Saturday, March 27, 2021

Book Review: "Hummingbird Salamander" By Jeff VanderMeer

 


A security consultant named Jane receives the coveted key to unlock a taxidermied hummingbird with clues in the envelope for further evaluation of a taxidermied salamander.

Silvina, the woman who's now deceased provided this information as a reputed eco-terrorist and as the daughter of an Argentine industrialist.

Taking this hummingbird results in some serious penalties.

Now, I'm not sure about you but this whole sci-fi stuff is hit or miss for me and this one missed the mark.

While I enjoyed the idea and originality plus this gorgeous cover I simply couldn't connect with anything includes the names of some of the locations that seemed to be out in left field when listening to audio.

So, I'm not sure if Silvina is the same as what sounded like Solvino on audio but hey- I'm pushing 50 so I'm going to hope for the best as I had tubes in my ears as a kid so give me some slack. LOL.

If you bare with me what I can tell you is that Langer seems to be the wildlife trafficker and isn't on the most popular list of fellows.

"Hellmouth Jack" took Jill captive at one point as they searched for this mining exploration which came up empty.

It sounded to me like Contilla is another piece of this puzzle that somehow fits into this whole eco-bound world of mystery. In fact, Yuna Topa and Yoka pompa (made masks)was mentioned along with Shuffle Pig, Native American Reservations, Right Wing Terrorists , and more.

What I can note is this:  What can we believe in ? The world has turned upside down People no longer connect or speak. "Some people believe in nothing."

The memories we hold are of people we barely know or care about if we're being honest with each other.

So, then the main question is how did Salvina get hold of a salamander? How did the darn thing die? 

Add to this mess: "A bomb to destroy a bomb."

Federal government's in crisis. We live in a failed state. The world has gone mad.

The dead salamander is now in an unmarked grave but how did it pass?

Can we get hope from this salamander?

Imagine if you will these hummingbirds flutter around us while we destroy their territory.

This is the point of all this mental madness .

This was quite lengthy on audio and took me almost an entire day listening at 1.75 speed on Kindle to get this review completed.

It was complex, it was exhaustive, and it was demanding of your time to keep it all straight and gain some understanding of the complexities of it all.

Set aside some valuable time to make sure you grasp it all in its entirety.

It's time to pull yourself out of this portal and go home. Till we meet again.

Thank you to Jeff VanderMeer, the publisher, NetGalley, and Amazon Kindle for this Audio ARC in exchange for this honest review.

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