Jeff Meer
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Articles by Jeff Meer
‘Men’ Is a Mess
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Alex Garland confessed to being a reluctant director who often feels like it’s something he must force himself to do. In the case of his latest film, Men, which he both wrote and directed, he perhaps needn’t have bothered. Unlike previous Garland-helmed projects Ex Machina and Annihilation (itself an adaptation of my book), Men suffers from a less structured storyline and a weak, ridiculously gory third act that feels both overlong and perfunctory.
FL - The Annihilation of Florida: An Overlooked National Tragedy
You can tell many stories about Florida, but one of the most tragic and with the worst long-term consequences is this: since development in Florida began in earnest in the 20th century, state leaders and developers have chosen a cruel, unsustainable legacy involving the nonstop slaughter of wildlife and the destruction of habitat, eliminating some of the most unique flora and fauna in the world.
10 Best Sci-Fi Movies Based On Books
Many great films have their origins in equally great books. Sometimes, adaptations to the screen take generous liberties, changing the stories drastically, while some stay faithful to the source material, keeping the plot points the same beat-for-beat. Whichever occurs, book-to-film adaptations can make for incredible resurrections of authors’ labors of love.
Jeff VanderMeer Talks to the Designers About His Book Covers
My mother is an artist and even once designed psychedelic doors for faculty in Penn State’s biology department. I’ve always been surrounded by art studios and art, which has really influenced my writing. So the covers of my books are really important to me and sometimes even inspire me in future fiction.
The Big Book of Science Fiction by Collected Authors is only $2.99 - BookBub
Edited by a Nebula Award–winning author and editor, this weighty collection includes “nearly 1,200 pages of stories by the genre’s luminaries” (The New York Times), from Arthur C. Clarke to Octavia Butler to Ted Chiang. “A stunning and satisfying retrospective… Handsome, huge, and amazingly well-curated” (Tor.com). Quite possibly the GREATEST science-fiction collection of ALL TIME—past, present, and FUTURE! • “Nearly 1,200 pages of stories by the genre’s luminaries, like H. G. Wells, Arthur C.
Wakulla Commissioners to Consider Gas Station Over Wakulla Springs Cave
The proposed gas station poses a "truly grave threat" to the springs, according to the official nonprofit partner of Wakulla Springs State Park.
Ambergris (preorder)
(preorder—to be published in September) Dust jacket illustration for Ambergis by Armando Veve. Dust jacket for Ambergris Appendix by Scott Eagle. We’re thrilled to announce the signed limited edition of Jeff VanderMeer’s signature creation, Ambergris, with an array including the novels, stories, art, and found documents spread across two oversized volumes. Our edition will be printed on 80# Finch, our preferred paper for higher end limited editions.
Nine Tallahassee Issues People Should Be Concerned about in 2022
4—Irregularities in Blueprint Projects, including Dismissal of Public Input Blueprint’s processes to involve the public in decision-making are flawed, on what are often huge projects with a profound impact on Tallahassee. This may be by design, given a source who indicated Blueprint leadership has internally expressed a desire to cut back on public input and, preferably, ignore it altogether.
The 14 Best Sci-Fi Audiobooks – Review Geek - TECHTELEGRAPH
Danny Chadwick At its heart, science fiction is a fantastic literary genre. Now, with audiobooks, you can enjoy the best adventures sci-fi has to offer wherever you are. We’ve compiled a must-listen list of all the greats in the sci-fi canon. Check it out. Before the days of epic CGI movies and serialized TV, science fiction was only found between the covers of books.
Brian Eno: Another Green World
The godfather of ambient and generative music, Brian Eno’s reverberations can be heard everywhere. Talking to acclaimed author Jeff VanderMeer, the pioneering “non-musician” discusses his long-standing environmental activism, holograms, hypocrisy, and his newly launched charity, working to reduce the music industry’s carbon footprint All photography Cecily Eno Jeff VanderMeer: What was your relationship to nature growing up?
Review: Eco-thriller walks on the wild side
In this week's edition of Book Box, The Sunday Times looks at new books on environmental crisis, as the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) gets underway today SCIENCE FICTION HUMMINGBIRD SALAMANDER By Jeff VanderMeer Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Paperback/355 pages/$27.82/Major bookstores 3/5 A woman receives an envelope from a stranger in the street. It contains a key, which leads to a storage unit in the middle of nowhere.
Illustrating a Disruption to the Mundanity of Bureaucratic Life
From Theo Ellsworth's Adaption of Jeff VanderMeer's Short Story “Secret Life“ The following is excerpted from Secret Life ______________________________________________________ From Secret Life by Theo Ellsworth and Jeff VanderMeer, images courtesy of Drawn & Quarterly. Drawn & Quarterlygraphic novelsJeff VanderMeerSecret LifeTheo Ellsworth
Secret Life a book by Jeff VanderMeer and Theo Ellsworth
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The Craft of Writing – Literary Hub
By Yiyun Li September 17, 2021 By Jai Chakrabarti September 10, 2021 By Jeff VanderMeer September 3, 2021 By Bonnie Friedman August 27, 2021 By Alice McDermott August 18, 2021 By Maurice Carlos Ruffin August 13, 2021 By Larissa Pham August 6, 2021 By Laura van den Berg July 30, 2021 By Zadie Smith July 23, 2021 By Matt Bell July 16, 2021 By Anne Lamott July 9, 2021 By Matthew Salesses June 25, 2021 By Marie-Helene Bertino June 18, 2021 By Walter Mosley June 11, 2021 By Kristen Arnett June 4,...
Getting squirrelly: Things go from cute to creepy in the humidity | Wild Tallahassee
The time has come to shine the spotlight on squirrels, the unsung acrobats of the animal world. While they perform death-defying leaps and jumps, we uncaring humans go about our business as if we hadn’t just seen the human equivalent of a perfect 10 on the balance beam. They are also the nameless, often forgotten eyewitnesses in urban areas to our various vices, petty crimes, and incursions on the neighbor’s property.
Matt Bell on Heeding the Dire Climate Warnings of Our Best Literary Prophets
One of the greatest pleasures of writing speculative fiction is inventing an imagined world, extrapolating forward or backward or outward from the present time and place to imagine what life might be like in the future or on another planet.
Embrace the summer dance of armadillos and fireflies in the backyard | Wild Tallahassee
Ah, June. That month of hot-itude in Tallahassee that signals the official start of summer. Whenever I think of June, I think of ying and yang, or, as they’re commonly known, armadillos and fireflies. The most ungainly and most elegant of organisms, seemingly as unrelated as broccoli and crème brulee. One is alas often disparaged and the other treasured. One is a bulky armored marvel and the other an ephemeral fleeting blink of light.
The Urth of the New Sun
The long awaited audiobook sequel to Gene Wolfe's four-volume classic, The Book of the New Sun. Listeners return to the world of Severian, now the Autarch of Urth, as he leaves the planet on one of the huge spaceships of the alien Hierodules to travel across time and space to face his greatest test, to become the legendary New Sun or die.
Slither time: Humidity brings out snakes, skinks and 'useful friends' | Wild Tallahassee
Wait. What? It’s hot and humid again already?! I’m going to write a letter to my local representative to complain. Because, somehow, I once again conveniently edited “summer” out of my Tallahassee lexicon, especially for early May. Probably because otherwise I’d be stuck in memories of pushing my way through the thick layer of tapioca pudding that is North Florida summer air. Did I mention that it’s humid?
'Hummingbird Salamander' is a gritty eco-adventure
“HUMMINGBIRD SALAMANDER” By Jeff VanderMeer MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux ($27) Your regular barista delivers an envelope with your morning latte. Do you open it? Or is it time to find a different coffee shop? Choose carefully. If you read the mysterious message, there’s no turning back. This hypothetical situation is all too real for security consultant Jane Smith, whose choice leads her to a key, a storage unit, and a series of increasingly difficult decisions.
How to Rewild Your Balcony into an Oasis for Native Wildlife—and for You
In 2018, I began to rewild our yard to help wildlife and create better habitat—something anyone can do at any scale, large or small. It doesn’t have to start like my journey did, with the local rabbit looking on in surprise as I wrestled like some fool with thousands of strangling air potato vines, often down on my hands and knees for hours digging out the tubers. I’m sure most of the animals watching from the bushes wondered just what this weird human was up to and how would it affect them.
Curious About Everything Newsletter #6
This month was an eventful one, in a variety of ways. 1/ First, there was the unsolicited pic that some dude sent me of his junk on Instagram, which led to a perfect use of an Effin’ Birds image if I’ve ever seen one: (Yes, I did actually screenshot and forward to his mother. He sent me his picture via DM on social media, and also made the mistake of tagging his mother in an earlier photo.
Earthlings
All images courtesy the author When you came to this place among the leaves and soft shadows. This place among the branches through which blue sky shone. That smelled rich and green and the wind That made the trees sough strange and rough. The wind that slowed to bleed into and through you.
Jeff VanderMeer Wants to Show You How the World Ends
Fiction Credit...Ana Miminoshvili April 6, 2021 HUMMINGBIRD SALAMANDER By Jeff VanderMeer Today’s pace of extinction is hundreds if not thousands of times greater than the natural extinction rate. Humans are, of course, profoundly implicated in this loss of life and biodiversity.
Hummingbird Salamander
You won't look up even once while you're reading. --The Washington Post Like your favorite Hollywood blockbuster, Hummingbird Salamander features ecoterrorists, evil corporations, a race to defuse doomsday weapons, gunfire, fisticuffs, action sequences and hair-raising escapes. --The Los Angeles Times This inventive and surprising page-turner may be the purest demonstration yet of VanderMeer's knack for dressing up fascinating philosophical conundrums in the clothing of a taut, breakneck thriller.
Review: With 'Hummingbird Salamander,' sci-fi great Jeff VanderMeer changes direction
“Hummingbird Salamander” by Jeff VanderMeer Photo: MCDxFSG With “Hummingbird Salamander,” Jeff VanderMeer moves away from the bizarre science-fiction worlds of his “Southern Reach” trilogy and his 2019 novel “Dead Astronauts.” In his new book, he enters the realm of crime, noir and mysteries while retaining his signature topics of environmentalism, climate change and shifting identities and realities.
Book Marks reviews of Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer
Publisher MCD Date April 6, 2021 Fiction Hottest Books of the Season Literary Mystery, Crime, & Thriller Speculative From Jeff VanderMeer, the author of Annihilation, comes a speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the end of all things. Security consultant "Jane Smith" receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander.
Shrieks, chirps and hoots: Racoons know spring might be rated PG-13 | Wild Tallahassee
Ah, spring! I don’t know about you, but I find spring in Tallahassee totally disgusting. Just really a lot. Such a riot of excess! Look away! Look away! Too many azaleas blooming. Too much pine pollen! Too many wrens scolding me for getting too near nests in unlikely places. “Settle down, world,” I mutter. “Get a grip.” Then, inevitably, just when you think you might have some peace and quiet, here comes the parade of cute baby animals.
The Most Highly Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of April 2021 According to Goodreads Members — GeekTyrant
It’s a new month! This means that new books are being released and Goodreads has shared with me a list of the most anticipated books for the month according to their members. All the books here fit in either the sci-fi or fantasy genre. I am really surprised that Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy (Book II: Greater Good) by Timothy Zahn is not on the list. That’s number one on my list, but some of these look good too. What are you most excited to read?
'Adorblers' delight: Small but mighty birds a joy in uncertain times | Wild Tallahassee
Let us now praise the little birds of wild Tallahassee, who are mighty in their hearts and often embark on epic journeys to reach us. Let us in particular praise the warblers — or as I have dubbed them “adorblers,” among the most intrepid of tiny birds. The Lord loves an adorbler — and so should you. We have about 10,000 yellow-rumped warblers in our yard right now — or, at least, it seems like that many.
Possumzilla reigns supreme as Punk and friends are on the prowl | VanderMeer
Consider the opossum. How could you not, this time of year in Tallahassee? In many parts of town in the winter, it’s normal for opossums to be out during the day, foraging for a little extra food. They pad along on quiet star-shaped feet, thinking unknowable opossum thoughts. We view from afar, for their preference is to steer well clear of the house, seeking food in leaf cover, around tree trunks, and along the dry creek bank.
10 Climate Change Novels About Endangered and Extinct Species
If you enjoy reading Electric Literature, join our mailing list! We’ll send you the best of EL each week, and you’ll be the first to know about upcoming submissions periods and virtual events. Imagine a postcard of rural New England at the peak of fall foliage, the forest alight with color so bright your mouth waters for a stack of syrup-soaked pancakes and a mug of hot cider. That’s my farm you are imagining, nestled among the mountains and lakes of New Hampshire.
Wild Tallahassee: Adventure begins with a raccoon at the door
I knew we’d bought the right house in Tallahassee when, two years ago, a raccoon rang our doorbell at four in the morning. Granted, the doorbell glows blue at night and, for some reason, is at waist height. But, still, this seemed like something that belonged in the Guinness Book of World Records for urban wildlife.
The Most Highly Anticipated Stand Alone Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2021 According to Goodreads Members — GeekTyrant
It’s a new year which means that a lot of new books are going to be releasing. Goodreads has done some algorithm magic or something like that and has compiled a list of most anticipated books for the entire year of 2021 for me to share with all of you. All of the books fit in either the sci-fi or fantasy genre and the one big caveat is that the list does not include any books that belong to a series.
Climate Change Horror Books in Which Weather is the Villain
Want more horror? Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter, and get our most terrifying stories delivered straight to your inbox. Annihilation By Jeff VanderMeer The Shuddering By Ania Ahlborn The Terror By Dan Simmons The Gormenghast Trilogy By Mervyn Peake The Sheep Look Up By John Brunner Want more horror? Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter, and get our most terrifying stories delivered straight to your inbox.
Jeff VanderMeer on the Saga of The Festival of the Freshwater Squid
Of those traumatic events surrounding the Festival of the Freshwater Squid, I must now finally write, dear reader. Time enough has passed for the dull ache of hurt to have faded and a plate of calamari set before me not to trigger a deep sense of my own failings… * Why Squid I’ve always loved squid—not in the culinary sense, but in the sense of a being that seems alien and conveys some sense of the vast wonder of Earth’s biosphere.
The Most Highly Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of December 2020 According to Goodreads Members — GeekTyrant
We’re almost to December and Goodreads has shared with us a list of books that fans are excited for. Goodreads members have rated the following books as the most anticipated Sci-fi and Fantasy titles for the entire month of December. What are you most excited to be reading?
Ambergris | Jeff VanderMeer | Macmillan
From the author of Borne and Annihilation comes the one-volume hardcover reissue of his cult classic Ambergris Trilogy. Before Area X, there was Ambergris. Jeff VanderMeer conceived what would become his first cult classic series of speculative works: the Ambergris Trilogy. Now, for the first time ever, the story of the sprawling metropolis of Ambergris is collected into a single volume, including City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch.
County Commissioner Desloge is a servant to developers, not residents | Opinion
People in the Tallahassee area are well-informed, honest, good people who work hard to build a future for their children. We are blessed with so many who do good in our city and county. But, unfortunately, Leon County Commissioner for District 4, Bryan Desloge, works against this with a vision for a future that ignores citizen input and favors special interests over supporting communities.
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh review - meandering murder mystery
A dynamic and wonderfully mercurial writer, Ottessa Moshfegh has defied ideas of genre, appropriate subject matter and character “likability” to create sui generis award-winning work. From the filthy restlessness of her debut McGlue through the Booker-shortlisted Eileen to the witty and pointed social commentary of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Moshfegh’s prose, voice and execution have been remarkable.
10 Urgent Horror Books That Tackle Climate Change
By Michael J. Seidlinger | Published Jul 28, 2020 Photo Credit: Christopher Burns / Unsplash Want more horror books? Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter, and get our most terrifying recommendations delivered straight to your inbox. Annihilation By Jeff VanderMeer Godshot By Chelsea Bieker The Sheep Look Up By John Brunner Ice By Anna Kavan Wilder Girls By Rory Power Want more horror books?
Love YA: Top 3 Y.A. Reads for the Week of July 21st
Johanna has had more than enough trauma in her life. She lost her mom in a car accident, and her father went AWOL when Johanna was just a baby. At sixteen, life is steady, boring . . . maybe even stifling, since she’s being raised by her grandparents who never talk about their daughter, her mother Mandy. Then he comes back: Robert Newsome, Johanna’s father, bringing memories and pictures of Mandy. But that’s not all he shares.
Jeff VanderMeer’s Young Adult Novel Is a Madcap Magical Mash-Up
Fiction July 7, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET A PECULIAR PERIL By Jeff VanderMeer Picture a 200-foot-long death machine built to crush everything in its path — powered by pulped earthworms, defended by demi-mages and captained by the gently stoned 19th-century French novelist Jules Verne — and you will have glimpsed just the tiniest portion of the madcap magical mash-up that is Jeff VanderMeer’s first full-throated sally into epic young adult fiction, for readers 12 and up.
There Are So Many New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books Coming Out in July
Unconquerable Sun by Kate ElliottImage: Tor Books Holy moly, there sure are a lot of books coming out in July! After the still-ongoing pandemic inspired some postponements earlier this year, it seems like publishers are now realizing people are hungry for new reading material. And for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fans, this month is a bountiful feast.
Read an Excerpt From Jeff VanderMeer’s A Peculiar Peril
We’re excited to share an excerpt from Jeff VanderMeer’s head-spinning epic about three friends on a quest to protect the world from a threat as unknowable as it is terrifying. A Peculiar Peril is the first book in the Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead, publishing July 7th with Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Jonathan Lambshead stands to inherit his deceased grandfather’s overstuffed mansion—a veritable cabinet of curiosities—once he and two schoolmates catalog its contents.
The Wind Will Carry Us
What job has the so-called ‘engineer’ arrived in Siah Dareh to do? Some reviews have blithely classified him as a filmmaker or journalist but the truth is we don’t know: the reason for his visit is one of the many points of ambiguity from which The Wind Will Carry Us is miraculously structured. Intentionally or not, however, the engineer does carry out a kind of anthropological work, assimilating himself into the community and customs of Siah Dareh.
A Devastating (and Darkly Hilarious) New Novel From the ‘Westworld’ Writer Charles Yu
Fiction Feb. 28, 2020 INTERIOR CHINATOWN By Charles Yu Over the past 15 years, Charles Yu has carved out a fascinating, eclectic career as a storyteller, first receiving widespread acclaim in 2010 for his novel “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe,” which showcased his ability to revitalize familiar tropes like time travel.
Meghan Brown: Ecology, Storytelling, and The White Deer Terroir Project
Illustration: Daniel Christensen. The recent release of my expanded Wonderbook, a fully illustrated writing guide, includes a new eco-storytelling module entitled “The White Deer Terroir Project.” It’s based on a semester of teaching I did at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) in upstate New York. While there, I encountered the abandoned US Army depot near Lake Seneca that now serves as the fenced-in home for about 200 white deer.
Jeff VanderMeer Explains How to Write a Haunted Book
The following is adapted from a lecture given at Columbia University in April, 2018, and some of the images are reprinted from the author’s Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction. A revised and expanded edition of Wonderbook was published this month. Additional content can be found at the Wonderbooknow website. (Artist Jeremy Zerfoss created all diagrams reproduced here, unless otherwise noted.
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