by Jeff VanderMeer (VanderMeer)
Hummingbird Salamander is a book that I gave up on the first time around, saw more positive reviews, and ended up absolutely loving when I took another run at getting into its literary style. It was like one of those beers that tastes overwhelming and awful on first sip, but becomes a favorite. I would call its writing style noir-cinematic because it follows that heavily introspective, cynical, paranoid style of noir fiction but includes imagery that isn’t easy to put into context at first, like an art film that flashes forward and back before you feel established as a viewer. It’s writing for tone and writing for the re-read.
This is a story about a high tech security consultant who’s handed a mysterious note. The note takes her to a storage facility where she finds a taxidermied hummingbird. A probably-extinct, illegal-to-possess species. She becomes obsessed with finding out why a dead environmentalist with terrorist ties sent her a hummingbird, alienating herself (further) from her family and workplace. Just when it seems like she might be chasing nothing, very real threats appear that strain her security expertise and her weightlifter’s body.
This is set in the near future where maybe another round or two of current tech prototypes have started filtering into everyday life, and another pandemic is arriving in the States. Yes it is an “environmental message” book, but at this point that’s not a genre; it’s a fact of contemporary life. It’s a literary thriller that takes a little getting used to and probably wouldn’t be published as an author’s first book, but wow am I glad I gave it another chance!
On the tech thriller side, Hummingbird Salamander reminded me most strongly of Neal Stephenson’s cyberpunk thrillers that don’t lean on Asian aesthetics: Reamde and Cryptonomicon. On the noir mystery side, it reminded me of Raymond Chandler and Walter Mosley.
[ official Hummingbird Salamander page on the official Jeff VanderMeer web site ]
Recommended
by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services
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