Jeff VanderMeer ist ein Bestsellerautor, der für sein Engagement für Umweltthemen bekannt ist und ihm den Beinamen „der seltsame Thoreau“ vom New Yorker einbrachte. Seine Werke erforschen meisterhaft die Grenzbereiche zwischen Natur und Technologie, Realität und Traum, und zeichnen sich durch einen unverwechselbaren Stil aus, der reich an atmosphärischen Details ist. VanderMeers Erzählungen entführen die Leser in fesselnde, oft beunruhigende Welten, in denen menschliche Erfahrung auf das Unbekannte trifft. Sein Schreiben ist tiefgreifend geprägt von seinen frühen globalen Reisen und einem tiefen, beständigen Anliegen für die natürliche Welt.
Set a decade after "Annihilation," this fourth volume of the Southern Reach Trilogy continues to explore the enigmatic and unsettling themes established in the previous books. It delves deeper into the mysteries of Area X and the psychological and environmental transformations it brings. VanderMeer’s signature blend of surrealism and ecological commentary invites readers to confront the unknown as characters grapple with the consequences of their past actions and the haunting legacy of Area X.
V druhé knize Prapodivných potíží Jonathan Lambshead spolu s přáteli pokračuje v nebezpečném putování Aurorou, alternativním univerzem plným bizarní bytostí a podivných kouzel, kam jej dovedly tajné dveře v podzemí rodinného sídla. Pomalu v sobě objevuje dosud netušené schopnosti a začíná chápat, jak náročný úkol před něj osud postavil. A zatím se vojska Aleistera Crowleyho, který pomocí černé magie už dávno ovládl Paříž a útočí i na pevninský most do Anglie, neúprosně blíží ku Praze... Čtenáři se opět mohou těšit na báječný ohňostroj nápadů, humoru a napínavých scén, jimiž VanderMeerova první řada knih pro mládež doslova překypuje. A jakou roli v tom všem sehraje svišť, jehož stín dopadá až příliš daleko?
'Frankly superb. This pummelling eco-thriller camouflages the true 'understory' of societal collapse, and glows in the dark with original thinking' David Mitchell, author of Utopia Avenue A speculative thriller about the end of all things, set in the Pacific Northwest. A harrowing descent into a secret world. 'Jane Smith' receives an unexplained envelope containing the key to a storage unit. And inside that storage unit is a taxidermy hummingbird and directions to a taxidermy salamander. Somehow, this bizarre treasure hunt, that Jane never expected or asked for, sets in motion a series of events that quickly put her and her family in danger. As she desperately seeks answers, she discovers time is running out - for her and possibly for the world. 'This is climate fiction at its most urgent and gripping' The New York Times 'Visionary, dark, beautiful, and strange, that rare novel that coaxes you into imagining the unimaginable' Kristen Roupenian, author of You Know You Want This: Cat Person and Other Stories 'Harrowing, gripping, and profound. It's both a thriller and a requiem for a disappearing world' Emily St. John Mandel, author of The Glass Hotel
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.
Unearth the enchanting origins of fantasy fiction with a collection of tales as vast as the tallest tower and as mysterious as the dark depths of the forest. Fantasy stories have always been with us. They illuminate the odd and the uncanny, the wondrous and the fantastic: all the things we know are lurking just out of sight--on the other side of the looking-glass, beyond the music of the impossibly haunting violin, through the twisted trees of the ancient woods. Other worlds, talking animals, fairies, goblins, demons, tricksters, and mystics: these are the elements that populate a rich literary tradition that spans the globe. A work composed both of careful scholarship and fantastic fun, The Big Book of Classic Fantasy is essential reading for anyone who's never forgotten the stories that first inspired feelings of astonishment and wonder
Under the watchful eye of The Company, three characters -- Grayson, Morse and Chen -- shapeshifters, amorphous, part human, part extensions of the landscape, make their way through forces that would consume them. A blue fox, a giant fish and language stretched to the limit. 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. Jeff VanderMeer's Dead Astronauts presents a City with no name of its own where, in the shadow of the all-powerful Company, lives human and otherwise converge in terrifying and miraculous ways. At stake: the fate of the future, the fate of Earth - all the Earths.
'A contemporary masterpiece' Guardian ALL THREE VOLUMES OF THE EXTRAORDINARY
SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY - NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
ALEX GARLAND (EX MACHINA) AND STARRING NATALIE PORTMAN, OSCAR ISAAC, GINA
RODRIGUEZ AND TESSA THOMPSON
A collection of chilling and prescient stories about ecological apocalypse and the merging of human and machine. Welcome to Moderan, world of the future. Here perpetual war is waged by furious masters fighting from Strongholds well stocked with “arsenals of fear” and everyone is enamored with hate. The devastated earth is coated by vast sheets of gray plastic, while humans vie to replace more and more of their own “soft parts” with steel. What need is there for nature when trees and flowers can be pushed up through holes in the plastic? Who requires human companionship when new-metal mistresses are waiting? But even a Stronghold master can doubt the catechism of Moderan. Wanderers, poets, and his own children pay visits, proving that another world is possible. “As if Whitman and Nietzsche had collaborated,” wrote Brian Aldiss of David R. Bunch’s work. Originally published in science-fiction magazines in the 1960s and ’70s, these mordant stories, though passionately sought by collectors, have been unavailable in a single volume for close to half a century. Like Anthony Burgess in A Clockwork Orange, Bunch coined a mind-bending new vocabulary. He sought not to divert readers from the horror of modernity but to make us face it squarely. This volume includes eleven previously uncollected Moderan stories.
The Strange Bird, by Jeff VanderMeer, expands the world of his acclaimed novel, Borne. This unique creature, part bird and part human, escapes from a besieged laboratory where scientists have turned against their creations. As she navigates tunnels and evades capture, she discovers that the sky is not a sanctuary; it is filled with wildlife that rejects her and remnants of human civilization, including satellites and drones. Her journey leads her to the remnants of the Company, a collapsed biotech firm that has left behind both successful and failed experiments, such as networked foxes and a giant bear. Among the various creatures she encounters, it is the humans—desperate and exploitative—who pose the greatest threat, seeing her merely as a possession to be captured or traded. VanderMeer not only enriches the narrative of Borne but also offers a fresh perspective through the eyes of this new creature, who fights for her place in a fractured world. This story challenges our understanding of nonhuman existence and highlights the complexities of survival in a landscape shaped by human actions. VanderMeer’s work signals a maturation of eco-fiction, presenting a vision of the future that is both wild and unpredictable.
