Jeff VanderMeer's New Face

The endlessly inventive Jeff VanderMeer now has two new websites: JeffVanderMeer.com, which is a complete redesign of his earlier site, and Ambergris.org, which is a companion site to his book City of Saints and Madmen and the Ambergris series of stories, novels, squid, and related paraphernalia. Jeff says a site map will be added later this week, but I recommend visiting before then for the joy of surprise -- let your cursor wander around over the beautiful Scott Eagle artwork, click every now and then, and see where you end up.

I haven't mentioned Jeff's upcoming collection Secret Life this week, so let me remind you that you still have time to pre-order it before it is published in June. I've been reading the galleys (slowly, savoringly) and will tell you now, with all the authority I can muster, that YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK. (Yes, I know, there are numerous other books I also keep telling you to buy, and of course you should, but this one is truly magnificent. I don't think we'll see a stronger, more luminous or varied short story collection all year, and it will certainly be a book to put on the shelf of great collections from the early years of the 21st century. Really. I haven't been so excited about a book in a very long time, which is why I keep tantalizing you with exhortations to fetishize this commodity. I'll post a review probably about a week before the book is released, and then you'll really want to buy it. ...Well, I might hate the stories in the second half, which I haven't read yet, but I think that's unlikely.)

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