Finch Audio CD – Unabridged, April 2, 2013

Finch, the third installment of the Ambergris series is a tour de force of Vandermeer’s saga over the fate of this strange city, and an intense adventure of its own.Having begun with the surreal, partially absurdist mosaic of City of Saints and Madmen and continuing with the twisted autobiography of siblings that was Shriek: An Afterward, Vandermeer concludes with a story of gritty detective noir, set in an Ambergris occupied after the long-awaited Rising, hinted at and dreaded for two prior books. The Grey Caps, eldritch beings composed of fungus, have al last risen from the shadowed underlevels of the city and taken control.Our main character is John Finch, a detective tasked by his Grey Cap overlords with solving a murder. The investigation will take him from one quarter of the occupied city state to another. He goes head to head with criminals, rebels, foreign spies and interdimensional entities while he hunts truth that, like fungus, is buried in darkness and hidden under piles of excrement.Discovering the murdered man’s identity will connect Finch and the attentive, accompanying readers to the events of past books, and the wider struggle that will finally settle the fate of Ambergris and all her citizens.Vandermeer has outdone himself with this terse, gritty adventure and proven his mastery of multiple genres and conventions with this venture into detective fiction. The feel, sentence structure and language could have been lifted from a Chandleresque novel, blended seamlessly with the surreal.The only fault is that so much of the mystery and the final denouement is dependent on what has gone before in the prior books. Thus Vandermeer had placed his most straightforward and accessible story last.Definitely read this one, but start with City of Saints and Madmen and Shriek: An Afterward before picking up Finch and seeing how it all turns out.

I don't write reviews very often, but "Finch" deserved one. It is rare that I found a book that is this exceptionally well-written, and totally sucks me into the lives of the characters. These days, I am mostly satisfied with books that are moderately well-written with engaging characters. With "Finch," I cared desperately about the title character, I cared about his detective partner, his mysterious neighbor, his more mysterious girlfriend--hell, I even cared about his damned cat. The story contained a lot of pain, but also some hope. There is only one problem with "Finch." To appreciate it fully, I strongly recommend reading both "City of Saints and Madmen" and "Shriek--An Afterword," and these are VERY different books from "Finch." If I hadn't, for some reason I can no longer remember, bought all 3 of these books together, I would never have made it to "Finch." I wouldn't have gotten past the first book, which while extremely well-written (all 3 of them are), is not a single story, and much of it isn't really a story at all. For me, that book was hard-going, although hysterically funny in some places. But I pushed through it, and the second book (which WAS a single story, but for me, not as engaging as "Finch"). In retrospect, I'm glad I made it through those first 2 books, because it makes "Finch" exponentially more powerful. For those who have read the first book, and are just considering the second book and/or "Finch," be warned: Finch is the darkest of the 3, and all 3 have dark overtones. "Finch" has the least humor, by far, but the most sympathetic characters. So read "Finch," DEFINITELY read "Finch," but read the first 2 before you do, and persevere even if they are not your cup of tea.

Honestly, I only bought this because it was a Kindle Deal of the Day, and therefore cheap. Now that I've read it, though, I'd say it's worth the full price, and I'm really glad I decided to pick it up. This is a great, spellbinding read, and there is some absolutely fantastic worldbuilding going on here. I'm not familiar with VanderMeer's other novels (though I'm definitely going to pick them up), so the world of Ambergris was a new one for me. You're tossed right into the action -- we don't spend any time explaining the world, you just pick up your information in bits and pieces, here and there -- but you're never lost, unless it's clear that you are meant to be, usually when the main character is equally lost and trying to put everything together. I didn't want to put this book down, and I'm waiting for the next opportunity to revisit the world of Ambergris.

"Finch" is third in a trilogy although it can be read on its own - I enjoyed it a lot even though I hadn't read either  City of Saints & Madmen  or  Shriek: An Afterword . In form it is a hard boiled detective story. Laconic sentences. A bleak outlook. A solitary hero. However, the mean streets of Ambergris are rather - odd. The city has been occupied by alien fungoid creatures, "Gray caps" who lord it over the remaining humans, assisted by their creations the Partials, part-human, part-fungus and also by a team of detectives - Finch and his colleagues.In the midst of a decaying, half drowned city, whose citizens are pressed into work camps to construct two enigmatic towers for the gray caps, the detectives attempt to behave as if nothing is awry, investigating calls to find missing cats or resolve domestic disputes - and murders. Which is where we come upon Finch, up to his eyes in a case with sinister political overtones, trying to do his job, satisfy his boss, the gray cap called "Heretic", avoid the gangster Stark and the rebels, and keep his friends safe. Over a single week, everything goes to pieces and we learn that Finch is keeping dangerous secrets.This book has an audacious concept which Vandermeer carries off with amazing aplomb. The cloying, seedy atmosphere of Ambergris is conveyed perfectly and the plot twists continue to the very end. Decaying Ambergris reminded me somewhat of  Viriconium  and as in that cycle I think that Vandermeer has created something of a mythology - the earlier books explored different forms to describe other aspects of Ambergris and "Finch" is full of hints, loose ends and speculation: while it resolves, it isn't a neat ending and the characters - even the unspeakable alien horrors - are drawn in shades of gray. I said that Finch is a hero, but he's equally an anti hero, no saint.I was also reminded of  Fatherland , a totally different type of story, not SF at all (though alt-history) in the way that the compromised, pressured cops, albeit working for a foul, deadly regime, seek to uphold some kind of decency or at least order in a moral swamp.Anyway, this kept me awake into the early hours, I simply couldn't put it down. Excellent. City of Saints & MadmenShriek: An AfterwordViriconiumFatherland

Love the 'fungal noir' writing genre. If you read and enjoyed (or, were intrigued by) the previous books in VanderMeer's Ambergris series then you really must read this one as it explains much of what was only implied or vaguely referred to in the previous books. It's like reading David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks as a way to weave older books and characters into his more recent novels. The Finch story line is a bit weak/sketchy, especially at the end, but hey, that's part of Vandermeer's overall style as speculative fiction (lots of openings). There's lots of loose, er, tendrils to this story but it's a real page turner with fuller answers from the other book's questions. It's also a not so subtle commentary on colonialism. I really loved the Ambergris cycle of books as each of them are very different but with a connected narrative.

This was my first book by Vandermeer.It's very well written and with an impressive scenario, beautiful descriptions and an intriguing story.Finch is all that I look for into a sci-fi book and more.Hope they translate it in Italian. I think I lost something reading the original language.

Really liked it. Unusual and strange with lots of great atmosphere.

Great stand-alone book, even though it is part of a sort of series. Wonderful writer.