Veniss Underground by Jeff Vandermeer

Jeff Vandermeer's writing is always of a remarkably high quality, and Veniss Underground is no exception. And for once, the book has a great cover that suggests the artist has actually read the book. What's even more surprising is that Veniss Underground was his first novel, and there are very few debuts that come anything close to matching this. The story follows three characters, Nicholas, Nicola and Shadrach, through their perspectives. Each has a section dedicated to them, getting progressively longer - and in a different person. It begins with the Nicholas' "vain, whining arrogance" in the first person, then it moves on to Nicola's section, Nicholas' sister who is desperately, futilely searching for her brother, and its all done in the second person. Yes, the main character throughout that section is referred to as "you". And surprisingly, it works. The final section, and also the largest, is Shadrach's in the more traditional third person. It's a comparatively straightforward narrative, but also the section which Vandermeer uses to create a vivid image of the nightmarish city (and particularly, its underground). Vandermeer doesn't show you the city in all its details from the very beginning, he slowly creates an image in your mind as the characters discover certain aspects of it - and then, you can never be quite sure, because none of the characters are particularly reliable. The first section, in Nicholas' POV, seems rather innocuous, until the situation is revealed in a lot more detail towards the end. The city is populated by various creatures (who have some fundamental differences to those we know - most of them were wiped out, but we never find out exactly how), particularly the sentient Meerkats, who are, in fact, little different than humans. It is all part of Living Art, which is a rather sinister form of artwork, and Nicholas is just a mediocre Living Artist. The Underground itself is a striking place and seemingly infinite, with its 30 levels, populated by a diverse array of people, who cannot afford to live above. It is full of the sinister - one of the most outstanding scenes is when Shadrach visits what seems to be a hospital, but everywhere lined by "donated" organs, limbs and various body parts.

One thing struck me about Veniss Underground - I expected Vandermeer to create such a brilliant surreal atmosphere, but I didn't expect such a depth of characterisation in such a brief novel. There are few characters of importance, but those characters are some of the most interesting I've seen - Nicholas only has a few pages to devoted to him, but that's enough for him to be an entirely believable character. Shadrach is relatively simple initially, but he develops into something far more than a simple lovestruck fool. And then, there is Quin. Quin, who experiments with Living Art more than any other. Who makes himself an empire in the Underground, who successfully managed to make Meerkats sentient. Quin, who is, to all intents and purposes, a god. Quin is a brilliant character, and the short story in the afterword describing how he came to be emphasises this. He is not a simple archetypal villain but something much more complex. I say something, because it is hard to describe him as human by the end of the novel, or even something resembling a person.

Veniss Underground is also filled with literary allusions - from the existence of "Quin's Shanghai circus" to the occasional quote from other novels, (eg "shadow of the waxwing slain"). Vandermeer shows himself to be a reader as well as a writer. Veniss Underground is well written, experimental, atmospheric, but of a rather different style than to any of his Ambergris stories, but it is equally effective. Vandermeer demonstrates with his first novel that he is already a master of the speculative fiction genre. This easily recieves a 9 out of 10.