133 Cadimon Signal was a friend of mine and so, to avoid a conflict of interest, I shall not expound upon his many virtues—his strength of character, his fine sense of humor, the pedigree of the wines hidden in his basement.
134 The Kalif had had golden page numbers added for his convenience.
135 Signal reports that the attendant “flipped through the pages at such incredible speed that we could hardly see them. When it came time for us to present the 10 page numbers, which we simply chose at random, a great ceremony was made of taking them to the attendant, who made an equally great show of finding the right page, during which we were made to wait outside, for fear we might see a forbidden page. By the time the first page was located and presented to us some 20 minutes had elapsed, and it turned out to be blank, except for the words ‘see next page.’”
136 Suitably tall, although the statue’s torso and legs (and the horse itself—Manzikert never saw a horse, let alone rode on one) are not of Manzikert I, but the remains of an equestrian statue dating from the period of the Kalif’s brief occupation of the city—onto which someone has rather crudely attached Manzikert’s head. The original statue of Manzikert I was of an unknown height and showed Manzikert I surrounded by his beloved rats, rendered in bronze. An enterprising but none too bright bureaucrat sold the statue, sans head, for scrap to the Archduke of Banfours a century before the Kalif’s invasion; the Archduke promptly recast the statue as a cannon affectionately christened “Old Manzikert” and bombarded the stuffing out of Ambergris with it. As for the rats, they now decorate a small altar near the aqueduct, and if they look more like cats than rats, this is because the sculptor’s models died halfway through the commission and he had to use his tabby to complete it.
137 Surely, after all, it is more comforting to believe that the sources on which this account is based are truthful, that this has not all, in fact, been one huge, monstrous lie? And with that pleasant thought, O Tourist, I take my leave for good.
A (Brief) Afterword by Sirin
1 Some on my editorial staff have suggested that we should include an unexpurgated version of Duncan’s Early History of Ambergris as an appendix to this edition. However, I cannot acquire that text, as I returned my only copy to Janice and do not know what she did with it. Moreover, an edition that combined Janice’s manuscript with the complete Early History would put even Hoegbotton’s hardbound edition of its seventy-five Southern Island travel pamphlets to shame for sheer size and verbiage.
2 No evidence exists to support supposed “Duncan Sightings” at Zamilon and Alfar, for example.
ALSO BY JEFF VANDERMEER
A Peculiar Peril
Dead Astronauts
The Strange Bird
Borne
Area X
Acceptance
Authority
Annihilation
The Situation
The Third Bear (stories)
Secret Life (stories)
Veniss Underground
The Book of Lost Places (stories)
The Book of Frog (stories)
Now Entering Ambergris
Dradin, in Love
The Zamilon File
The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris
The Refraction of Light in a Prison
The Exchange (with Eric Schaller)
Fragments from a Drowned City
City of Saints and Madmen
The Drunk But Unrepentent Life of Cadimon Signal
Shriek: An Afterword
A Sudden Dislocation of the Spirit
Finch
In a Strange and Distant Land
The Fear of Unfamiliar Streets
Red Flags at Dusk
Where Are You Now?
A Note About the Author
Jeff VanderMeer is the “weird Thoreau,” according to The New Yorker. He is the author of Borne and The Southern Reach Trilogy, the first volume of which, Annihilation, won the Nebula Award and the Shirley Jackson Award and was adapted into a movie by Alex Garland. VanderMeer speaks and writes frequently about issues relating to climate change. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, Ann VanderMeer, and their cats, plants, and bird feeders. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
DEDICATION
CITY OF SAINTS AND MADMEN
DRADIN, IN LOVE
THE HOEGBOTTON GUIDE TO THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE CITY OF AMBERGRIS
THE CAGE
THE TRANSFORMATION OF MARTIN LAKE
THE STRANGE CASE OF X
SHRIEK: AN AFTERWORD
AN AFTERWORD TO THE EARLY HISTORY OF AMBERGRIS
PART I
PART II
A (BRIEF) AFTERWORD BY SIRIN
FINCH
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
NOTES
ALSO BY JEFF VANDERMEER
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
MCD
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
120 Broadway, New York 10271
Copyright © 2020 by VanderMeer Creative Inc.
All rights reserved
First edition, 2020
City of Saints and Madmen was originally published in 2002 by Prime Books.
Shriek: An Afterword was originally published in 2006 by Tor Books.
Finch was originally published in 2009 by Underland Press.
Illustration credits can be found at the back of the book.
E-book ISBN: 978-0-374-72155-8
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