounters with allies more unpredictable than enemies, Jonathan pieces together his destiny as a member of a secret society devoted to keeping our world separate from Aurora. But as the ground shifts and allegiances change with every step, he and his friends sink ever deeper into a deadly pursuit of the profound evil that is also chasing after them.

Cityscapes of the Future: Urban Spaces in Science Fiction examines the central role played by urban spaces in science fictional narratives in diverse media from the literary to the ludic to cinematic.

An uncanny and eye-opening journey into a mysterious building, adapted from a short story by Jeff VanderMeer To the west: trees. To the east: a mall. North: fast food. South: darkness. And at the centre is The Building, an office building wherein several factions vie for dominance. Inside, the walls are infiltrated with vines, a mischief of mice learn to speak English, and something eerie happens once a month on the fifth floor. In Secret Life, Theo Ellsworth uses a deep-layered style to interpret Nebula award-winning author Jeff VanderMeer’s short story. What emerges is a mind-bending narrative that defamiliarizes the mundanity of office work and makes the arcane rituals of The Building home. When his manager borrows his pen for a presentation, a man is driven to unspeakable acts as he questions the role the pen has played in his workplace success. The despised denizens of the second floor develop their own tongue, incomprehensible to everyone else in The Building. A woman plants a seed of insurgency that quickly permeates every corner of the building with its sweet, nostalgic perfume. With deft insight, Secret Life observes the sinister individualism of bureaucratic settings in contrast with an unconcerned natural world. As the narrative progresses you may begin to suspect that the world Ellsworth has brought to life with hypnotic visuals is not so secret after all; in fact, it’s uncannily similar to our own.