Jeff VanderMeer Veniss Underground

Veniss Underground

Jeff VanderMeer

Bantam, Oct 2005, $14.00

ISBN: 0553383566

Way in the future, during a time when those living in the twenty-first century would be considered tame, perversion is so wide-spread it is the norm; Living Artists create grotesque biological pieces of art. At the same time the genetically altered meerkats plan to either turn the lesser "natural" humans into drudges or make them extinct, whichever proves easier.

In Veniss, Nicholas is a Living Artist, but lacks the skills necessary to become popular though he fantasizes otherwise while producing what some say is excrement. Perhaps it is from being raped in a chemical tub or just a bi-product of her relationship with her former lover sleazy Shadrach, but Nicholas' twin sister Nicola sees Veniss much clearer than her rose colored glassed brother does.

Someone breaks into Nicholas's apartment and steals his artisan tools. Desperate he asks Shadrach to introduce him to his employer Quin, the world's greatest Living Artist and the uncrowned "emperor" of iniquity. Shadrach provides directions, but Nicholas gets lost and begins a frightening but eye opening odyssey through the layers underneath Veniss.

Take Homer's rendering of the myths and put them in a future nightmarish landscape painted by Dante to get a feel for the horrific adventures awaiting Nicholas as he journeys through the underbellies of the dissolute city he calls home. The story line is filled with detail that brings to life loosely put humanoid like creatures that will shock the audience as much as it stuns the lead protagonist, who comes from an already depraved society (some will say so do we). A well written and thought provoking parable, VENISS UNDERGROUND is a fabulous novella (there are also three shorts included) that grips those brave enough to make the trek into the degenerate bizarre.

Harriet Klausner